Back to school blues

Sometimes the day starts without me, and I spend the rest of the day scrambling to catch up.
Exhibit A:

I have felt like that in one way or another for the past two weeks! Maybe I should just post links to previous years' back to school blues posts and stop writing now, but once I start typing, I don't want to stop! And yet it has been nearly two weeks since my last blog post. Even deathly ill prego-Shaina from years past still managed to write one blog post per week! What is going on? I love writing blog posts! I always have a backlog of pictures and an over-abundance of thoughts to share. If this blog were a plant, it would've gone all dry and brown over the past two weeks, poor thing. Here's some water, shriveled little blogling. Drink up.

School starting rocks my world every single year because it's not just about adjusting to having less kids at home (and we're talking WAY less kids, because for a good portion of the summer we had Spencer plus two or three neighborhood kids and sometimes even a cousin or three inside, outside, and around our house)--my husband is gone all day again too! I think I write about this every September. Jeff just started his sixth year of teaching, complete with his pedestrian 7 mile commute to work via bike or running. He leaves at 5:30am once more. Shouldn't I be used to this cycle by now? Somehow it's still a big change every year.

When Jeff is home, we have miniature conversations of gold like this:
Me, dusting off a shelf after rearranging furniture: "Some people actually DUST REGULARLY."
Jeff: "Some people are crazy."

You begin to see how different my life is without those witty replies in the background. Jeff is still golden, just glinting from afar for 10 hours each day now. He has even texted me from work a few times--a big step up from last year! I love little text-lets to brighten my day. When Jeff came home from his first day of work at the end of August, we sat together and just talked, talked, talked. Spending all day every day together this summer spread all of that conversation across hours, but now we have to squeeze it all in at the end of the day when Jeff gets home from work. I'm so glad that after 9.75 years of marriage we still miss each other when we're apart.

At 6:45am last Tuesday, I got a phone call from Jeff: "guess what I forgot to bring to school today? Pants." When he was done showering in the locker room and opened his bag of clothes, he realized that he forgot to pack his pants. I was cracking up! Personally, I think dress socks, a polo shirt, and running shorts are a good lock for Jeff, but it would probably be a bit of a distraction at the high school, so I loaded the pajama-clad, tousel-haired kids into the van and brought him some pants. My one condition was that he would let me take a picture of him in his outfit...

Own it! His socks have giant pencils on them, by the way. Best teacher ever!

Another nugget that happened last week was Jeff got a coaching job as the middle school cross country coach in Sunnyside! He has always planned on coaching someday, (who wouldn't want to get paid to go to their own kid's athletic events?) but he was waiting for the opportune moment to take the plunge. That moment arrived during teacher in-service staff lunch last week, when the topic came up with the athletic director. Jeff was hired two days later. Supplemental income? Check. A mere six week cross country season? Check. Coaching experience? Check. It's an ideal gig, even if it does delay Jeff's homecoming each afternoon by 90 minutes.

Jay and Rose are both in school now too, leaving Amber and me forlorn for a good portion of each day. Let me revise that statement: the alone time can have a forlorn-ish effect on me sometimes but it turns Amber into a little tornado! Without her older siblings to follow around, she gets in to EVERY SINGLE THING in the whole house, and I never know where she's going to strike next. I am fighting a 100 front war and I'm not winning. [see exhibit A above]

This year's back to school season has come with an added twinge of sadness: Spencer's family is moving away! We are going to miss them so much. They leave in 4 days for Utah. We have been watching Spencer during summertime for the past four years, and he feels like part of the family. Yesterday I went through all of our pictures and made a folder of pictures for a parting gift to give the dear Kartchner family. And it's not just Spencer we'll be missing. Kristine (his mom) is my FRIEND! She has made up 1/5 of our book club for the past 4 years! While I was so sick and pregnant with Amber, she cleaned my kitchen for me while I laid in nausea and watched. You don't forget that kind of thing. That kind of friendship and service creates such a deep bond of friendship, understanding, and love! A few months ago, we were assigned to be visiting teaching companions and more recently, I became the secretary in the young women's program at church with Kristine as president. That's a lot of together time--a lot of time serving together and serving each other. Service leaves a mark on the heart, and my heart is aching in the spot reserved for Spencer and Kristine.

Above: summer 2013; below: summer 2016

 Sledding, February 2014

Walking to school, spring 2015--we put Spencer to work! Haha, he was dying to show off his manly muscles and push that big beefy stroller. 

 Above: swimming 2013; below: swimming 2016

Back-to-school blues aside, I also have some fun activities a-brewing. This school year I am helping a friend homeschool her 6th grade daughter. I am in charge of literature and creative writing. We meet once each week for an hour, so it's low key, but I have dived into Pinterest head first and nearly drowned in all of the ideas I found there. After careful consideration and Pinterest-culling, I have constructed my own flexible, self-paced demi-curriculum. I am not a professional teacher in any way (although I do get free advice from my professional teacher husband any time I want it), so my learning curve is rather bumpy and steep right now. There is always something more to prepare, read, write, and learn between lessons! And I love words, reading, and writing, so it is a very satisfying outlet. It's also time consuming. Hence the blog hiatus. I am working on not getting too sucked in to all of the intriguing possibilities so I can regain that ever-elusive element: balance.

We flew the coop on Labor Day weekend, heading west to Lake Tapps and my parents' lakehouse once more. It was a Saturday-Monday quick trip and I found it to be more tiring than anything else. But the kids jumped in the lake under iron gray chilly clouds and we enjoyed the hot tub and hung out with family, so it was still a good weekend--one last hurrah to summer.

Amber thought her cousin Grayce has a pretty good seat. Amber looooves pacifiers, and although she hasn't had one of her own for months, she's an opportunist. 

One day after dinner last week, the sky was cloudy and the kids were energetic. Tramp time!

 The classic Rose.

Amber wants to be just like her big sister--cute little copycat. 

Now we are settling down and digging in for the School Year properly. On September 1st the weather suddenly cooled off and it has been sooooo nice in the mornings. Not chilly--but fresh, with with a hint of fall in the air. Time to get out our autumn leaf garland and wrap it around the banister with white twinkle lights! I got a pumpkin pie at Costco this week. Fragrant, warming homemade chicken noodle soup is on the menu. Back to school blues? What are those? I love this time of year.

The kindergartener

Rose is officially a kindergartener. It all started when we officially met her teacher on Friday, August 26th. She had her first day with half of her class the following Monday. I walked her into the classroom, assuming that it was a half day. Thank goodness I asked when to pick Rose up, because it turned out that the first day was a FULL day! Suddenly I was faced with an entire unanticipated day without my Rose. I got all swimmy-eyed and sad as I walked out of the school, pushing Amber in the stroller. I kept thinking that I would be doing this all again when Amber starts kindergarten in four short years and then I'd be walking out of the school without ANY of my kids. What will I do then? Probably the same thing I did when I dropped Rose off for her first day of school: I drowned my emotions in a run.

Tuesday August 30th, Rose had no school while the other half of her class had its first day. THEN on Wednesday the whole class had its first official day all together. Kindergarten is confusing! But Rose came home practically FLOATING after her first days at school. While we walked home together, the mental image came to me of a balloon on a string. Rose was the balloon, and the only thing holding her down to earth was my hand in hers.

A few days later, Rose said "My teacher asked me to count to 100 today, and I counted to 104." The end of year goal for kindergarteners is to count to 100. I hope Rose doesn't get bored too soon! Jay is kind of bored, as evidenced by the beginning of school page for his life album, where he answered the question "I think second grade will be..." with "boring and fun." So far he was right--there are boring parts punctuated with fun parts, like computer lab and library.

Yesterday, in an exasperated voice, Rose said "I don't know WHY my teacher isn't teaching me how to read yet."

Another tidbit I gleaned from Rose's chatter: "I tried the strawberry milk at school today and bleh! I did not like it." Jay replied "I don't like it either--it's in our family--we don't like strawberry milk." I love listening to their conversations. Rose simply ADORES being a big schoolgirl and being able to talk knowledgeably with her big brother about the school building, specialist classes like library, the playground, the food, the teachers, etc.

Beautiful Rose, in her Rose dress, with her Rose hair clips, the Sunday before her first day of kindergarten.

The afternoon before Rose's first day of school, I noticed this arragement on her bedroom floor. She was going to school all "Elsa'd up" with coordinating blue socks, pants, Elsa shirt, and Elsa undies. She ended up wearing the pants outside and getting grass stains on them that evening, though, so she had to wear jeans instead the next day.

In her classroom--Rose has the same classroom as Jay did for kindergarten, but a different teacher. (Jay's kindergarten teacher moved away)

Tuesday, August 30th (Rose's day off between her first and second days of school) was my last day with just my two daughters at home with me while Jay was at school. We had some errands to do, so we drove to Sunnyside and visited Goodwill. Then we stopped by Walmart where Rose got her hair trimmed (evening up the botched chop job I attempted a few weeks ago). Even Walmart's salon can cut hair better than me. Oh boy.

LUNCHES! We have these funny stickers to decorate lunch items, so I livened up the bananas. And then resolved to make cookies so the kids could have something more homey for dessert than plain chocolate chips. Because in a packed lunch, the dessert is always the best part!

The official first day of school picture. Rose had already worn her three favorite outfits to the school, and I hadn't done laundry yet, so she settled for her pink bunny shirt.

Every now and then, I see a teeny tiny chink in Rose's armor of enthusiasm, and I see--however briefly--that she is still a little 5 year old girl who loves her family most of all.

Example A: when I walked Jay and Rose to school on Rose's second day (her first time going onto the playground for before school recess), I hugged them and then stood back to watch them walk into the fenced playground. After a few steps, Rose noticed I wasn't beside her and turned around with her hand held out, waiting expectantly for me. My heart about broke! I told her to go on ahead without me because I wasn't allowed onto the playground. Then I watched as she walked away. And I went running to drown my sorrows once more.

Example B: As we were walking down the long sidewalk towards the school one morning last week, I noticed that Rose had grabbed Jay's hand in her impulsive, endearing way. Normally he shakes her off or leaves his hand limp in hers when she tries holding hands, but that day he gripped her hand right back and they walked like that all the way up the sidewalk to the school until I hugged them goodbye. I almost didn't notice it because I was focusing on keeping the stroller on the narrow sidewalk while we walked three abreast. But I happened to glance down and a pang of motherly emotion twanged my heartstrings when I saw them holding hands. I snuck out my phone and took a few crooked pictures on the sly. It was so dear to see my sweet best-friend kids facing a new day at school, holding hands. I like to think that on some level, Jay understood that it would make Rose feel very secure to hold her big brother's hand while walking up to the school. It's like Jay has this sweet dear nature at his core that he tries to suppress and hide (inspired by Calvin and Hobbes no doubt), but it still shines out at key moments in spite of his best efforts. Even though they don't see much of each other at school, I can tell they both really like the knowledge that the other is in the same building. Love. 

Meanwhile, I am schooling Amber in the art of watching an episode of Sesame Street while I shower. I never thought I would encourage and try teaching a one year old to watch shows, but Amber's talent for destruction is too great for me to just leave her to her own devices while I'm in the shower.

We have already had at least three days where we barely made it to school on time. Amber's clothing is not a priority on rushed days. I resolved to walk the kids home every day for the first month of school before petitioning the principal to let Jay and Rose walk home together without me, but it got to be such a rough operation, waking Amber up from her nap and weaving through the traffic jam of the post-school pickup, that after one week I wrote notes to various teachers and administrative staff, giving my explicit permission for Jay and Rose to walk the half mile to our house together after school. I did not sign the notes in blood, but miraculously the powers did not give us any trouble on the matter (unlike last year where we had to fight for Jay's right to walk home!). 

 Amber misses her siblings and Daddy while they're away. She spent the first few days of their absence flipping through our stack of Chatbooks and hunting for pictures of Jay, Rose, and Daddy.

Images from my soothing run, past hops fields and cows, with Mt. Adams on the horizon:

Amber tried out a new kind of pigtails a few days ago--her hair is coming in slowly but surely:

So glad I have this marvelous companion for the next four school years.