Week 1 of school. Sort of.

You might not realize this, but August is over halfway over. In my mind, I'm still in July. My internal clock is hopelessly broken. The good news is that this week is the first week I haven't felt like I was detoxing from vacation. I actually went to the grocery story today and did a full grocery trip. Up to now I was stopping by the store every day or two to buy just enough to get me through the day. I'm even considering cleaning out my bag of all the travel detritus. And...okay. This is bad, but I've been walking around with my passport in its adorable RFID protected holder for weeks. I know. I know. What if my bag was stolen? All of my ids would be lost. You know what? People in Europe keep their passports on them all the time because it's not a big deal for them to hop around countries. I was living like a European! 

Sigh.

In any case, Tommy starting back to class with Challenge was the next push I needed to move on with my normal life. Also, it's much harder to find my new van in the grocery store parking lot so there's that. 

So what did we do this week? Matthew did absolutely nothing different from every other day this summer. Oh wait. I made him skip count in the pool yesterday. He did math. Charlotte did the first lesson from her new math book. Tommy went to class and started on real assignments which made me realize I never actually ordered a few of the books he needed for school this year. Oops. At least I'm hitting my first mom fail of the year with lightening speed. It keeps me humble. If we start off with no bumps, it just makes October that much more depressing.  

We went to the beach on Thursday. Most of the public schools started back on Thursday so that's our obvious beach day. Well, obvious to homeschoolers. Thursday also reminded me why we don't go to the beach all that often. Matthew has this thing about sand. He doesn't actually like it on his skin. This detail is problematic at the beach. There were tears. Then there was an angry outburst that led to him chasing his brother maniacally with his towel in the air as he tried to hit something...anything, really. Then of course there was a wreck on one of the bridges requiring us to drive the long way home. Because Charleston. 

And that was our week. Nothing exciting or life altering. I was reminded last night that time in the car is not wasted time. My kids start the most random conversations as we're going places. We get into these deep discussions on the ethics behind Captain America and Iron Man in Civil War. Seriously, you've got government overreach, personal ethics, Iron Man's redemption (or is it selfish ambition turned in a new direction?). Or it's the question of evil in the world. Or something about homosexuality. They throw these question grenades at me while I'm in the middle of traffic. It usually goes like this:
"Hey mom! Did you know this guy on the radio was on The Voice? And what do you think about boys liking other boys instead of girls."

And I'm just like "Let me get through this intersection first!" But really, I was not exactly looking forward to all of the driving I'll be doing this year shuttling kids to all of their things. Our drive last night along with the pop quiz on ethics and sexuality reminded me that these times will not be wasted. We'll be forced to sit together in a small space. They can't leave. They have to listen to me! It's beautiful, really. But seriously, I'm so glad I'm the one answering their questions at the moment. I try not to shelter my kids from the tough topics too much. I'd rather I be the person to help them understand what the issues are. And that's was my personal parenting light bulb moment for the week.

Oh, and I went to the eye doctor. They said I need glasses. Apparently I have a mild astigmatism in both eyes that has finally started to cause enough of an issue that I need glasses to help me read. First it's glasses, then it's the nursing home. I'm going downhill, people.

All this to say, for all my mom friends that are starting back to school in whatever form your child's education takes, go with God. We get hours of time in the car to discuss all the random things that pop into our little cherubs' brains.  We will mess up colossally at some point soon (like forgetting to order their books). And that's okay. Eventually the kiddos have to learn we're just normal, sinful, messed up people that try really hard to love them and Jesus well. I'm counting on love covering a multitude of exhaustion and "I really meant to" moments.


















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