Sunshine In My Soul

Getting caught up...

As I drove home from the ranch last night, wondering how on earth I could ever get caught up on blogging after basically taking almost the WHOLE summer off, I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. Where to start? Sitting to the right of me is a STACK of memory cards packed full of our best summer moments. Well, some of our best moments...the ones that I caught with my camera and the rest captured in my mind. I don't know what order they are in. So I'm taking it one memory card at a time and I'll tell all about our summer in whatever order they get downloaded.

First card I downloaded:

The kids FIRST day of school.

Yep. The kids are back in REAL school, as they call it. And they couldn't be happier. And me? I'm so-so about it. I miss them like CRAZY, but I'm relieved to not have the stress and self-doubt of homeschooling and the whole "Am I doing enough?" constantly looming over my head. Chubs? So far, not a huge fan of being an only child - at least for 7.5 hours of the day. He misses the kids probably even more than I do.

A couple weeks ago, we sat at the dinner table. It was a Sunday night and we'd had a great day together, enjoying church, lounging in our jammies, playing board games, and snuggling on the couch with some good books. I'd been thinking that I'd put Little Miss back in "real school" - just because she was the one who fought me almost every single day with the homeschool thing. I asked her if that was what she wanted...to return to public school. She could hardly contain herself with her exuberant, "YES!" The boys asked if they were allowed to choose for themselves. I gave them both the option to return. Moose said he wasn't sure. Bear said he wasn't sure either. Then Moose said, "I want to do whatever Bear decides to do."

"Why do you always want to do exactly what I'm doing?"

"Because I just want to be with you. Whatever you do, I want to do." {sigh} I love these boys!

Bear decided to return to school which meant Moose quickly decided to do the same. Instantly I felt so much pressure fade, but that feeling was instantly replaced by thoughts of, "Have I taught them enough? Did we go on too many field trips and not spend enough time doing book work? Will they know what they need to know to move on to the next grade? What will the teachers think of me if I haven't? WHAT in the world am I going to do with all of my new found free time?" After I tucked the kids in bed that night, I was on Facebook...and my favorite cousin (no offense to my other cousins - hee hee!), Cami, was on. I was telling her about the kids decisions, my feelings, etc. and she said, "Good news! My friend is the NEW principal at the school. I'll tell her about you and the kids and you can go in and meet with her." I did go in. I sat in the new principal's office and we talked and cried and she met the kids and I felt most of my worries wash quickly away.

Today is the kids 3rd day of school. And so far, so good! The kids are happy. I'm keeping busy at the gym and hopefully some blogging. The kids are back in school!

Bear...

Moose...

Little Miss and her beloved lunchbox. We literally stood in the lunchbox aisle at Target for a good 20-25 minutes as she TRIED to decide just which lunchbox was the cutest and if that adorable lunchbox would MATCH the majority of her outfits. Funny, funny girl!

Chubs so badly wanted to go with them and tried to catch them on the scooter as they left for school. Sorry buddy...it's just you and me.