Saturday, September 10, 2011

School is in session

After a summer of transition for me and anticipation before our new life began we are finally here.  John and Jake started at Normandale Community College 3 weeks ago and Isabelle started 1st grade this past week.

Jake started his Senior year of High School and his Freshman year of College all on the same day.  He tried to sneak off without pictures but John had been charged with the task of photographing his first day for me and he would not be deterred.




I was almost bursting with love for my two boys as I saw them sitting at the table that week both doing homework.



They have totally different schedules and while they are both taking Freshman English it is like they are taking 2 totally different classes as their assignments are so different.  Jake's classes are still your basics, Spanish, English and Calculus.  While John is taking some classes that have been great for conversations at our house.  Along with the English class and pre-college math he is taking Psychology and World Civilizations, both of which have been fun to hear about and talk about.  We actually talk about these things all the time anyway but how fun to get conversation starters from his teachers about the way our brains develop or what influenced the development of our modern society.  Date nights are just that much more interesting these days.

This past week the final member of our house started school.  I went into work late and left early on Tuesday to be there and capture the first day of 1st grade.

It was going to be a perfect morning where I got up and got dressed, made a big breakfast, read a devotional, prayed for Isabelle, took many photos of her in the backyard and then drove her to the school for more pictures and the launching of my baby girl into full day school.

It started off like that but just after getting dressed Jake starts running around looking for his keys.  Then after going out to check he comes in and announces he locked the keys in the truck.  Suddenly my leisurely morning went into high gear as I threw together Isabelle's first school lunch without any love, didn't even make myself a lunch, realized as we were putting the lunch in the backpack that the teacher had told us at the open house there was homework in the packet she was giving us, ripped open the packet to discover she is supposed to bring her 5 favorite books, quickly grabbed them off the bookshelf, wrote her name in them and tossed everyone in the car to get Jake to class on time.

We did have a couple minutes before Isabelle's school started so we stopped at Caribou for a slice of Lemon poppy seed bread.  The breakfast of champion sugar rushed students.


When we got to school I realized I hadn't had my time to pray for her so much to her dismay I prayed for her as we rushed across the parking lot to find her class.

She was nervous when we first arrived but I finally manage to get her to pose for a decent first day of school photo.  That is really all I ask for.


I did get home with plenty of time to spare in the afternoon and was there to greet her off the bus.


And get a picture of my now official 1st grader.


We then went inside for our usual after school tea party.  John and Jake joined us.  It was great.


There are still plenty of transitions ahead for us.  John's work is slowing down and finding time to do what work he has while learning to be a student has been challenging.  Jake on the other hand has lots of free time in his schedule and helping him utilize that free time to accomplish all that needs to get done this year rather than fritter the time away has been a focus this past week.  And Isabelle has come home exhausted each day and has crashed in front of the tv for the rest of the day.  Probably not the best long term plan for her evenings.

Overall we feel great about how everything is going.  Life is definitely very different than it was 6 months ago but different can be good and while I think we have a good 6 months or more before "normal" will be a word we are comfortable using to describe our day to day life we are definitely on the right path.

1 comment:

  1. You know, even though Jake and I don't really talk anymore, I always find it fun to read one of your blogs once in awhile and see how your family is doing. I especially love seeing pictures of Isabelle; I still have the picture of me holding her and Maddie at my dance recital on my bulletin board. What I really like about your posts is that it's so easy to see God at work in your lives, and my prayer is that He would continue to lead and guide you through this time of transition. Blessings! :)

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