So, we're on day 5 of Liam's first grade year. How are we doing?
Liam will receive an A+ for waking up with excitement, maintaining good behavior at school, and eating like a pro both day and night.
Mommy will receive an A- for dropping him off each morning without too many tears.
I was only misty-eyed on day 1. Days 2 & 3 were tear-free. Day 4 had a glitch called rain, which required me to drop him off from the car, and I boo-hooed watching my little boy walk into that huge building without me.
Day 5 was tear-free, but I wore a huge smile when my school boy ran to the school's front door, only to return to us with unsolicited hugs for his brothers and me.
Have I ever mentioned what a lover Liam is? Mmm, I could eat him up! I know there will be a day all too soon when he won't hug us in person, so I soaked up today's.
Jack and Garrett will receive A+ for following me everywhere and for their positive attitudes during their home preschool. All three of us are enjoying the extra time we have with each other.
When we are not schooling, the little boys are busy being super heroes and fighting battles.
Daddy, Didi and Big Daddy (my parents) all receive an A++ for giving me a date night tonight!
Can I tell you what has been the best part of sending Liam to public school? Although I miss him all day, picking him up every afternoon has been an absolute delight. As soon as he spots me in the pick-up area, he runs to me and immediately hugs me and holds my hand. He sticks close to my side for at least the first 30 minutes after returning home, as he tells me about his day and doles out more love. I think he misses me at least a little bit.
How I will miss this loving stage some day! But for today, I can blog about it with a smile on my face and a warmth in my heart.
Report Card
SuperJack
I am a lucky mama. Do you know why?
I had a super hero follow me all. day. long.
SuperJack to the rescue!
Everywhere I went, there he was. He assisted me with walking Liam to school, washing my car, borrowing books from the library, accomplishing small tasks around the house, and picking up Liam.Yes, Jack wore his cape everywhere.
I even had to turn him away when I visited the restroom. "No, SuperJack, I can handle this on my own."
But I sure did chuckle over the cuteness of his imagination at work during our regular living. Do you think he turned a few heads while we were out and about? Oh yea!
There's Never a Dull Moment Around Here
Rick was home with us today, as he flew in this morning from a business trip. Around lunch, he hollered, "Ami, come look at all these bugs outside!" I met him in the breakfast area and looked out the window to see thousands of these "bugs" flying around our maple tree. I squinted this-a-way and that-a-way before I said, "Rick, those aren't just bugs. They're bees!"
Within a couple of minutes, they settled onto a branch of the maple just ten feet from our back door. What does any good blogger do with a sudden bee infestation? She takes the camera outside!
At first, we thought they were on a beehive or something, but they were actually settled onto each other. Thousands of bees takin' a little break on my tree that formed a huddle about the length and width of my thigh. (And I'll readily admit that my thighs aren't small.)
Apparently, the place to be is my backyard. Come one. Come all.
We made several calls to try to find help with our newest residents. We were a little afraid to do something about them ourselves, since Rick's recent heart attack taught us about the fragility of life.
FYI, the humane society does not help with bees.
Because I'm full of information today, would you like another FYI? It's cheaper to have the bees killed than to have them moved elsewhere.
As we waited for the exterminator to begin his spraying, Garrett watched with great anticipation. (Jack was napping, and Liam, a.k.a. the bug lover, was at school.)
Winston waited at our feet with this silly look.
"Hey, Mom, what'ssss goin' on out there," my furry boy asked.
Winston, the exterminator is here!
He sprayed what looked like a gallon of poison at our tree before he was satisfied that our grass was covered with dead bees.
Except for the Lone Ranger.
Who is now smashed on my porch.
Before you bee lovers write hate mail, please consider the fact that my husband is extremely allergic to all things outdoors. His heart attack three weeks ago was probably caused by an allergic reaction, so we just weren't willing to take a chance of him getting stung once, much less thousands of times. The exterminator also said the bees could easily be disturbed and reposition themselves into eaves of our house, so we really weren't willing to wait and see where they decided to settle next.
Dadgum, I Have a 1st Grader!
I'm happy to report the first day of 1st grade was a success.
Here is my big boy at bright-thirty in the morning.
(That's not a ponytail sprouting out of the top of his head. That would be the overgrowth of our flowerbed).
Liam wanted to be sure that I photographed his backside as well.
He's so proud of that camo backpack.
He didn't want me to walk him to his class, but I was able to use photography as my excuse to walk him in.
And the one photo I got with his teacher...blurry.
Dadgum!
Well, I guess I'll be known as the mom who carries her camera every day until I can get a better shot. I might be called the paparazzi by the end of 1st grade.
I'm happy to report that I dropped him off without crying.
Until I noticed a sad face on Garrett. I asked my youngest what was wrong, and he fought back tears to say, "I don't want Liam to stay here. I miss him."
Dadgum, I was going to do this without tears!
I was, however, able to hold back the alligator tears and only get misty-eyed. Garrett's tears disappeared quickly, as I let the littles play at the park for a while.
We stayed busy all day, but my thoughts were never far from my school boy.
When we picked him up, Liam was happy and lovey. He gave me a hug right in the carpool line! Once we got home, I was the lucky recipient of 2 more unsolicited hugs.
When asked about his first day, he reported that lunch was his favorite part. Music was a close second, but he wanted to know when he has PE and art.
After his full report, I said, "It sounds like you had a good day." He said, "Uh huh, and I want to go back tomorrow."
Well, it's a good thing this school business works on a daily basis.
I have two questions for the moms of older students. How long will it be before I stop thinking about him every minute of the day? How long before he stops greeting me with a hug at the end of the day?
Because I don't want either to stop.
Putt-Putt and Mouth Filters
Two posts in one day? It's crazy, I know. But I wanted to post about our Putt-Putt experience today. (For those that didn't read today's earlier post, you might want to read it. I shared about a rather big change in our lives that will take place on Monday.)
So, we headed out to play miniature golf this morning. This was shortly after a hard rain, so the temperature was a surprising 76 degrees when we began at 10:30a.m. That is unheard of this time of year!
Just before beginning our game, I coached the boys a little. I had to tell them things such as, "This is golf, so don't hit the ball hard like a baseball." And, "Stay with me or the boogie man might grab you."
You can't tell by their faces, but we did have a good time.
Did I just see a mushroom on steroids?
I did! Look at it! It's half the size of a zebra!
Why do these places have to decorate with stupid motif? Are the 'shrooms, zebras, and palm trees supposed to make me feel like I'm stranded on a deserted island with my kids, fungus, and zoo animals? If so, I think I need to be a little frightened.
If we were on a deserted island, I think my hair would look something like this:
That hairstyle is frightening. It's called U-G-L-Y! Clearly, I would have been better off in a hat.
Some interesting facts about today's game:
- Three of us scored at least 1 hole-in-one.
- Two of my boys could possibly be true golfers.
- One of my boys could be an excellent golfer if he could focus for more than 0.2 seconds.
- I won the game, but Liam was a close second.
- I had forgotten there is a "Five stroke limit" rule, but I'm pretty sure it was invented for one of my little guys. I'm not naming names.
(Yes, we are on a first-name basis with everyone in the "glasses place", because we're there nearly every week. Three boys are hard on frames.)
Jack, the one who loves all older men, ran to him and put his little hand on Mr. Richard's and said, "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the glasses place! What if I break my glasses today?" I just about fell over. That Jackson!
We needed Mr. Richard's expertise earlier in the week, so we visited him in the "glasses place" on Monday, too. It was at that time that Jack informed the sweet man that he had boogers in his nose.
I wanted to crawl under a chair.
Two days later, the same child informs his doctor that his breath smells like coffee.
I wanted to crawl under the examining table.
I don't think there's a filter on Jack's mouth quite yet.
After today's pizza lunch, we headed to Target to find Liam a new shirt for the first day of school. And I looked for a mouth filter, but they were fresh out.
If we were on a deserted island, I suppose Jack couldn't embarrass me on a daily basis, so I think we'll stick around here.
Y'all have a great weekend!
Goodbye, Summer
Today is our last day of summer. Not the weather but the do-whatever-we-want part. Sadly, the weather will hang around another 200 days.
This summer has been our best yet. I haven't even minded the weather quite as much as usual. I've tried to look at this summer through my kids' eyes. To them, summer is fun, fun, FUN.
Whether we've been swimming, playing with friends, bowling, travelling, or just plain ol' hangin' out at home, we've tried to make the most of it. I think we'll all look back on this summer with sweet memories.
On Monday, we will begin a new phase in our lives. Liam will be going to public school.
Gasp!
When we decided to homeschool a couple years ago, I never thought public school would be acceptable for us. I'll admit that I even looked down on public school with a snooty nose turned up.
But my heart has changed over the past few months. I've wondered if I could be a better mother, if I weren't the sole teacher. I've wondered if I could have more quality time with my two youngest boys. I've wondered if my eldest could flourish as well away at school as he has with me. I've wondered if my mind could feel more stable without the sole responsibility of my kids' education resting on my shoulders.
Ultimately, homeschool wasn't working out as well as I had hoped. I couldn't handle all of the pressure. The perfectionist in me was a heavy-hearted, hardly-ever-smiling, grumpy mom.
I kept all of that heaviness to myself. I didn't want to admit defeat, especially to my husband. I knew he would immediately vote for putting Liam in school to help my sanity.
(I would not advise keeping such heavy issues from your spouse, by the way. We're supposed to be in this together. Your best friend should be able to bear up under your burdens with you.)
In late July, while we were in beautiful Vail, CO, I unloaded my heart to Rick. Surprisingly, he didn't shoot darts at me. I mean, I deserved it, but he lovingly said, "We can consider it."
I needed to hear that exact answer from him. I didn't need to hear, "Yes, absolutely. Liam's going to school. No questions asked!" I needed to hear that we could think and pray about it.
Think and pray we did.
And then, Rick had a heart attack on July 31. And our world was a little bit shaken.
We knew we were in the Lord's hands the entire time, but we felt like the heart attack was a wake-up call for us.
Not a wake-up call to change our diets, since this attack was not brought on by high cholesterol. But an alert to reassess where our hearts were.
The day after we knew he officially had a heart attack, Rick looked at me and said, "We have to simplify."
I swallowed and said, "Okay."
And he named a couple things we needed to alleviate. One of them was our homeschool coop.
"So, are you saying that we're not homeschooling anymore," I asked.
"I'm not saying that yet, but it's something we need to seriously consider," he said. "I want you to get online and start looking at registration times for our local school. I need you to be happy again."
We took the next several days to think and pray some more. I shed many a tear over my prayers for the Lord to please make His will clear to us.
Finally, we made a list of pros and cons to both homeschool and public school, because there are indeed pros and cons to every school setting. (Private school is just out of our budget.)
The head of my household looked at that list and said, "He needs to go to public school. I need to see you happy again. He just might flourish at school, but if he doesn't, we'll pull him out."
And the burden that has weighed so heavily on my mind for many months was lifted. I haven't cried since that day.
Until last night, when we took him to meet the teacher, and I envisioned my little first grader walking through that huge school without me.
He's growing up. Sniff, sniff.
But he needs to spread his wings a bit, and I know he'll be fine.
I just might need to cry again on Monday when I drop him off.
I'll still have my two little boys home with me. I'll be working with them, in case we decide to put them in kindergarten next year.
(At which point, I will need another baby in order to not work myself out of a job. Ahem.)
I'm signing off to enjoy our last fun day. The boys want to go play miniature golf.
I just want to watch them smile all day.
