Good Tuesday Morning

I am barely awake enough to be able to type out this post.  For some crazy reason, my eyelids want to shut.  I even went to bed (to read) at ten and put the book down by 10:30 because I kept nodding off.  That doesn't seem late, right?  Apparently the magic numbers for me are 9:30 and 10:00.  In order to be up by 5:30.  Although, that number keeps getting closer to 5:45.

It's almost a habit, though.  How many days in a row do you have to do something before it becomes "habit"?  Twenty-one?  Well, whatever the number, I should be getting awfully close. 

We've already been in school for sixteen days.  Today is seventeen.  It's hard to believe.  Things are going very smoothly in our house.  Praise God for that!  We've all gotten adjusted to bedtimes, and waking up times, and breakfast at the kitchen table (this is a HUGE deal in my house), morning devotion, homework routines...I could go on, but I think you get the picture.  Jonah has homework every night.  At least one sheet of math, sometimes 2 sheets of math and 1 of language arts (English is what we used to call it).  Noah has one night of homework per week, and Drew has homework Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights.  Graham is the only one who I never know about.  I think that depending on what they do in class that day, they sometimes have "free" time, and if they do, that's when he does his homework.  Otherwise, he sometimes has a couple of nights per week.

So far middle school is a breeze.  He's had no issues with transition, and he loves every single part of it.  He loves riding the bus to and from school, and he loves all his teachers.  Especially his homeroom and social studies teacher, Mr. Zoska.  We (Todd and I) liked him, too, at parent night.  I love that there is so much independence in middle school.  He has 5 minutes between classes, and he gets to decide what he is going to do during that time (i.e., locker, restroom). 

We've been so busy these past three weeks.  We now have soccer practice for Jonah and Noah one night a week, on Tuesday's.  I have Bible study on Monday nights, and of course, church is always on Wednesday nights.  That leaves one night (during the school week) at home.  And last week, even that night was busy.  That was the night we went to the Redbird's game.  I've had to get creative with homework times.  We're trying to enjoy every little last drop of warm weather with the kids.  Luckily, it only takes each boy 10-15 minutes to do homework each night.  And they all do it at the same time, so it's really not a big deal. 

Things are also going really good with my job.  I'm very thankful to have one.  I love my coworkers, too, which is always a plus.  My days fly by.  Lunch starts with 3rd grade at 11:15 and kindergarten comes next, at 11:30.  I'm in there by myself (unless I have a parent volunteer) until about 11:45.  After kindergarten, it's 4th grade, then 5th grade, 2nd grade, then 1st grade comes last this year, starting at 1:00.  I love this schedule...because having kindergarten and first grade kids back to back is difficult.  The first graders still require lots of help from us, so I love having them so far apart.  When I'm done with lunch at 1:30 (keep in mind, my job is from 11-2 Monday through Friday), if the mail has come, I distribute all of it.  We have teacher's boxes in the lounge that most of it goes to.  I run errands if I need to and sometimes if nothing is going on, I sit in the front office and help out a little in there.  For about 10 minutes, then I get to leave. 

I love it.  It's the perfect amount of time for me in order for me to keep on top of all my wife/mom duties.  And I still have an hour and a half to myself until Graham comes home.  I leave at 3:30 to go through the car rider line, and sometimes Graham comes with me, and sometimes he stays home.  Usually, he likes to stay.  Unless he's had a bad day, which he's only had one. 

I'm very content right now.  I have a very fixed schedule everyday, and I enjoy it.  I do occasionally nix all my morning activities and go have breakfast with a friend, like I did last Thursday.  I'm always open to that.  It's just that most people do lunch, instead.  I had a hard time with that at first, but now I love it.  I am very blessed to do something I love.  Even if people don't understand why I love it so much (to them it's loud and chaotic and just horrible), I feel like God has put me there for a season.  It allows me to play "mom" to kids that just need a little love.  And of course, there's the added benefit of seeing my own kiddos.  I wouldn't trade my job for anything in the world. 

Well, most days, anyway.  :) 

Alright, well, I need to go wake up the remaining three.  Have a blessed day.