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.

Laney is 11

It was 11 years ago tonight. 

A rough couple of weeks were coming to a close. 

I had gone to my normal doctor's appointment not expecting anything out of the ordinary. I had seen a new doctor, and after examining me, she exclaimed  "You're four and a half centimeters! You need to go home and get your bags packed because I'm probably going to see you back here at the hospital tonight to deliver this baby..."

I called my husband before I had even left the parking lot and asked him to get off work early and come home as soon as possible. I called my mom and asked her to come to the house when she got off work too.

I went home to a quiet house and finished packing my hospital bag. I was crying, a ball of nervous excitement. I knew it was my last night as a person that wasn't a mother. I sat down to wait on my husband and mom to get to the house. They arrived. We all sat in the living room and waited.

And nothing happened.

Mom went home and I went to bed, fully expecting to wake up in the middle of the night in labor.

I didn't.

Matter of fact, I didn't go into labor for two and a half more weeks.

That was a long two and a half weeks. 

I sort of gave up on ever going into labor.

Thanksgiving approached and my sister-in-law sweetly excused me from doing anything except showing up to her house. The night before Thanksgiving day we got pizza and the husband kindly watched "Legally Blonde" with me. I went to bed and slept for about an hour before I woke up with excruciating heartburn. I headed downstairs for some milk and met Allen on the stairs as he was coming up to bed. After the glass of milk I returned to bed only to find that I could not get comfortable. I tossed and turned and finally realized that I was contracting and doing so pretty regularly.

I didn't want to wake up the sleeping husband who had just fallen asleep. I turned on the television and started watching Thanksgiving episodes of old sitcoms. After a couple of hours of timing the contractons they had stayed regular, and  I knew I had to wake him up even though he had only been asleep for a short time.

We headed to the hospital and waited until 7 am to call the family.

Soon twelve family members were all in one waiting room waiting on our first child and the first grandchild, and great-grandchild, to be born.

They waited until 5:39 that afternoon.

I apologized profusely. That was a long wait.

It was worth it, though. 

I got my daughter. 

There aren't words to describe how much I love this girl. She is my heart. She takes me to the edge of my sanity. She delights me and challenges me and sanctifies me and teaches me and loves me and makes me laugh. I love being her mother and I pray that she will always be my friend. I pray that she will always be thankful that the Lord gave me to her as her mother. 

As we approach these preteen years, I sometimes find myself eyeing her with complete trepidation. We are alike enough to completely clash some days, but for the most part our desire to stay in harmony outweighs any lasting conflict. 

There are days I miss the baby that she was, but I can honestly say that I like being her mom more with each passing day. She's complex and smart. The person that she is growing into truly amazes me. She is far smarter that I ever was at her age, and I have to work hard to stay a few steps ahead of her even now. I stay amazed at how easily she retains information and how much she loves to learn. 

She is funny and makes me laugh. She is a complete klutz just like her mother. She is musical just like her daddy. She is responsible and takes care of me and her brothers too. She has her bad days, and she will always have some struggles deep within. She will have to work harder at some things than her brothers will, and there are days I pray fervently that she follows Christ all her life. 

She had a depth of spiritual knowledge that makes me so thankful for the work the Lord has done in her. I'm grateful that He saved her. I'm thankful for the work He has done in her and pray that work continues. 

I also love that this year she has a "real" birthday - she will always be a Thanksgiving baby. 

She had her voice recital last week. She did really well considering we all questioned whether or not she would actually go through with it. As I watched her with her friends on stage doing what she loves, I was proud and scared too. She's growing up. My days of parenting her are becoming less and less. I pray that she has a good foundation that will last her a lifetime. 

I'm also just really really glad that I get to be her mom.

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...