first day of school

 I just signed up for fall conferences.  Time to post first day of school pics.

Reggie is in 4th grade!  His grade is a smaller group - there are two and a half classes.  He has the teacher I was fervently praying for, and six weeks in, it is all that I had hoped.  Over the summer, Reggie told me he spent third grade "flying under the radar", which I knew was true, but didn't expect him to verbalize.  His third grade teacher was in her last year of teaching before retirement and, in my opinion (Brett had her also), checked out a while ago.  As long as a student wasn't disruptive, she was totally fine with him not exerting any effort.  And Reggie is the kind of kid who is totally fine with a low bar.  But when a teacher raises that bar, he will rise to the challenge.  This year's teacher promised me he would have high expectations for Reggie, and Reggie is excited about learning again!  He also has a couple of good friends who love school - and sports - in his class.  I think it's going to be a great year!

Lydia is in 5th grade!  She was not as excited about her class assignment.  She was separated from her two besties for the first time since they were her besties.  But she made a new friend - a new student - on the first day of school, so it's all working out.  So far, Lydia has managed to only read about girl drama in books and we'd love to keep it that way as long as possible.  The interesting and exciting thing about this year is that she goes to the middle school for math.  The middle school starts an hour earlier, so I drop her off at the middle school in the morning and then she gets a private bus ride over to the elementary school.  I told her to think of the bus as a limo and the driver as her personal chauffeur.  We thought it might be a bit awkward but she tells me the driver is funny and tells her riddles.  It does make for a long day, though, and I could tell she was worn out the first few weeks of school.  But she has seemed to adjust now.

Brett is in 6th grade, which is the first year of middle school in most districts in our area.  He goes to a charter school in a neighboring district for the first three hours of the day.  He's in gym, life skills, and social studies.  I pick him up around noon and in the afternoons we cover language arts, math and science.  The school is a very small K-12 school that is good at meeting the needs of students who tend to fall through the cracks at traditional schools.  There are eleven sixth graders.  So far, Brett loves attending school there.  He's mostly figured out his locker, likes the teachers, and feels connected.  Is he learning anything?  Well... school is about more than academics...and that's why we do afternoons at home.

Overall, I'd say fall is off to a great start for the kids and school.  But I can totally relate to this mom. 

* Humor courtesy of "That's Inappropriate", and most of it is.

roadtrip 2019

This year's mom and kids road trip plan went through an evolution of sorts.  I had originally thought we would go up the north shore of Superior and then ferry over to Isle Royale National Park, but I chickened out.  The ferry is not cheap (and from what I've read, can be quite a miserable ride) and we would have to backpack in all our supplies.  Then I attempted to plan a trip just up the north shore.  I'm not comfortable with tent camping by myself with the kids yet, so that limited our options to the point that I gave up.  My planning had prolonged through April and my options were getting even more limited.  So I landed on a trip to Itasca State Park scheduled for mid-July.  I booked a little cabin.

The summer got into full swing - and by swing, I mean swing of the bat.  Reggie's baseball season went on and on and ultimately the state tournament landed on the same dates I had reserved the cabin.  I had to do some creative reworking of our calendar and we had to take whatever was open.  Our trip ended up being the last weekend before school started for Brett, we stayed one night in a camper cabin in Crow Wing State Park, and upgraded to a nicer cabin at Itasca.

The trip turned out to be just perfect.  We took Bryan's car so we could bring our bikes and we biked a small portion of the Paul Bunyan State Trail.  The trail spans over a hundred miles between Brainerd and Bemidji.  The southern trailhead is located at Crow Wing.  Crow Wing is a peaceful state park and there was not a lot going on, which was nice!  We ended the night with finger puppets and stories from a book of legends about Paul Bunyan.

On the second leg of the trip, we meandered through the country on a hunt for Paul Bunyan - and his girlfriend!  We arrived in Itasca, which is the Mississippi Headwaters.  There was a lot going on at the park, even though we were approaching the end of the tourist season.  There are a couple of nice visitor centers, boat rentals, lots of types of accommodations, a lodge with a nice restaurant, a narrated boat tour, coffee and ice cream shop, gift shops, and all the typical state park features.

We managed to lock ourselves out of both of the cabins we stayed in.  Reggie tore up his knee when he blew out on his bike.  Much of the wildlife had already started their journey south, but not the mosquitos. We got eaten up by mosquitos while not finding the 100-foot watchtower. And all of those stories are what the kids will tell you.  But we did eventually find the tower.  We did see a few loons, and we did have fun around the smoldering fire and riding bikes.  We even got to eat at the lodge with Papa and Meemaw, who happened to be staying in the area at the same time.

But there's more to the story.  Shortly after booking the trip in the spring, I was involved in a car accident.  It was very traumatic, and I was not alone.  I lost my confidence in doing things independently and was perfectly fine with sitting in the passenger seat (literally and figuratively).  I had a lot of doubts and dread heading toward going on this trip.  I am not one to say, "God is in control" or "It is all in God's plan" because I think our reality, our interactions with God, and God himself, are more complex than that.  But I do want to say that I'm glad this year's trip was a mini road trip compared to previous years, and that our trip got pushed back a month.

The background songs I choose for videos are usually pretty random, but this one has significance.  I did "come alive" in the river.  I found a post-traumatic peace and strength on this trip.  My confidence in myself returned.  And "nothing can stop this Joy".😆