First Day of School

Jack, age 4, K0

Rowan, age 3, K1

Will, age 2, home

(Thomas, 8 weeks, not pictured)

It was the second day of school at Mission Hill School, and the first day Rowan got to ride the bus.  He has been asking to do this since Jack started taking the bus a really long time ago.  

I think Jack had a good summer at home, but he seems to thrive with a more set schedule, so I think school is going to be really good for him.  We got started again this morning on learing our words via whole-word recognition, and he got 3/6 right (word to word matching) off the bat, which I thought was great after the break. 

Rowan is so excited to go to school.  He has Geralyn this year, so I know he's in a good classroom.  

Will doesn't seem that effected so far, in losing his daytime playmates.  He got to build some Duplos uninterrupted today, which seemed so suit him well.  He made the statement, "Rowan is at school", but otherwise seems really Ok with the sitution.

And of course, Thomas is added to the mix now. He also is not phased by his brothers going to school today :) though I have been more relaxed to let Will play nearby on the floor while he kicks around on a blanket.  It is nice.

So, with the older 2 boys at school, and Will and Thomas napping right now, this is very different from my usual.  It is so peaceful right now! I might even get laundry from last week finished!  Woo hoo!

In other news, J and R both have made progress with potty training, though it feels like 2 steps forward and 1 step back.  We have not been doing so well with using quiet, inside voices at church, though we are using a social story now, and between that and practice at school, I hope we improve soon.  I recently felt convicted via John Piper's Desiring God (see http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/should-children-sit-through-big-church) that we need to keep them in church with us as much as possible - which seems hugely daunting and hard - but I think we'll aim for that direction.  Rowan and Jack are so loud and they like to run off away from us during the service. 

On that note, we have also been recently convicted about having regular family devotions (see this one:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EHJVkzybQs).  I've finally fixed that broken string on my guitar also, so we are singing too. 

So, at this point in our lives, things are pretty busy.  It will be a while before things are back to normal, as I am sleeping downstairs on the Areobed with Thomas in his rock-and-play, and we are up every 3 hours or so.  For Galen's part, he is upstairs in the bed, but the LO's upstairs are up during the night quite a bit.  It is a remarkable thing when he gets through the night without a child to console or help in some way.  We are tired.  But we are happy right now, too.  God has blessed us in so many ways.

Here's one more picture of Thomas and Will hanging out together today.  

Will: "I sitting with Thomas".