First Day of School

This was NOT today.  Foxtrot read this book to me a couple of months ago...
But, it is close to the type of pictures I wanted for the First day....

You probably noticed I haven't posted much this summer.  I had a few posts in mind - 'return from camp', 'off to the zoo', and other great summer topics.

But the facts have been - I've been sick.  I spent most of August going for a Daily IV, and spending the day on not-quite bedrest (but close.)   Yup - I wasn't in the hospital this year - but I may as well have been.   The kids did do a lot of work to keep the house going - even making some simple suppers - but they aren't quite up to running a household, and I wasn't quite up to keeping habits going (or trying to get habits going is more like it) - so lets just say the house isn't in the best shape.  Mike has done a lot too, but was working long hours.  In the words of a good friend - "It is all good".

So - I'm not up to 100% health yet.... but things are improving.  We started school a week later tan I had hoped, and a few subjects aren't worked out yet...  I haven't got the poetry all ready, and Foreign Language is still a puzzle to me on what would work for us.   I also didn't setup the cute First Day of School pictures I had wanted to do.... I just couldn't get enthusiastic about getting all the school books for the year out for the pictures.... sigh - such a good idea....

We got a lot done today.  My kids have a planner/logbook with their independent work listed.  But of course the first day has some working through the details.  They did a lot of that work - there are a couple of things I need to setup so they can do it on their own.  I also discovered that somehow all the audiobook chapters of "Our Island Story" disappeared from my Year 3 weekly playlists... not sure how that happened!  Delta was able to make-do by using the TTS on the Kindle instead.  I have fixed it for the rest of the year - but am curious as to what happened, and worry that other books might have 'disappeared' too.  Guess we will find out!

I have more "daily" work to do with each child 1 on 1 than I have time/energy for each day.  So for that, I'm going to have to rotate though those and do what we can.

Sometimes I feel like a "No" mom....  I just had this exchange with Echo...

Echo: "Can I play Chess"
Me [thinking of the books on top of the chess board, the fact that pieces never get put away, etc]: "No, we aren't getting all that out..."

Echo: "Can I paint then?"
Me [ok, I should say yes as they actually do this fairly well on their own... but I don't think we have flyers to cover the table]:  "not today"

Echo: "Could I sew badges on my campfire blanket?"
Me [good activity - but I'll end up having to help a lot]: "No..."

Echo: "Could I work on my bag then?"
Me: [this is a cross-stitch project - requires a lot of my help... sigh] - "I need you to find something you can do without my help"

I just feel like I end up saying "no" to good activities because of MY energy levels....

Anyway - that was just an aside.  First Day went well.