I have been dying to blog lately but the idea of siting down to catch up on the last few months seems so overwhelming. We leave on a long trip next week that is still unplanned (I haven’t even made all of our reservations yet – Gasp!), which is so atypical for me, the person who LOVES to plan vacations. We will be going to Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and South Dakota for an American History/ LDS History tour. I am wondering how to make it meaningful for the children and not boring. Maybe the key will come to me once I feel a little more prepared.
Now for an update: We have had a great beginning of school with a few ups and downs.
Sam is trying to not feel overwhelmed by his first year of high school, and is enjoying his friends more than ever. He is disappointed by an injury that has him in a boot for three weeks (Severs diesease that affects his achillis tendon and growth plate), and out of cross country running for the season. Sam is still sticking with his viola training but is not so thrilled with his Monday morning at seven lesson. (Purposefully planned at that time as to not interfere with after school sports!)
Lizzie is enjoying her first male teacher, Mr. Crossley and is doing very well in seventh grade. She is a steady student. She is also enjoying several more hours a week of dance this year as she is now on the Shelley Irish Dance company team (SIDC) and also preparing for team competitions at regionals in November. She has a new cello teacher (she had to drop orchestra because of her more intense dance schedule and her old teacher only teaches students who participate in orchestra) whom we are both trying to get used to and trying not to mourn the loss of her other teacher.
William is LOVING soccer. He is doing well and getting very confident on the field. His hours of practice at home are really helping! He has a killer shot. He also loves his class at school where he has the teacher he wanted, Mrs. McIntyre, and almost all of his buddies. He is also doing very well in his music education. He loves his violin teacher, Mrs. Shippen and is thrilled with his new piano teacher who is kind enough to teach him at 7 am on Tuesdays.
Anna is thriving in kindergarten. She just started Irish dance too and is happy there with her pal, Kate. She is the most competent and the most social child on the planet. I have loved seeing her adjust so happily and well in school.
That’s the update for now. Maybe another day I will write about turning 40. Or what it’s like to buy your dream car (a jacked up 15 passenger off-roading van) only to find out that your dream was not very practical or comfortable. Or I’ll write about our amazing trip to Lake Powell where our tent was flattened by a couple of microbursts. For now I will just end with one story:
Yesterday morning we were kneeling to have our family prayer and Grant turned to Anna and said, “Lizzie, will you say the prayer?” Anna, who is getting pretty fed up by now by being called the wrong name all the time (we do it to all of our kids) said, “My name is ANNA!” Then agreed to say it. As she was saying the prayer I leaned over to give her the prompt, “And please help daddy to remember my name.” Expecting her to repeat it verbatim. Instead she said, “And please help daddy to remember mommy’s name.” We all lost it, never to recover reverence again. At least not for that morning.
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