School started on Tuesday morning. The kids of course were happy and reluctant and their momma was terribly ornery. It's always nice for a child to be sent from home with their mom yelling goodbye at them. Poor kids. I made up for it by having no-bake cookies at the table when they got home. (we'll just say it was a really rough pregnancy day and leave it at that. we're also going to throw a few quarters in the therapy fund so the kids have an outlet later in life.)
Clayton went off to 10th grade. My sophomore. I never should have let him skip a grade... except that he's in nerd heaven. He came home ecstatic with his schedule. He's got a heavy schedule with honors classes, an AP class and some engineering classes. Every day this week I've been greeted, by him, with a smile. He's loving this year. I'm glad he's happy. I'm glad he loves learning. Next week Seminary starts. I'm not looking forward to the 5:50AM leave time but Seminary is such a good way to start his mornings so I'll try to not complain or yell at him as he leaves the car.
Anthony is at home with me, again this year. Best decision ever. I just love having him here. Sometimes he complains about the work environment and there's this one student that shows up to most of his classes but is really just there to bug him. It's good for him to learn how to deal with distractions. I'm loving this eSchool thing. He's got teachers for each of his subjects and they've all touched base with him to make sure he's understanding the technology and process. He gets up in the mornings and is lazy because he hates mornings but he and I have agreed (he rather begrudgingly) that school starts at 9AM. I'm significantly less involved this year and yet still completely available if he has questions and needs someone. I also reap the benefits of one-on-one time with my kiddo. This is his last year home. Next year he heads off to High School. Um, that's a load of crap; two kids in High School.
Nic is king of the school this year. He's in 5th grade. You can see how cool he is because he's got this new swagger of coolness that surrounds his aura. He has the same teacher he had last year. I loved his teacher last year so I was happy that she was going to be around this year to keep him working hard. I always hope my kids get the mean teachers. Not the dumb mean teachers but the teachers with really high expectations. If they're going to be gone all day long, I want them working hard. They can play at home. So far, he's loving school. He doesn't like that mom makes him ride his bike to school --and yes I sent them in the rain storm yesterday morning, on their bikes. It didn't start raining until about 5 minutes after they left. I'm Mom of the year.
Isaak has the same teacher he had last year too. This is a huge blessing in our life. His teacher is absolutely wonderful for him. She's amazing. She actually loves my Isaak. I love my Isaak and think he's a joy but not everyone gets him. This teacher understands Isaak and his boisterous personality. Isaak would rather not be at school and was even considering asking his football coach to schedule practice during the day. As if I'd let him check out of school for football? Anyhow, he complains about school but when you get down to the meat of it all he loves his teacher and he's going to pull through this year even if it's me pulling him. He is excited about one thing. He's started a football team at school and his team is going to take on his friends team. I'm looking forward to hearing about each recess game. I'm sure the officials will screw up a few calls but I'm glad he's got something he loves that we can pull out from under him when he starts causing problems. (Don't worry I know where this kid gets his personality from and that's why I can type so honestly about his goodness. I totally get this kid because he's a carbon copy of his crazy mom)
Matthias is in complete heaven. This school year is going to be wonderful for him, at least for the next 4 weeks. No one around to bug him. He just plays with his toys and reads books with his mom. We watch TV together and do whatever we want. His only complaint would be that he REALLY wants some outside time. He begs each day to play at the park. I think I mentioned this pregnancy is starting to kick my butt. Playing at the park is not my forte right now. I am hoping to dump him there sometime today. I'll watch from a bench. We'll see.
For me this school year has it's ups and downs. I've really loved the summer with the kids home. I just like having them around. It's fun to have these built in buddies. That said, I'm not sure if I could pull it off right now. I've hit this point of the pregnancy that really has my body hurting. I spent Tuesday on the couch just hurting. Each step I took sent pain through my body so I decided to stop moving. Kids don't really like it when mom just lazily lays around on the couch. I did pull it together enough to dump Anthony at football and the boys at scouts. A ward member rescued me and offered to bring the minions home from scouts. I went home and went to bed. There's only 4 weeks left, but there's 4 weeks left. Yesterday, and today are better than Tuesday. I've decided I've got to stop exercising. I think my body only gives me so many steps each day before it quits. So, no more treadmill until afterward. That's a good/bad thing. Good, because honestly it takes 44 excruciating minutes to get 2 miles and when I'm done I'm not even sure if my heart rates gone up at all. Bad, because exercise really helps with my mental health. I just feel better if I've fit a good workout into my day. It's all good. No worries. It's only 4 weeks. Crap, it's 4 weeks!
Here's the official 'send the kiddo's off to school' pic. No Clayton, he was already gone when I finally got the camera out and Anthony was still snuggled up in his pj's on the couch. Also, little guy wanted in on the action so he popped in for a few shots. I like his first day of school outfit. And yes, he wore that all day long, except at times it was without the top.
