Weekend Away

The first full week of school had many ups and downs.  There were happy days with small amounts of homework and days of frustration where homework assignments were not quite understood.  Each of the kids had multiple tests this week so they were able to see what that looked like for many of their subjects.   They have all made a good start to the year - I've been impressed with how they've handled this big transition.  They are still not keen on the weight of their backpacks though.  

The deer took up residence on our front lawn for a couple of nights this week.  Benson barked at them for an hour straight and they were completely undeterred.  When Todd looked out the window, he saw the deer get up and graze closer to the house.  Four out of five of us slept through the barking, for which we four are very grateful.  We may have to move his bed away from the front windows.  There is always some sort of wildlife that peaks his interest at 3 a.m.  

This weekend Caroline and I made a quick trip to Staunton.  We left early Saturday morning and got to spend the afternoon with Grandma, Grandpa, & Claire.  On Saturday, we took Maggie on two walks through the very steep hills of their neighborhood.   When you walk what feels like 75° inclines, it awakens muscles that have not been used in 25 years.  Maggie and Claire were completely unfazed by the inclines.  

Caroline got close to Maggie, but not as close as Grandma.  

We helped move a few bookcases before finishing our evening being treated to a Hibachi dinner.  Every time the fire was lit at a neighboring table, Caroline exclaimed, "Oh!" and sat up a little straighter.  She wasn't sure that she should have been sitting in the middle of our table, closest to the fire.  She was a fan of all the food - the mushrooms were her favorite.  Henry has requested he go on the next trip to Staunton and that Hibachi be on the menu for him as well.  

Caroline loved Grandma and Grandpa's backyard, especially the pergola.  No pergolas were harmed in the taking of the photos.  

The boys went to SWU and enjoyed a Saturday lunch.  The basketball courts were being repainted, so they had to settle on a walk around campus.  

Josiah helped mow the front and back before transforming our driveway into a welcome home celebration this evening.  

And so another week begins.

New Year, New School

We had Back to School night at the start of the week.  I was under the impression that the kids would be able to see their classrooms and meet their teachers.  That was not the case, and Josiah left super frustrated.  He was not happy to go into his first day of school blind.  The good thing about the school being so small was that all he really had to do was get to his first class.  After that he could just follow his classmates to the next ones.  It did not take him long to learn the layout.  It is essentially only two hallways.  

The deer and her fawns saw us off to school on the first day.  

I was able to get pictures taken that morning with all the kids' future endeavors.  

Josiah upgraded his What I want to be when I grow up to a graphic designer and pastor.  He really enjoyed his history class and likes that teacher a lot.  He also enjoys science and math.  (He had to onboard as a freshman because the sophomores were already in Spanish 2 and a higher level math and they could not accommodate Josiah as a sophomore.  It was not his favorite thing to do 9th again, but in the long run it'll be good even if he doesn't see it that way just yet.)

Henry upgraded his What I want to be when I grow up as well.  He kept the lawyer job, but added city planner to it.  Henry has said that he likes all of his teachers.  His favorite classes so far are Logic and history.  His first day of Latin 3 did not go well because he's only had one year of Latin and it was with a different curriculum.  He has the option to stay in the class or use it as a study hall.  His teacher game him the Latin 2 book to look over since the class has a wider vocabulary than he does.  So far, he's staying.

For his English class, Henry had to decorate the cover of his Commonplace book in a way that represented him.  He dug into his cartography skills and used that to decorate it.  

Caroline's What I want to be stayed consistent - a child life specialist.  She loves her history teacher.  She's not as keen about Latin.  She's crushing her math class.  

This is the first time they've experienced gym class in all its glory.  They've been running laps and doing sit ups and push ups.  It's been fun to hear about all they do each day.  The biggest complaint all three of them gripe about daily is the weight of their backpacks.  They cannot fit everything into them (I've ordered bigger backpacks), and they're too heavy with what does fit.  They have a lot to get used to, but they all have had a great start.  They impressed me with how quickly they've acclimated to coming home and getting their work done.  

This school is Presbyterian and during their morning assembly time they read/recite prayers and creeds.  Josiah came home and said it was a cult.  No, buddy, it's just liturgical.  We are used to Baptist church life which is mainly singing and preaching.  Salvation is by grace through faith alone.  Nothing in these prayer books is wrong or against our faith, it is just a different way of practicing than we're used to.  It'll be good for them to experience different styles.  

As for my first week of school, on Day 2 a student hit me.  She got taken out to the director's office (for quite a while).  She's three.  What caused the physical altercation?  She did not want to sit on her shape during carpet time.  She wanted the (occupied) yellow square, not the red triangle.  This school is pretty strict on discipline, so she came back and apologized.  It'll be a good year!  

We celebrated the first week of school eating out this weekend.  The boys went out to help with yardwork without being asked.  Hurray initiative!

Benson and I watched.  

Caroline enjoyed her new headboard and put it together with just a little help from us.  

This is the first full week of school coming up.  They kids have already looked at the school calendar and are counting down the time until their first day off - Labor Day weekend.  As homeschoolers, we never fully appreciated the holidays.  Now we all will.  

Furniture, Finally!

This week was filled with in-services for me.  Half of them were with the entire school staff, so it was nice to see who will be teaching the kids.  It is a small school, and they care deeply not just about academics, but about character.  As has been the case everywhere we go, everyone has been very friendly.  Henry experienced this kindness at cross country this week.  He said that when he gets tired and has to walk, the other kids say encouraging words as they pass him.  Henry finally had a true cross country practice this weekend.  Typically they run either at the school, the track at a local public school, or a track behind the hospital, but on Saturday, they went off road.  He was not too keen with the 7 a.m. start time, but at pick-up he said he really enjoyed it.  He skipped the part where they ran into the deep woods because he was alone at that point, but he liked the grassy running.  There are some big hills here, too, so it was a challenge.  

Caroline had 6th grade orientation this week.  6th grade is the beginning of the Upper School.  They talked to the students about staying organized and all that stuff, but the best part was when they took them through a tour of their typical day.  They started at the beginning - outside in the car line.  They visited each classroom in the order of their classes (they all stay together).  In each, Caroline walked in and immediately headed towards the seat in the back corner.  I hope she enjoyed her brief time in the corner, because the teachers give seating assignments.  We met nearly her entire class.  There are only 9 of them - 5 girls and 4 boys.  

Thursday afternoon the movers came.  Finally.    It was the same two guys who loaded the trailer in Texas.  I have no idea why it took them 2 1/2 weeks to drive here, but we were very grateful to have mattresses again.  It seems our only casualty was a dining room chair.  

Todd spent a frustrating evening getting the washer and dryer hooked up.  It was one of those childhood moments for the kids where you better be quiet because frustrations were high.   

We worked on the "wood room" first.  When the carpet was down, we called Benson in because he has missed his carpets.  This was the hardest room for him to walk in for some reason - he would get frozen and not want to cross the bare floor.  Once he saw the carpet, his tail was a wagging.  Then he settled himself into a nook and slept.  

I wanted a picture of the kids in front of the house at the start of our time here.  We did that after church today.  We have become known as the "blue door house."  When my coworkers or Henry's cross country peers ask us where we live, we give them the street name.  Then they always ask, Did you move into the house with the blue door?  Yep.  That's us.  So we're the blue door people.  

Josiah helped Todd get some branches off the carport this afternoon.  He swept the roof as well.  His siblings noticed what he was doing, so first there was one.  

Then there were two.  

And then there were three.

This is a big week coming up.  We have Back to School Night tomorrow and then school begins!

Welcome to South Carolina. Run!

We started out the week seeing the Upstate wildlife for ourselves.  Monday morning, a momma deer and two fawns walked across our front yard.  We've seen the trio in our backyard and our neighbor's backyard throughout the week as well.  There is a second momma deer with only one fawn.  Those two breakfasted in our backyard midweek.  Now when we take Benson out, we look for deer first.  Even driving through the neighborhood, we see other adult deer just grazing at other people's houses.  They very much live among us.  

Henry's big news for the week is that he started cross country practice.  He has practice 3-4 times a week.  His very first practice on Monday was challenging and he came back to the car quite sweaty and tired.  He said it went well overall though.

Then came Wednesday.  Wednesday was much hotter and there was zero breeze to be felt.  As I drove to pick him up, I passed his group walking back to the school.  They had run to the local middle school and run around their track.  It was a really challenging run and he was exhausted at pick-up.  He was less than enthusiastic to go back on Friday, but still he went.  Friday's run was better, but it is all still a challenge for him as he uses his muscles in a totally new way.  They're sore and he walks around complaining about his quads hurting.  We keep telling him he has to push through the soreness at the beginning because that'll get better the more he runs.  

This weekend, Todd took him to get new shoes.  His other ones were well worn and didn't provide the best support.  They went to a running shoe store and he tried on many different brands before settling on the Hoka brand.  He is now ready to start the week fresh.  There was a cross country college runner in the store and he told Henry, "Cross country sucks, but stick with it."  So, with those words of wisdom, the new week begins.  

There has been a lot of downtime during the week as well as we still wait for our furniture to be delivered.  We are/I am tired a lot of the time because air-mattress-sleep is not the best, especially air-mattress-with-a-slow-leak-that-leaves-you-on-the-hardwood-floor-by-morning sleep.  The kitchen is mostly all unpacked and functional, much to the kids chagrin.  They'd rather go out to eat instead of using the kitchen...  

The kids and I have thrown the football a lot.  It's a good backyard.  The mosquitoes attack us a lot, but they are a quarter of the size of the Texas mosquitos and their bites disappear quickly.  We've played a lot of cards and board games.  

Caroline went to work with Todd on Friday since he has a half-day on Fridays in the summer.  They were able to do all their laundry and this weekend we went back and did the rest of the laundry.  It feels better to have clean clothes.  Oh, to have a soft bed and a washing machine again.  

After their day of work and laundering, T & C went to the store for school supplies.  This weekend, we had a School Supply Christmas Extravaganza at home.  As Todd read through the school supply list, the kids picked what they needed for each subject.  Hooray, school!  They start in a week and a half, but I start tomorrow with in-services.  I'm going to be a preschool teacher this year.  

We tried a new church this morning.  It was a bit far away, which was the only drawback.  There they do Sunday school classes first, then the service.  When I met up with Caroline after her class, she said she really liked it and she had a good teacher.  She also liked the service.  Josiah had the same positive review - he really enjoyed the student class as well as the service.  Henry used a bunch of middle school slang terms, but all together it meant he enjoyed it.  

Todd and Josiah spent part of their afternoon raking.  A huge bonus to this neighborhood is that we can leave anything at the curb and it'll get picked up.  The leaves can be loose.    While they were outside, several neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves.  Everyone here has been very friendly.  Our next door neighbor gave us flowers from her garden and a chicken pot pie.   

Something that is an almost daily occurrence is Porch Photos with Benson.  He's a cutie.