A New Year

Kindergarten, folks. KINDERGARTEN! 

Summer break has come to an end and we are back in the saddle with new curriculum and the excitement that comes with new pencils and notebooks and a new year in front of us! After much consideration, Jer and I decided that this year, the boys and I will work towards completing Sonlight's Core A with Kinder readers, Handwriting Without Tears, Math-U-See's Primer, and Outdoor Secrets. 

The Deuce and I jumped in last Monday, trying our hand at our proposed school week, minus math and our weekly science. I hoped easing in slowly would give us all a little wiggle room. But even without them it was still NUTS. And some fun. But mostly NUTS. Just as with everything new that we try to introduce, I am holding fast to the "it takes 21 days to make a habit" theory and praying that the coming weeks look less like someone shook our beehive. 

The boys are all very excited though and the new books that have been teasing them since our Sonlight box came in are finally making their appearances. This week's line up included the first half of The Boxcar Children and I must say requests for, "just one more chapter" have been on the lips of more than just the kids.

Beside curriculum, also new to us this year is that Judah will no longer be working alongside us for the entirety of our day. Instead, he now is Captain of blanket time. Since our darling Grace Girl only naps in the afternoon and we must work for a bit in the morning, she and Judah play with *toys galore* on a large blanket in the living room while we work for an hour after breakfast. If you're wondering how it's going, please refer back to the shaken beehive comment in the above paragraph. {Twenty-one days. Twenty-one days. Twenty-one days.}

Don't feel too bad for them though. Right after the big boys and I finish our morning lessons, Grace gets a package of fruit snacks and some book time and then Judah gets momma all to himself for some one on one time with his own little workbook. No interruptions allowed. And he makes sure everyone knows it too. Afterall, coloring the entire work sheet with a red marker takes mass amounts of of quiet and concentration, people.

{The boys on Box Day!}

And because I no longer have a Facebook account to post random photos on, I'll leave you with these recent odd-ball gems.

Have I Mentioned...

...that there's dishes in the sink and fingerprints on the fridge and a steady stream of muddy laundry from a pack of boys who love the out-of-doors regardless of the the state of the ground.  And let's not even get started on the son who tried to recreate the St. Louis Arc with a certain body fluid while standing on the back porch.

All this not much after the coffee finished brewing this morning.

The days run together and the groceries run out and by the time the evening clock ticks eight, I'm right cooked. Well done to be precise. 

And the to-do list goes wayward and the to-try list is a joke and you can just forget about anything else, especially if it includes time behind a bathroom door with a pair of tweezers or tapping out keys for a little thing called a blog.

But then you catch a boy's face, tongue out, elbow deep in markers and the Spider Man filled in purple, and the pang of time's quick passing catches you. 

You remember how he used to say peen-jay instead of peanut butter and jelly and when his legs weren't so long and when he most certainly couldn't fill his own water cup. 

So you take the picture and you purpose...be it imperfect, uninspired, unedited, undone...you will write some of it down. For the days go by just way too fast for it to be any other way.