Transitioning

Well it has officially been a week since Isabelle started school.  We are sticking to a morning routine that includes both of us being dressed and ready to launch into the day when she gets on the bus.  And I have added making her bed to the morning routine as well.  Might as well try to sneak in one good habit as early as possible.  Her effort has been a little weak thus far:

But I believe neatness can come after a habit is established.  Some might not agree with me but I don't really care.  That is what I am going with.

Anyway...

After a week of working on the morning routine and going to school she finally told me she doesn't want to go anymore.  While I expected to hear that at some point I was really thinking it would be more like 2 or 3 weeks, not 1 week.  None-the-less I sort of feel her pain.

I am feeling the stress of developing a new routine and a new stage of life myself.  Today I didn't want to get out of bed, did not even hear Jake leave or John's alarm go off.  Yesterday I was feeling frustrated by the tasks I was doing and today I am not totally sure what I am going to do with my time.  I know I need to start walking the neighborhood passing out these plow postcards I made up but that feels a little scary to me and I want to run away from it.  Conveniently the rain is giving me a good excuse to not do it.  Plus 2 times this week I got "the look" from the bus driver because I got distracted and she was sitting in front of our house honking for a few minutes before I ran out to get Isabelle.  Yesterday I got a little lecture.  And the school nurse called to tell me Isabelle should not have been allowed to go to school because apparently she is missing 2 immunizations which I wasn't aware of.  Then the nurse told me that my pediatricians office told her I didn't go to the 5 year old well child check up.  Is there no patient confidentiality?!  I don't see why I should pay my doctor to confirm the obvious fact that my child is well.  And I don't see how that is any of the school nurses business.  All the paper work I read told me the nurse would call me BEFORE school if Isabelle needed any shots.  It isn't my fault she is behind and I will not be made to feel guilty because I didn't pay $200 to find out if my child needed shots.  Well apparently I will...

What was I talking about?

Oh yes routine.
 
So after a honeymoon week of enjoying the new routine and enthusiastically getting up to run before Isabelle got up, making Jake a sandwich before he left for school and reading a short bible story to Isabelle during breakfast, the fun has worn off.  And now the real work begins.  Deciding what we are going to actually put effort into and what we are going to let go of.  And then making the commitment to press on even when I don't FEEL like it because I know it is the right thing to do.

We must press on through this lazy phase, where we are tempted to sleep in, skip a workout, not make the bed or brush the teeth because we are rushed for time.  We must maintain a belief that these things are important and that developing good habits and routines now will serve us throughout the year and through all the years Isabelle will be in school.  It takes 28 days to develop a new habit.  We are 6 school days down, 22 school days to go.

From this point forward it is all about strength and attitude.  And I am going to choose to have a good attitude and ask God to give me the mental and physical strength to continue working to develop these habits knowing that in a few more months they will just be a regular part of our life.  Because the alternative is to have a bad attitude, not follow through yet still have to get Isabelle out the door every morning and watch the bus drive away while wearing my pj's and feeling stressed before a single thing is accomplished.  And that doesn't sound like fun at all.

Philippians 3:12 "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."