Our fall break of school fell over Halloween and I cannot tell you how much I needed this breather. After closing out a difficult school year, five months of home remodeling, and starting a brand new schedule we needed to pause. We’re caught up on all our straggling lessons, have been walking to class at the public school, and have been sew-sew-sewing away.

Selah. God is good. Happy November. Let’s have coffee :).

Nary a dull moment…

At some point along the way, I got it in my head that with each successive child parenting would become easier. I believed that once a specific parenting task had been experienced and then mastered with child one, it would be easier when encountering said task with the second and third. Surely, I thought, once I had figured out breastfeeding, or potty training, or bed time, or any other FILL-IN-THE-BLANK-THING I could learn as a parent, I should know what I’m doing…

Except this has never happened for me. Not even once.

I laugh at my own naievete because despite this having never actually happened in real time, I STILL keep holding out hope that there might, in fact, be an issue from which I can actually draw on my previous momming experience.

I’m still waiting.

Let’s take separation anxiety in toddlers, for example, because this is my daily every-waking-moment kind of life right now.

My oldest, Elijah, as a child, never cared.

PLEASE, leave me with Grandma and Papa overnight! I’M FINE! I am perfectly capable of living my best life without you hovering! 

We waited to bring him to the children’s room at church until he was fourteen months old because #firsttimeparents. He walked in, looked around, and wondered with his silent eyes why we had not brought him sooner.

Then there was Noah, my second-born…

Who stuck close to me until we figured out what was keeping him up all night, every night (apnea and reflux). In hindsight, it makes complete sense.

I’m tired! I feel icky! DO NOT LEAVE ME WITH PEOPLE I DON’T KNOW!!

And then magically, a month after his third birthday, after countless unsuccessful drop off attempts, he walked into the classroom at our church with no issue at all. We’ve never looked back since.

Then there was Micah…

My darling youngest child who only knows life with four caregivers (big brothers included) and cannot bear for any of us to be parted. But mostly it’s me who he sticks to like glue, so much so that I STILL do not get to use the facilities on my own, and can count on one hand how many times we are apart from each other during the course of a month.

I find myself having to employ all sorts of deceptions just to leave the house. Here is Papa with the promise of ice cream and a ride in his new car! Go! Go play wii at your grandparents home! Go, be free and happy! Or I literally lay awake through the early morning hours of the Sunday mornings I sing on the worship team and Saturday mornings I go to write, watching the clock, waiting for my moment to slip out of bed (because yes he sleeps RIGHT NEXT TO ME) and out the door unnoticed.

I KNOW that he can’t possibly be this way forever and I KNOW my time with littles is over and done when this one marches on to the next phase of his life. I KNOW that someday I’d willingly give my left arm to come back to these days if only for a moment.

But I still can’t help hoping and praying this particular brand of separation anxiety wanes sooner rather than later – for both our sakes.

Homeschool and Bridging

I’ve been meaning to tell you about this new thing we’re doing with school, but had to live it a little while before I could really make an assessment. It’s called “bridging” in homeschool circles, and “partial attendance” in every other corner of academia, and the long of the short of it is that my big boys are attending public school for specials – gym, art, and music – something we’ve wanted to try for a while but just could not make work until this school year.

There are some really amazing points this brings to our curriculum, one of the most important being shifting these courses off of my teaching plate onto someone else’s who can really impart a love for these subjects into my kids. I’m not a huge outdoorsy let’s-get-all-sweaty kind of mom, nor am I particularly gifted at traditional forms of art. (Throw me a sewing machine and a piece of fabric, I’m your woman. A canvas and paint brush? Not so much). And I love music SO MUCH I really just want to enjoy it with them rather than be the one to beat the doldrums of 4/4, 3/4, or 6/8 time into their precious little heads.

We’re doing a lot of driving to and from the public school in order to cover all the drop offs and pick ups because no one is in school at the same time each day (which was initially what stressed me out about the entire arrangement) but we’ve been managing, and I am grateful. We’ve successfully navigated eleven weeks of school as a family. Everyone is whole and happy, the boys are meeting new friends, and we’ve kept pace with our own curriculum.

I could’t have asked for a better first run at this.

Basement Remodel

In addition to a new school routine we have a BRAND NEW school space in our house which has been the BIGGEST game changer for us this school year.

Since Micah was born, we’ve done school upstairs in our living room, which was multitasking in it’s highest form. We’ve always had a basement, but it’s kind of been the catch-all of life. Even this photo doesn’t do our clutter justice because it was taken right before demo.

Adding STORAGE and a COUNTER and these cute gunmetal stools from Amazon (not pictured below but affiliate link included) have REVOLUTIONIZED OUR LIVES. I know it sounds like I’m being dramatic. I can assure you I AM NOT BEING DRAMATIC.

We rent our home from family, so we understand what an exceptional, crazy, and completely undeserved blessing this new space is. It’s become more than a homeschool space. It’s become the most beautiful, favorite place in our home and has made me wonder how we ever lived here without it!!

What about you?

How are you doing?

How is school going for the kiddos?

I’d love to hear all about it…