First Day of School 2013-2014 School Year

It was time.

Time to start school.

 We had a two month break, which sort of seemed like two weeks.

But anyway. 

It was a great two months full of busy fun. We were sick some, we sent friends overseas, we swam and played and cleaned and organized and rested and read and then it was time...

School.

 Starting early is necessary for us since we have vacation days to account for, along with sick days, sanity break days, holidays and a definite need to be done by Memorial Day, all while packing 180 days and 36 weeks into the school year. 

I could panic about it all if I think about it for too long. 

But August 1st seemed like a great time to start. I know by now to start with a short two day week, my friend and neighbor was starting the same day, and MY GOSH WHY NOT?

We have to start some time.

One resolution of mine for this school year is to make it all more fun. More activities and more laughter and more...

fun. 

I'm determined.

So to set the mood, I decorated. 

I wrote them notes. 

I woke up early, did everything I needed to do, and so did they.

And at 9 am ON THE DOT we were ready. 

All in our chairs. 

Even the dog.

They read their cards.

Our principal, boys' advisor, PE coach and financial liaison prayed over us and our year.  

We made our traditional beginning of the year signs. 

 

Then we actually did school.

Mainly we remembered where we left off and figured out what we have to do next.

And we figured out we forgot EVERYTHING we ever learned in math. 

Sigh. 

Then, because we are slightly crazy and addicted to fun, we went to the next to the last night of our church's Vacation Bible School, or "Rock the Block" as we call it. Seeing a gaggle of kids flying happily down the hill made my heart so happy. 

Making some good memories there. 

Then I came home and found a treat from a precious friend on my door. Perry is always a wonderful surprise:

So that was day 1. 

Only 179 more to go.

I am exhausted. My house is a disaster already. My head is spinning from all I have to do and I'm already wondering how I will get it all done. I finished the day fully knowing that unless the mercy and grace of our great and gracious Lord fall on me, I will fail repeatedly at this mission of educating my kids. Thankfully I was reminded that He who calls is faithful. 

And I am thankful.

Happy 9th Birthday, Jude!

I will try not emote too heavily over this post. My middle child is the least dramatic of the three of my children, and he is the one who tolerates my drama least of the three of them. 

He likes things to just be.

So I will honor him in that.

I will say that I just watched an interview with an older actor in which she says one bad thing about getting older is that you feel like you eat breakfast every thirty minutes. I feel that way about this last year. We celebrated Jude's eighth birthday and now, suddenly, it was time to celebrate his ninth, after just a couple of breakfasts.

I would like to slow things down just a bit. 

That bit of emoting done, the documenting of said birthday must commence. He may not like my emoting, but he can't stop my birthday documentation. 

His actual birthday was on a Wednesday. The hubs worked hard to organize his schedule so he could have the early part of the day off. The two of them had a man date and spent some quality time doing man sorts of things.

The other two and I went to get his birthday present. We spoke his love language and bought him a skateboard thing that I was quite sure he was going to break on arm on. I ignored my obsessive worry appropriate motherly concern and purchased what is called a "ripstik." 

He was overjoyed.

Don't let the lack of emotion fool you. I think we've covered already that he's not one to emote.

Or put up with my emoting. 

 

We met for lunch as his favorite restaurant: Moe's. If you ask him where he wants to eat ever, he'll choose Moe's. 

And I must pause to quietly emote over the preciousness of that boy. Goodness.

We had Gigi's cupcakes for desert. And fine, I had a little something to do with this choice of desert. But he was good with that.

After lunch, he wanted to go jump at an inflatable jumping place, or roller skate, but since it was the school year, those places were closed during the weekdays. He agreed that going to the zoo was an acceptable alternative, and that was a really good thing since it suddenly turned the day into a field trip.  Yay for days off that are still school days.

Not that I'm obsessively counting or anything. 

We had a great time at the zoo, and since we had just wrapped a unit study on reptiles, it was great timing for school too. They studied the anaconda for a long while. That thing was huge. 

We then headed to church where he spent the last part of this birthday with friends, and that made him happy.

It was a good birthday.

The following Saturday, he invited family and a few friends to celebrate his day at home. 

When I woke up that Saturday morning, he had decorated the whole downstairs by himself, set out all the table decorations and gotten everything ready by himself. 

It was, as you probably already read, a "red birthday."

He chose all the snacks, which meant we had a plethora of BBQ flavored foods. And pickles. 

It's his birthday party. He can do as he likes.  

He also opted for a cookie cake and a regular small cake too. And two kinds of ice cream. Variety is the name of the game. 

He was blessed with really great gifts. He was so happy.

The baby, of course, nearly stole the show.

I shared her like a good aunt should. 

I mean, how could all of that cuteness not almost steal the show?

I was thrilled to get her at the end of the party. 

I love that kid.

We probably look as tired as we felt. It was a great day, though. 

He promptly spent the rest of the weekend building Legos and playing with his toys.

Which is exactly what a nine year old should do. 

Excuse me while I go quietly emote.

The First Day of School

It was time. 

All the prayer. All the preparation. All the anticipation. 

Fine. Dread.

Anyway. It was here. 

It was Sunday night. I made myself a cup of tea in my favorite mug and went to work. 

Copy work. 

Prayer corner. 

More prayer. 

Glad that date was written in pencil...

I quit panicking when I realized we really only started 7 school days later than I had originally planned. 

No big deal.

The Lord sweetly gave me some fun things to do for them for the first day.

~write them letters

~decorate

~do something fun after school

Okay. 

I love it when He helps me homeschool.

Then the day dawned...

The quiet before the storm.

The kids made their "first day of school" signs. 

And they read their cards. 

They liked that.

Thank You, Lord. 

We didn't have all of our books yet, but we had enough to have a pretty full day. 

Even Fluffy got in on the action.

They liked the new stuff and seemed excited about the ancient time period we'll be studying this year. 

Egypt, here we come. 

Speaking of Fluffy. In a moment of lunacy, I scheduled her a grooming appointment for this same day as the first day of school.

My mom is keeping her for us next week, and in trying to space out all the extra things I had to do this week, I decided to get this taken care of on Monday. 

This made the day a little extra crazy.

When we went back to get her, they weren't quite through yet. She saw the kids and nearly dove off the table. She went nuts.

She does not like the beauty shop.

She was glad it was over. And we were glad it happened. She looked good and smelled better too. 

Whew. 

One of our favorite things to do is get Sno Cones. 

So we did. That was our fun (quick and cheap) treat.

The extra fun part was that they got mediums instead of smalls.

I know. I know. I'm spoiling them rotten.

(joke)

They were pretty excited, though. 

Another bit of scheduling chaos resulted in this also being the first day of flag football practice for the boys. 

They were beside themselves with excitement.

No, really. They were.

They just didn't show it when I paused the happiness to take a picture.

In which they look rather blasé about the whole thing.

Stinkers. 

So they really liked that.

Then it was dinner, baths and bedtime.

Then the sweet and simply amazing girl that does Bible study with me on Monday nights brought a treat.

It was my "back to school you did it and it's over and it wasn't a terrible disaster like you had worried it would be and you got everything else done today too" treat. 

Oh, it was such a good treat. 

Lemon Icebox might be my new favorite.

So that was the first day of school.

Only 179 more to go...