school days

School is back in session.

I do love the school year. I love getting the kids on the bus and walking to pick them up in the afternoon. I love the quiet days with just me and Katie. I had such good intentions of getting the house all cleaned up this week, but truthfully the schedule change has been rough for me. The kids have adjusted fine, but I have been a lot sicker than I had been the week before. So I mostly took it easy this week. I did manage to get all the laundry washed, dried and put away. And the kitchen has stayed mostly tidy. I need to get Katie some regular social interaction, though. She won't leave my presence.

Jack has a ton of homework. At first I was like Really? In 1st grade? But I actually enjoy sitting down with him after dinner is all cleaned up and helping watching him do it. He is a bright kid. He is usually not too long in finding some sort of afternoon activity to occupy himself. All summer long he acted so bored. But when school is out he just walks in the door, eats a snack and then goes quietly about an activity. Yesterday it was building a web of yarn with a friend in our driveway. The day before it was building some sort of invention with a box and a hanger and some other stuff from the recycling box. My house is filling up with his robots and inventions and I am not quite sure what the acceptable "keeping" time is and when I can stop stepping over them. He seems happy to go and happy to come home. But he needs his unwind time. We do homework after dinner so they can have that time.

Ana loves school if nothing else than the fact that her 2 closest friends are in her class. She lives and breathes a social life. She isn't home more than 2 minutes before she is skipping out the door to find someone to play with her. Of course, if she can't find anyone she moans and groans, but she usually has good luck. She has all positive things to say about school and she even has her school calendar hanging up in her room so she knows what to expect when. Upcoming field trips, no school days, etc.

I feel good in the settling of life and the routines, with a little fun and adventure mixed in.