Coffee Talk [Life Updates]
Numbers 4 and 5 are important!

I don't know about you, but summer has gotten away from me! I cannot believe that today is the first day of September! I've been hustling this summer (as always), and I want to make sure that we have a coffee chat before the leaves start to fall.

#1 - Dan's knee is so much better.

If you don't know already, Dan had an accident in late-June that shredded his ACL. (He had already endured the exact same injury when he was 13 years old.) I didn't write a blog post about it because, for a long time, I was so upset about the situation I didn't even walk to talk about it. The extent of my sharing about his accident was a pair of Instagram posts HERE and HERE.

I accompanied Dan on his appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, and you would have guessed that we had attended two separate appointments! Dan heard the positive things the doctor had to say, while I was definitely looking at the glass half-empty. For example, if the doctor said, "It might not be wise for you to play basketball," I heard, "You will NEVER EVER be able to play basketball with your FOUR BOYS again!"

I was flabbergasted that Dan came out of that appointment so happy and optimistic, but he's been proving my cynical-self wrong! Although he has pushed himself a little too far at times, I can hardly even tell that he injured his knee a few months ago. He has graduated from rehab, gone back to mowing the lawn and is planning on playing in a golf tournament through his work. Praise the Lord!!

I couldn't find a photo of Dan up and about on his knee, but I thought this big smile on his birthday would do just as well.

#2 - We adopted a kitten.

The timing wasn't exactly ideal given our upcoming trip to Disney World, but Dan and I thought it might be fun to take the boys to the Humane Society after dinner one evening. (They had never been, and they love looking at the adoptable pets at PetSmart.) Well, the Humane Society had two rooms FULL of darling kittens, and ONE OF THEM WAS A CALICO KITTEN! You may not know this about me, but I've always wanted a calico kitten. Well, not only was this calico adorable, but she was a sweetheart as well! She loved being cuddled and purred in our arms. It was love at first meow. Of course, we arrived 15 minutes before they closed, so we couldn't go far in the adoption process, but I promised the boys we'd be back and soon as they were open the next day.

When the Humane Society reopened, we skipped inside ready to claim our little kitten whom we had already named "Patches." To our horror, we found out that Patches was on hold for another family! (NOOOOOO!) I told the boys we were probably just going to leave, then, because the timing really was not the best, and we weren't just going to take any ol' kitten.

"Puh-lease, can we pick out another one, Mommy? Puh-lease?!"

I sat down on the bench in the kitten room to think it over, and then a sweet little gray and white kitten jumped into my lap, rubbed her face on me, and started purring. "Okaaaaaaaay," I relented, scratching the kitten behind her ears as she cuddled up against my t-shirt.

After a bit more drama (an employee there accidentally told us that that kitten was going to the same family that Patches was going to), we were given the green light to take "Stormi" home! I was kind of shocked that they let us take her home immediately, but they still had us on file from when we adopted our sweet kitties Monica and Rachel more than ten years ago. I was also relieved that I had begun to purchase kitten supplies ahead of time. It was the boys who were excited about the kitten, not me at all! 😉

We knew we didn't want to keep her name as "Stormi" because she's too sweet-tempered. After a couple days of debating, we landed on Minnie for three very good reasons:

#1 - We will always remember this year as the year we adopted our sweet kitty and went to Disney for the first time!
#2 - As a dear friend pointed out, "Minnie" can be short for "Minerva," as in McGonagall. [Who transfigures into a cat!!] Harry Potter is a favorite around here.
#3 - She's itty-bitty and "Minnie"-ature in size!

Minnie is a bit naughty (so far, she's ruined a pair of curtains, two of my tops, and a basket), but she is the absolute SWEETEST! She is so affectionate and tolerant of the boys, who lovingly manhandle her all day. It's really a good thing we got a kitten. When we adopted our previous cats, Monica and Rachel, they were our babies and lavished with attention. Then, when we started having actual human babies, they didn't get as much attention as they used to, and I honestly think they were depressed. Minnie will be used to sharing my attention with the five boys in our household, and she'll also be accustomed to the noise and chaos. Plus, I needed another girl around here! 😉

Minnie loves to sleep in Theo's highchair! Most of the pictures I take of Minnie are when she is sleeping. She's very playful and active when she's awake, so she ends up being just as hard to photograph as the boys!

#3 - Our house basically fell apart on us. [No, I'm never overly dramatic!]

The handle on our front door kept falling off. Wasps were EVERYWHERE. (Poor Conner disturbed a nest while climbing a tree and was stung four times!!) The "Bee Guy" found four additional nests around our house. Our refrigerator died, leaked, and ruined our hardwood floor. (The only good news is that our floor is already in rough shape and needed to be replaced at some point.) We had some severe thunderstorms this week, and a big tree fell in our yard and crumpled the fence we had just had installed this spring. We've pretty much had to replace everything in this house so far, so we're just crossing our fingers that the air-conditioner holds on until the cooler weather settles in!

I realize that these are all first-world problems, and I'm beyond grateful that we have: a front door, a refrigerator, a fence, etc. It's still frustrating in the moment though, yo.

#4 - I'm going to be teaching... other people's kids!

Since I am a homeschooling mom, if I had just said, "I'm going to be teaching," you'd probably be thinking, Well, duh, Kristin! But, this year, I am going to be tutoring one of the Essentials classes in our Classical Conversations community! I have six students in my class, and they are ALL BOYS. (Oh my goodness, you guys, boys are the story of my life!!) It's a bit one-room schoolhouse style in that I will be teaching a range of ages, between 4th and 6th grade. I'll be teaching English grammar and writing, and I will also be leading math games that focus on speed and accuracy in problem-solving.

I'm thrilled to be serving my CC community in this way, and you know I adore the subject matter. (Maybe not so much the math games, though, haha!) It is important to me to give you a heads up on this because I suspect that, between the school year resuming (we officially start our homeschool on Monday) and my adding "another thing" to my plate (i.e., teaching)...

#5 - I will probably be posting less often.

Please be assured that I will be making lots of lists about posts, composing in my head, and hitting the "Publish" button as often as I can! Also, I will do my best to post actively on Instagram and Facebook so, if you don't already follow me there, please do! But who knows! Maybe my schedule will end up being more manageable than I anticipate (har-har), and you'll be seeing lots of posts from me.

Since this is a coffee talk that goes two ways, I'd love to hear about your summer! What updates do you have? What are you looking forward to this fall?

XOXO,
Kristin (and Minnie, who is purring on my lap)

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