First Day of School

Our first day of school started off pretty good. Kent, Maddie, and Avery came downstairs at 6:30 dressed and ready to start math with Daddy. Then it was time for breakfast. All seemed to be rolling along pretty well. Gabby woke up and, we realized that she had a bad dirty diaper. No big deal. I changed her, fed her, and got her ready for the day. Then, in the middle of doing Bible for the day, she had another bad diaper. I stop what I'm doing and take care of it. Meanwhile, I'm already losing everyone else! So we finish Bible and move on to the next subject. Grammar, handwriting, and spelling pass by pretty smoothly and we get ready to go outside to do nature study. This is one of the kid's favorite things to do! The kids spend about 20 minutes studying and drawing something in God's creation. Then we come inside and discuss what they've found. They later paint their drawings and put them into nature notebooks. As profound as this may sound (and I would like this to be), it never works out to be! Off they go to collect their specimens, while I get a few minutes to put Gabby to sleep. When I go to call them in, Kent has found a huge banana spider, Maddie has found a pretty red zinnia, and Avery has found a STICK! Not exactly what I had in mind, but if that's what she found, she can discuss that. They go into the study to paint their findings and Avery proceeds to paint her stick (not on paper but on the stick). It is too brown she told me. So now she has a purple and green stick to put into her nature notebook. Next is lunch then Avery gets to rest. After about 30 minutes, I hear whispers coming from her room. As I go in to check on her, she has all 20 of her bows stuck somewhere in her hair! We take them out, and she lays down for another 30 minutes. Kent, Madison, and I work for another few hours to finish up our day. Gabby stopped having runny diapers by about 1:00. At 3:30, I threw in the towel and called it a day. Then I started doing the laundry from the weekend and getting supper ready. I only hope the rest of the school year gets better from here - I'm not sure I can handle too many days in a row like this. The kids are optimistic and said they had a great day, so I guess it's worth it. Finding joy in everything is sometimes tough. I'm just trying to stay focused on the task at hand, and hopefully, by the grace of God, I will accomplish His will, without losing my mind!