Wednesday, August 17, 2016

School Begins - Phase 1

Today was the first day of school for half of the kids. The older half. Joseph and Mel at the High school, Ethan and Hyrum at the middle school. I didn't get any pictures of them by the bus or on the front steps. We'll save that for the elementary kids. I guess I can try to get a picture of them sometime driving away in the family van. As for now, this is what the first day looks like when they get home from school: Homework on the couch.
(I'd really like to figure out a place where they can study that doesn't involve the kitchen table or the couches... something to shoot for)

Last night was a back to school stomp that Joseph went to. He got home around 10:30 and wanted to talk to Corey about girls and his friends... they talked until midnight. Reality came and hit him hard this morning. I woke him up at 5, cause he had to take Mel to early morning seminary, which started at 6 before his jazz band at 6:30. His alarm went off, but I went into get him at 5:05... "Time to get up Joseph..." First words out of his mouth: "This year's gonna suck..." You might make it, but not if you stay up chit-chatting until midnight. Although our midnight conversations with the kids are among my favorite memories. He said after that he lay in bed and still couldn't fall asleep until 1 a.m. "What's the expression... 'running on fumes?'" Yes, you do not have gas in your engine and you're gonna be running on fumes for today. We made up for it tonight though with an early dinner (4:30!!), scriptures at 7:00 with a before bed snack at 8. I could have been in bed a while ago at 9:15 and could have used it too - I've been up since 5 a.m. (I've been doing some light jogging on the treadmill the past week, which makes me feel like a champ - today I finished 3 miles of a walk/jog in less than 42 minutes!) with only a 40 min afternoon nap (better than my long naps in the bygone lazy days of summer). The sun had set but the house was still abuzz and I was the only one shutting down, so decided to stay up a little more to help the children remember how to go to bed... they seemed to be lost and wandering around wondering what was going on... "Voluntarily go lay down and go to sleep?!?! What's up with that?" Yes, it's possible, you can choose to sleep, you don't have to wait until your body just collapses from exhaustion. It took a bit of direction, but they might have figured it out... Corey and I are going to bed now too - before 10:30!! Pretty good for the first day, we'll see if we can keep this up.