A First, a Second and Two-Thirds!

Hey all, gotta get you all up-to-date in order for you to catch the theme of this post. A month back Joel and I were faced with a decision concerning the children's schooling. I have home schooled for two consecutive years and enjoyed it, and hoped that I would again be able to. We put off an exact decision waiting to see if physically I would rebound quicker than expected and could resume my title as "Super Mom." Well friends to put it grammatically correct, "It aint happenin'." I am doing much better, but am reminded how hard surgery was this time around and the magnitude of what I physically faced. I do have regular appointments with the Great Physician, so no worries. I will be back to my, "Teach the kiddos, plan dinner, sew a new outfit and rock the baby with my toes" old self in a little while. With THAT said, we decided to put the kids in school this year.

I was feelin' a bit down about it until Joel came home one day. Isaac and Abbs had just taken their placement tests needed to see where they stood grade-wise. Joel mentioned that Pastor House, our principal, would like me to call him regarding the tests at my convenience. GULP. Now who isn't rightfully scared of a Principal???? I called him and my fears turned to praises. To God that is. I am fighting my flesh at the moment because I do not want to pridefully remark on what grade level they placed in. I WILL say that he left me smiling with this last conversation between he and I. He began, "Deena, did anyone give you grief about deciding to home school??" "Not too badly, " was my reply. He then added, "Well if anyone did, THIS IS YOUR VINDICATION!" Enough said.....

So....today was THE DAY. The kids counted how many "sleeps" until school so many times that I WAS tempted to try the "sleeper hold" on them.

I so hope your first day of school was like mine, hence making me feel a tad more normalish. We awake to the baby crying needing fed. I feed the baby and hand her to Joel to burp just in time to greet Anna crawling up into my side of the bed with of all things, Joel's cell phone. She hops in bed with us totally FR-EE-Zing us with her feet. It is almost Norman Rockwell-ish. UNTIL....the baby spits up all over Joel, Anna begans to "SHHH" the now crying baby, I get a wiff of her "so not cute two year old" breath, and Abbs comes in the room whining of a stomach ache. There you have it. A new day has dawned. I pause to see if Joel is going to rise from bed with a chorus of "O What a Beautiful Mornin'," straight out of OKLAHOMA......nnnnno.

We decide to send Anna to do our dirty work for us, waking up the remaining kids. Joel pours cereal, heads in the shower, and I continue corralling our kids. I must interject here that yesterday when needing some necessary clothing for church we noticed that the things in the dryer were still damp. "A fluke," we thought. "Think again," this morning said to us, and off I was to dry my "necessaries" with my hairdryer. So I guess you can say I "raised the white flag" to rally the troops while in the bathroom. Sorry. Couldn't resist. While in mid hustle and bustle Isaac goes out to walk the dog and yells for everyone to come and see what he has found. I am thinking the raccoons got into the garbage again.

Not so!! A sweet someone left several bags of goodies on our back porch!!!!!! The Lord reminded me that this is the SECOND time that someone has treated us with bags and bags of groceries this Summer. Praise God! This is just a FRACTION of the goods bestowed on VERY THANKFUL us....A keen observer will note THREE packages of OREO cookies. Someone sure loves me. Now how can the day go bad after stumbling upon the Mother-load of goodies friends??? Might have to let them eat OREO's for breakfast one day this week....

So we then took the kiddos lunches out of the baggies I had them in because we could not bring ourselves to pay for the cool looking lunch bags, and packed them into the new cool lunch bags that someone gave us!! We then posed for a quick back to school pic,


And hit the road for school. Oh, I need to note that ONE of these cuties pictured here did end up with a back-to-school spanking. You guess who. I will divulge that it involved running and a pop-tart.....

Who couldn't smile seeing Caleb in his desk for his FIRST ever day of school??? He was too nervous to eat any breakfast, but did make sure to take an apple for his teacher.

We head over to peek in on our TWO THIRDS and they are already settling themselves into their classroom. Third grade already. We were falling back into nostalgia when Abby raised her arms to show us something. Joel and I cringed. Her jumper was a mite too short. We glanced at each other and said, "We'll take care of that tomorrow." I instructed her to sit still and not to raise her arms at all today......should be an interesting first day for her. Sigh.

While making our final rounds in the hallway we noticed that Joel's classroom was not even set up! We rush around moving desks and chairs and finally decide that we are ready to start the day.

I am wide-awake, holding the fort with the three youngins and trying to tell myself that there is some nutritional value in these Peanut Butter M&M's sitting next to me........

ONE school day down. That wasn't SO bad. Was it?