First Day for Both

My son's first day of second grade today.  My first day back on this blog, and first day back in my writing life.

By the way, I'm getting tired of calling him "my son" here, i.e. not using a name, though I want to retain our anonymity...so I'm going to call him Jesse.  It's the name of the main character in Minecraft Story Mode (which he adores).

The summer was excellent for both of us, although in terms of work on anything to do with writing, it was nearly hopeless.  I was a full-time mom every day, with the exception of about nine days when "Jesse" was in half-day or full-day summer camps.  Then towards the end of the summer I was scrambling to put together an event at Jesse's school, which takes place in less than two weeks.

On a brighter note, I managed to restart the exercise routine, and am in reasonably good shape...right now I'm scheduled to run a 10K in early September, a half-marathon in November and an olympic triathlon next May and July...that's the plan anyway.  Just doing these races to encourage myself to improve physically and because, well, they're a kick sometimes.  I don't have any dream of winning or getting on a podium for my age group.  After the triathlons next year, I'll probably stop doing them for the most part, and do more hiking.

To take on any of that physical stuff, one thing I must do is improve my sleep habits...have gotten only about six hours a night for the past several nights.  I've heard that poor sleep patterns often occur when one is perimenopausal.  It also happens when you have a cat who sometimes meows for attention at midnight or two or five a.m.  But I simply MUST start turning out the lights no later than 10:45 p.m., if I'm going to function at any sort of decent level--mentally, emotionally, physically.

The send-off to second grade went reasonably well.  It will be something of a shock for him, being back in a classroom; his summer was very relaxed.  I'm not the kind of mom who believes in eight weeks of summer camp and umpteen projects during the summer months; everyone needs a break.   He only did one week of half-day camp and one week of full-day camp, plus sixteen swimming lessons...an easy schedule.  We also had play dates, a trip to Washington state, bike rides and hikes, trips to the library; we played badminton and swam in our backyard; he played Minecraft, and other similar games on his computer.  It was all very low-key...but now, second grade, and a much more challenging schedule.