The Survival Post

I followed a school bus this morning.


And felt a little pang of sadness. For about 3 seconds.


Because this is the first day of school. And kids all over were getting up and putting on their brand new school duds that their mamas had just ripped the tags off of the night before. (Unless they are super-awesome mamas, and they washed them before the first wear. Ahem. That would not be me.) And then half of those same kids were either sitting down to breakfasts that incorporated all of the food groups, or they were eating what my kids always ate on school mornings....a bag of dry cereal and a sippy cup of milk in the van. And then they were going to school and taking pictures with their new teachers and then they tried really hard to not get their brand new tennis shoes dirty at recess.


And my kids weren't going.


Yep. Made me a little misty.


But then I was over it.


And I was determined to make our first day of school pretty darn special.


So....


I woke up early.


I went to the gym while everyone was still snoring (hence why I followed the bus).


I came home and spent some time with Jesus.


I did laundry and cleaned the kitchen. While everyone was still snoring.


I drank 3 cups of coffee. Out of my penguin mug. Because it seemed like the right thing to do.



I took a shower and even dried my hair. And I even put on mascara. Because I felt like my rascals deserved something more than my jammies and bed head on their first day.

I woke up the sleeping angels, and they got started on their morning chores.

I smiled to myself because my day was going swimmingly. I was totally rockin' this whole homeschool thing. If I rocked it any better than I was soon going to be donning denim jumpers and growing my own turnip greens.

I made breakfast. And it wasn't in a ziplock baggie. Now...I didn't go to the culinary genius of CPQ and Whimz, but I did make cinnamon toast.




My children thanked me. Because it wasn't a poptart or a bowl of cereal they had to fix for themselves.


I smiled to myself again. Knockin' this thing out of the park. I can see the milk cow grazin' in my backyard, and my homemade candles drip-drying as I type this.


And then we started school.


Don't get me wrong....things went well. Surprisingly well, for me not really having any clue as to what I was doing.


I had a schedule made out, but had no idea if it would work.


So, I jumped in with 2 feet and just went with the flow.


We did Bible. And Math. And English. And Phonics. And Sawyer informed me that he already knew what I was teaching him. And I informed Sawyer that I already knew that he was going to be scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush if he kept sassing me.


And then Handwriting. And Science. And Social Studies. And Reading.


And we only had two meltdowns. One when Keaton had to do corrections on his Math, because apparently he was under the impression that he was perfect. And the other when Tate decided that he didn't know how to draw a shark.


Could have been worse, I suppose.


No one was stabbed with a pencil. No one jammed their new Fiskars in their eye (although I thought about it). No one locked their teacher in the laundry room. And no one was locked in the laundry room by their teacher.


So, all in all, Day 1 of Rascal Academy will go down in the books as success.


But I'm thinking no denim jumpers just yet.

Whew. I need a nap.

~~~~~~~

Lest my shower, dried hair, and wearage of normal clothes go unseen except by my little men, we snapped a few first day of school pictures.

See...I got all kinds of dressed up. Woo Hoo!

And the boys actually match today. A miracle, really.

And here are the boys hard at work on their first day of school entries in their journals.

So....

We made it!!

There was one point today (I think it was around the great shark debate) when I was about to talk myself out of this silly idea all together, but then I remembered that this is where I'm supposed to be. Where I'm called to be. And what an amazing blessing that I get to spend all my days with 3 of the most awesome kids that God ever created.

Even if it is guaranteed that they are going to have me searching for the Fiskars to jam in my eye before the year is over.