End of Term

The kids have their first day of fall break today. No school today or tomorrow, and LSNO don't have school on Monday or Tuesday next week either, for teacher work days. The first term is over, the girls did pretty good, but I'm going to try and do better and following up on them to make sure they are checking gradebook everyday. But they are doing good with school stuff in general from what I can tell. Sophi and Natalie do a very good job getting up by themselves in the morning. I'll go check that they are up at 6am, and I usually see something like this pic from yesterday:

They are already up and doing their hair and make up. Then I go wake up Owen. He wakes up after one shake of his shoulder or one rub on his back. He get up right away, gets dressed, and comes down and eats breakfast. I'll usually open Lily's door and tell her what time it is, and then she'll say "Um hmmm" and will keep laying there. "You're awake? Or do you need me to come back?" "I got it." And she will get up on her own after that. From my observations, she'll sleep until 6:30, and then I don't know how she does it but she will be the first of the girls down stairs and she looks wide awake and is ready and will call to Sophi and Natalie to hurry up and get in the car. I'm glad they each now how much time they need to get ready. Lily has completed her 6 months of driving with only family, she is now legally allowed to drive other people. So she takes Owen and a neighbor to jazz band, and they head to the car at 6:40 am, wheels moving by 6:45. Lily is also now picking up Churchill carpool, cause there's room in the van. The past two months she's been going there to pick up Natalie and Owen anyway, cause Natalie wants to be with her sisters, and cause Skyline traffic is crazy, so they just chill in the building until it dies down and then they go get Natalie and Owen. So I've offered for her to just start picking up everyone now. The girls don't love it, but it's not their car, so yeah, that's what I've decided. Lily picks up MTWTh, and the other moms do it on Fridays when Churchill gets out early. Corey also isn't taking at all in the mornings now. Since we're getting all the pm pick ups, I asked the other moms to do the mornings, cause none of my kids are in morning carpool anyway. So this is good. Now Corey can go to the gym and eat his veggie breakfast and doesn't have to worry about anything else. 

After the older kids go to school, I am trying to use that time to read my scriptures but sometimes I don't. If Corey's left for the gym, sometimes I go lay down again. It's these dark mornings, I tell ya, I am not an early bird anymore. My alarm will go off again at 7:55 and that's when I wake up Daniel and Peter. I have to stay by them and work for 10 min or so to get them out of bed, especially Daniel. He's a bit like Ethan and he likes his sleep. I stay with them and watch until they are dressed and I make sure they get socks, then downstairs for breakfast, backpacks, shoes on, jackets, sign folders and planners, and give them a chocolate chip granola bar for their snack. That's usually the only snack I offer, other than clementines or bananas which they refuse. I did also get the Welch's ones recently, but they are so small that's like a nothing snack so then I still give them a granola bar. If Katharine is awake, I give her a granola bar too. And here is what Katharine does if I tell her she can't have another granola bar. 

It's very hard being told "no." She sat under my desk and ate her yogurt and fruit. I'm proud that she took some quite time to try and feel her feelings. I keep my feelings happy by going out to the mountains. I went on a walk yesterday - enjoying fall colors still. Pretty.

And did a ride at 2pm today. The trail is muddy now, but I'm glad there are some trees still holding onto their leaves after all this rain! Corey went to work at his dad's, and I told him I was doing a ride at 2. He didn't exercise yet so he said he'd come with me, but I had told him I needed to leave between 1:30-2, 2 at the latest, cause Owen had trumpet today, and I had to leave at 4:30 for that, and I wanted time to take my time on my ride and also get cleaned up before the lesson. So when he was still at his dad's at 1:45, I got ready to go. I was leaving at 2. He still had a 15 min drive home plus the time it would take him to get ready. So I left at 2, like I had told him. I was a little worried the kids would get him and he'd feel like he couldn't leave, but I gave Natalie a heads up to keep Peter and Katharine out of his hair, and he drove to the trailhead to catch up to me quickly. It was nice to be on a ride together. We're enjoying rides together while we still can.