Friday is on its way

This has been a week. A week of new beginnings, new friends, new vocabulary/terms and the hardest yet, new morning routines.

New Beginnings:
* Trey began school at a new campus - mine :0) I get to see Clayson and Trey both at lunch. For about three minutes, we are all in the cafeteria together. This is pretty cool. (I just wish it was when Trey was leaving so that I could wash his crusty enjoyed-his-lunch-too-well face.) I have lunch first, then Clayson comes in ten minutes later and Trey is in line when I leave.
* Ashlyn, of course, has started Kindergarten and in the words of Allison - a lifetime full of learning.
* Clayson is beginning his last year of "elementary" school.
* After 7 years of teaching I am beginning to be able to relate concepts in Math and Science to life and surroundings more comfortably. I am beginning to think spontaneously and outside the lesson plans. This is big for me .... I have always wondered how preachers do it because I usually require lots of notes and planning. This year, I am going with the flow

New Friends:
* I have made new friends at work. There are a lot of new faces on our campus.
* Ashlyn has made a couple of new friends but then again she says everyone in her class is mean to her except Mrs. Bullock. (This is when she doesn't want me to ask her anymore questions about her day - she goes negative on me.)
* Clayson and Trey are just hanging with the friends they know. Maybe this year and with this house I can be a nice enough mom to let them have friends over.

New Vocabulary/ Terms:
* Ashlyn said that they did a "speriment" in class today - "we made a volcano with play-doh and the sugar stuff you use but you don't eat" (baking powder).
* Trey got choked (not at school) and said that he thought we were going to have to do the Heimlich "remover".
* Ashlyn said that her teacher tells them to sit on their pancakes.

New Morning Routines:
* I used to give myself 45 minutes to get ready and get out the door for school. Boys are easy. Throw in the girl that is so-not-a-morning-person and I need an extra 45 minutes. I get up about 5:45 and get myself completely ready so that I can get the kids up at 6:30 and can focus on their breakfast, getting Trey's face clean (it is a crust magnet) and hair fixed. And then there is allowing about 5 minutes of cartoons to wake up Ashlyn, back upstairs to make sure the boys are up; back to Ashlyn to coax her out of bed, into her clothes and to the bathroom where her hair must be dealt with. It has been nice to be ready and then when there is time to spare I can make sure all beds are made and the house is clean. I hope this early morning routine lasts.

I think it is amazing that even though we have been out of school for almost three months, the first day back is like you never even left. Things just fall right into place. It has been a good week and quite exhausting. I am ready for the weekend so that I can rest!