Back on Schedule

It's school time! 

 The kids have been giddy with excitement and now it's finally here.

There were some bumpy parts, getting classes and teachers worked out.  Joseph was originally put in a Spanish class, but switched because he doesn't speak Spanish.  Then he got put back in the Spanish class and had to be switched again.  In the end, he's in a dual-language class, so he'll learn some Spanish after all.

Elena had a teacher, but got moved to make room for all the new kids, but that teacher wasn't G/T certified and Elena really needs a G/T teacher so she got switched back.  When we got to school, on Monday, we had to find out which of the three possible teachers she'd be with.  I'm glad we talked with all of them at Meet the Teacher, last week, so we already knew what to expect and she could walk right in and get settled.

 It's so nice to have my days on a schedule, again.  I know when I need to get up, when I can run errands, when to have dinner ready, and when we all need to be in bed.  Sometimes, things get hectic, but I know what's going on and I feel like I've got a handle on things.

And none of that would be possible without this:

 Right before school started (seriously--Saturday or Sunday night) Lucy decided that it would be OK if she settled down to sleep at 10 or 11pm, instead of the 1 or 2am that she'd been doing all summer.  With that, she also started sleeping through the night, most nights, then wakes up for a light breakfast and goes back to sleep.

 

 I have gotten mountains of laundry washed, folded and put away, the last two mornings.  I feel so productive for the first time in months.


Why laundry?  Well, 1: the kids were out of not-school clothes, and 2: since the house is relatively empty I decided to just stick James in underpants, apply lots of juice, hang out in the bathroom all day, and deal with whatever laundry results.  It's past time and it just needs to be done.  He kept asking for a diaper, the first day, but after his initial frustration of having Mom say No has resigned himself.  He does pretty well if he's naked, which is what did the trick for Joseph, so we'll see.

Taking The Challenge

Through a... friend of a friend of a friend?... I'm taking up a challenge to get out and do something new. There's plenty of things to do around here, so I want to do Level 2: Road Trip and find five new places to explore. Now to decide what to do.



Both the kids are old enough to have a blast at a zoo, and there are several around, but I think Cameron Park is probably the coolest. We've also been meaning to go to the Wildflower Center and the Bullock museum for years, now, but have never "found the time." Just across the street from the Bullock is the Blanton, and while we have been there, it was before kids and before the new building (which Jonathan hates, from both an architectural and an urban design standpoint, but that's just too bad) so it really is exploring a new place. We could do a festival but I think all the festivals but the ice cream festival (which we were planning on, anyway, and is therefore disqualified) are outside the time frame. Hmm... Well, I guess that means introducing our children to a favorite that we haven't been able to attend in quite a while: the Zilker Summer Musical. Not new for us, but certainly new for the kids, so we'll count it. This year, it's Disney's Beauty & the Beast.

Tune in, throughout the summer, to see how our adventures went. If I come up with more, I'll put them up, too. I invite you all to join the challenge and tell us all about your own adventures.

Praying for Naps

I've been trying to get Elena on some sort of regular schedule, to bring order to our lives and (hopefully) make potty training easier when I get to enforcing that sort of thing (we're doing diaper changes with a potty-sit in the middle--advice?). So, for the last three days I've continued naps for both children, in the afternoons. Since Elena and Joseph like each other so much, though, I have to seperate them or neither gets any sleep. That means Elena naps in my bed. To get her settled down, we do a naptime routine similar to the one at night, complete with a fun song and a prayer. Elena loves to pray, so she's been getting lots of practice, lately. Yesterday, she said almost the entire prayer by herself: "(prompt: *Dear Heavenly Father...*)Dear Heavenly Father, so He can hear you; (*thank Thee for...*) Thank-ee Mommy, Thank-ee Joseph, Thank-ee Simon,Thank-ee Gwamma and Popa, Thank-ee Uncle Rick and Aunt Sherry, Thank-ee Mena and Mommy feel better, (*please bless...*) Pease-bess Mommy and Mena feel better, Pease-bess Daddy at work, (*in the name of Jesus Christ...*) Amen!" In to bed she went, and came out two minutes later. She wanted me to boot Simon from the room. A few minutes later, I hear my door open, but nothing else. When Joseph woke up an hour later, I saw that my door was still open, so I poked my head in and saw this.


Yes, those are my glasses.

So, for all you relatives out there, Elena remembers you in her prayers, at one point or another.

Invite to Sunset Valley Play Group

Some of the sisters in our ward have started a play group and we're going all sorts of fun places. We've got the next two months planned, and I want to invite everyone else to join, too. It's Wednesday mornings at 10, and we're going someplace different each week. We're going to the botanical gardens next. I know Michelle Howard is driving up from Buda to join us, and the fire department in April is right up by Callie and Frances, so anyone is welcome to join us and (of course) suggest more fun places to go. We're trying to trade off between homes and field trips so that everyone feels like they can participate.