September

September begins and with it a whole bunch of other things.  School started yesterday.  The kids were pretty happy to go back.  Katie's only big complaint (she has a lot of little ones) is that the bus is too full to find a seat in the morning.  I remember the feeling - I used to hate that too.  Yesterday as the bus pulled up, Will (a.k.a. Mr. Confident) had this immediate look of sheer panic.  I suggested that he might want to sit with Katie the first day.  So they squeezed in with another girl - because all the seats were full. 

Today when he got on the bus he said "I'm not going to sit with Katie today."  Katie was fine with that.  I watched them get on the bus and where do you think he sat?  Yep - with Katie. :)  It's nice to have a big sister on the bus, even if you don't want to admit it.

Yesterday also marked the fist day I could work at home without any kids.  Actually it was the first full length day at home with no children in over 9 years.  It went by fast.  I had a meeting in the morning til 11, I had to make a couple stops at school to drop off Will's water bottle and try to iron out some mistakes with Will's dairy-free lunch, then it was more phone calls with the school nurse and e-mails with the teacher.  All in all I think I got about 2-3 hours of work in, which is just about right for the first day alone. :)

Today I have a list of things to get done and then I am helping out in the lunchroom today through Friday.  Helping the kindergartners/1st graders carry their tray and enter their lunch number, answer questions, and remind them to eat. 

Katie's classroom is pretty unique this year - they are really trying to think outside the box and not have such a cookie-cutter education plan.  There are no desks in her room - they have some high tables, low tables, footstools, couches, and bouncy/fabric chairs.  She says that (so far) there are no assigned seats, but they do have temporary groups to work with.  Since her class is half 4th grade/half 3rd grade, they are spending most of the first week getting to know each other more.  So far she doesn't remember any 3rd grader's names. 

Work is going well.  I got a raise - did I tell you that?  No probably not.  I have some projects I'd like to get done this week to feel better about my productivity.  I've given myself a hard rule that for most days - I need to make myself be done by 3:30.  That's when the kids get home and it's always a bit of chaos getting homework done and supper going.  Hans is happy that we have restarted our ritual of going for a walk as soon as the bus picks up the kids.  He was so funny yesterday when the bus took off - he immediately started walking the direction we used to go last spring, like we'd been doing it everyday since then.  It's also nice to be able to go at our "training pace" which is pretty quick.  I wasn't able to do that when "Pebbles" was along. 

Oh, speaking of "Pebbles" - she has a baby sister!  Happy and healthy and everyone seems to be doing fine.