Summer's Last Hurrah... Maybe

On Tuesday I had my first Positive Parenting Class led by my good friend, Fionnuala.  Marty took her class last Spring and really liked it.  A lot of the things he told me about the class I had already learned - although didn't necessarily practice - from my many years of co-op preschool.  However, I've been feeling like there has been more fighting in our house than I'd like and not really sure how to deal with our disagreements and really not overly happy about how I'm parenting.  When Fionnuala said there was an open spot in her upcoming class I decided to sign up.  I have to admit that I wasn't immensely excited about it.  I know I had heard the info and didn't want to commit a morning a week to it.  But I'm happy to report that after my first class I'm super happy that I signed up. Parenting is such an important part - the biggest part- of my life and it is really good to be reminded of the issues we all face and gather tools to deal with things more positively and undoubtedly better.  My other classmates (11 of them) are all JFK parents and I really enjoyed meeting them.  We have 6 more classes and a book to read.  I'll report back if my parenting has improved.  I know when Marty went last spring he was made so much more aware of things and even changed some of his parenting for the better. 

After class I told Marty we had to squeeze in one last swim in Schlachtensee before the cold weather hits.  It was predicted to be 88 degrees (September 18th!  Crazy) so we rode our bikes there, blew up our tubes and swam and paddled and relaxed for over an hour.  The first dip in was quite cold but the air temp was so warm you got used to it quickly.  

After our swim we deflated the tubes for good.  I doubt we will have time for another swim before the weather finally changes for good.  Then we rode our bikes to the little Italian restaurant enroute back to school to pick up Benjamin.  I really REALLY don't want to say goodbye to summer but when I finally do I have to remind myself what a phenomenal summer this has been.  6 SOLID months of sunshine and warm weather.  Summer/spring of 2018, you will go down in history as one of the best.