Sisterhood46

A few weeks back,  I was watching my daughter's gymnastics class when I started a conversation with the mother sitting next to me. We chit chated about the summer and I mentioned that I'd been in France with the kids for the last month. A few minutes later the mother whispers... "do you have a blog about moving to the suburbs?"  "Yes I do!"  "Well I read your blog and it really speaks to me."  I couldn't believe I was meeting one of my readers! Anyway we continue to chat and it turns out that she and her family moved from the city pretty much at the same time as we did and she too had found the experience to be challenging! We had such a great conversation about what we missed about the city but also about the nice things we'd found living out here. It was so comforting to know that I wasn't the only going through this experience. It made me realize that there are so many of us who move from the city to the burbs and a good numb...

On Monday afternoon, I get a call from the school nurse. Like everyone else I dread them. So I really appreciate the fact that our school nurse always start her message by saying "it's the school nurse, nothing serious just..." because then I can take a deep breath and listen to the rest of the message. Anyway here's the message I got on Monday. "Hi Sophie, this is the school nurse, nothing serious just wanted to let you know that your first grader got stung by a bee in music class. He was pretty upset but I made a special paste for him and he's doing better now. The real reason I'm calling is because I thought you would appreciate knowing that your fourth grader heard the cries of his brother from his classroom and said to his teacher "I know that cry, it's my brother and I need to check and see if he's ok." So the teacher brought him to my office and he comforted his brother and they shared stories about getting stung by bees. I t...

I could've gone to Bootcamp, could've gone to kick-boxing, could've gone to yoga, could've run to the beach, could've done the elliptical machine, but with the temperature outside falling by the day,   I opted for a bike ride instead. From Westport to Fairfield on two wheels.

Back in the city, the scooter, was the kids' primary mode of transportation. From the age of two onwards the kids dashed around on their two wheeler. Out here, as you know, our main mode of transportation is the car. View on the route to school. This morning, my son brought a little bit of the city to the burbs. Instead of taking the school bus, he asked if we could scooter to school. I was thrilled! There's still a city boy in him too! We scootered and talked in the fall sunshine for about a mile and a half until I kissed him goodbye at the school door. City Boy! I'm so relieved that some of our city ways, the good ones, haven't been lost!

My best dinner this fall. Cherry tomatoes grown in my vegetable garden with fresh mozzarella from Murray's cheese shop in NYC.

Patience is not a key characteristic of a city girl. In fact, patience is pretty much a liability in the city. But patience in the burbs has really paid off! I've been debating about whether or not to put up a fence between my yard and my neighbor's yard for about a year. The main reason was to hide the really ugly mess on her side. It really upset me to look at her junk every time I went to the garden. I tried to talk to her about it but to no avail. For months, I've been on the fence about getting a fence. I got two fence estimates which as you can imagine were not cheap. Hubby and I talked about it endlessly. Every time we just couldn't bear to spend so much money on a fence rather than say a family trip abroad. So on it went until one day my neighbor sends me an email to inform me that she's putting up a fence! How great is that? Procrastination is my new thing! They say fences make good neighbors and I couldn't agree more.

I hope that my mistakes help others who are making the move from the city to the burbs. Here's my biggest learning for the month. Once upon a time I really looked down on the whole carpooling thing. I mean it's work enough to get my own kids in and out of the car four to five times a day, let alone doing it for other people's kids. Last year,  I must admit I was a real city snob about the whole thing. This year I thought I would give it a try because it really felt that other mothers were unto something. Here's the reality, carpooling isn't about driving other people's kids around, it's about cutting down on your driving!  How cool is that? Trust me, anything that cuts down on my sitting behind a steering wheel is brilliant! So here is how it's worked out thus far. Instead of schlepping my three kids to soccer practice, every single Tuesday from 5:30-6:30PM and returning home to rush three exhausted kids thru the dinner-bath-bed routine,  I carpoo...