Back to School

Great is the peace of my children for they are taught of the Lord.

Is. 54:13

I am quite sure that God sneakily added 10 extra hours to the already long 24 hr period. And one would think this would be the greatest answer to the many prayers the world has endlessly prayed for more hours in a day. But, no.....it is my worst nightmare since I am sure I have now been up all all 96 hours of this new day. It doesn't ever end. And it's still going.

After the big party was finally over and the week long preparation for it came to an end we hit the school books for the 1st time this school year. I wanted to start the Tues after Labor Day but then we had the party coming so I decided to hold off until that was over and start today, Monday the 10th. Like Superwoman I overcame myself and rose at the crack of dawn yet again, my new daily routine, and was up at 5 freakin 30. I've figured out that when it's still dark outside that is God saying you still need to be sleeping......and it was very very dark. Not even one glimmer or a hope of a ray of the sunrise in the near future. With Brad home I held off doing my devotional time until he left. By then Grayson was so excited about school he had risen at 6:30 and Grant was soon to follow. And when Grayson's awake he is talking..........all the time....and he never stops until he's back in bed asleep. So, after being completely ready with makeup on, dressed and all at 6:30 I finally said good-bye to Brad and he left for work and then I went to wake the others at 7. I got them situated and got their routine going and at 8 was off to have my quiet time and a much needed prayer start to the day that awaited. As excited as we all were to start the new year I still have some great measurable feelings of doubt and discouragement to overcome where homeschooling is concerned since our efforts have been so beaten down by Grayson's dyslexia. And now, with them having been in public school I have that hanging over my head too since I feel the need to provide them with every curricular experience and routine they had there. I know in my previous homeschooling wisdom it will never in a lifetime happen but I still have all of the "subjects" to conquer hanging over my head.

So, I prayed in my room in the quiet.........come to think of it, in the too quiet. All was running way too well when Grant's screams split the air....the maddening deafening screams of an irate 2 year old. Knowing it was nothing life threatening I shut the door and figured they'd all work it out......or more appropriately put, fight it out. Then quietly there was a soft little knock on the door, "Hey, Mom? You can keep praying but I just thought I needed to tell you that they spilled the tea in the frig and all over the floor......but I'll clean it up." And one should know that when Brad makes tea he basically adds a few cups of brewed water to a few quarts of sugar. I sighed and told Grayson it was ok and we could both clean it up since it would be a sticky mess. Soooooooo, sticky mess doesn't even come close to what faced me in the kitchen floor........and frig..........and rug..........and everywhere else 4 sets of small feet could track it or splash in it. I set to work determined to maintain my good outlook on the day. But the more I cleaned and wiped and scrubbed and mopped and paper toweled the madder I got. The bottom drawer of the frig was submersed in sugar tea. Everything within the drawer was submersed in sugar tea. And of course, everything near it was splattered with it all. It took mopping it 4 times to get it all up and even now you can go in there and stick to any given area of the floor at any given moment. And I must note that by this time I'd been up for 4 hrs. I haven't quite made up my mind what's worse........waking up to it or dealing with it when I'm sleep deprived....due to my own faulty nature of going to bed at midnight or 1 am and waking at 5:30.

So, being the scheduled routine person that I am and hating to deviate from it at all, I started getting irritated since the schedule said we needed to start at 9. I was done cleaning up by 8:40 and was determined not to be deterred from my alone prayer time. The children and I start the school day with a Bible story, character devotion, quoting their Scripture verse of the week and then praying but I need to pray alone and for them and the other needs laid on my heart before we ever start. So, I went back to the room to finish.

At 9 we started our day. I gated the boys up in their room with a bucket of "school" toys and they screamed appropriately. As anyone knows trying to reason with 2 hysterical toddlers is pretty much not only in vain but just sheer stupidity on the part of the parent. So, looking into 2 sets of swollen, teary eyes I gave instructions to play quietly in the living area. That worked for all of 5 minutes. And then I have Aubrey to teach this year also. Aubrey, being quite the different bird that she is, had her own "way" of doing school work. Though she knows every color and shape she adamantly refused to do things in her book the way any compliant student would. The colors before her were refused and with pencil in hand she set to work on her page. I stared in horror as I tried to chill out and think of all of her original, unique creativity that she is using. She'd turn a page, name the color and shape, point out the correct answers and then proceed with hundreds of pencil squigglies over her now completed page in her brand new book. I finally gave up messing with her and figured she's only 4 and shouldn't even be in school anyway. Then I went on in my mental soap box mentality and got mad all over again that they even put 4 year olds in school anyway. It's basically a free public babysitting service. If we had enrolled her she would be going to school at the age of 4 from 7:30 am to 4 pm everyday with the older ones, watching movies for 2 hrs of it and taking a nap for 2 hrs of it. So, anything at home is better than what she would be faced with up there. At least she is happily playing with and creating imaginary worlds with Garrison and Grant. Soooooooo.........maybe the alphabet isn't quite the priority that is was at 6 am this morning. I saved my energy and decided to use it for the "special" reading slot I had in mind for her each day where I spend time with only her as I teach her how to read......yep, that would be the same reading slot that I never got around to.

With her just penciling happily I moved on to help Grayson and Evye tackle their work. They loved the books but also soon loved hanging upside down from their chairs, throwing pencils at each other in fits of hysterical laughter, popping them off the table to see how far they could get them to go, farting obnoxiously and then going into fits of giggles as they discussed the quality of smell that now surrounded them and so on. By noon I was tired of their farting around....quite literally.....and was growing frustrated. Still they lagged and slowly plodded on. By 3 I was downright mad and quite determined to finish the day and by 5 I was so irritated that I made up my mind they were going to finish the day come hell or high water. At 5 they set to work on the chores that awaited them that were supposed to have been done at 1 after school ended. They laid all over the couch and played and wrestled, successfully dumping all of the clean clothes that were waiting to be folded out onto the floor and now freed up even more room to wrestle and roll. I fixed dinner and Brad breezed in from work and out yet again for a council meeting. And the children still folded. By 6 they were done after alot of yelling on my part and I knew there was no way we were going to forgo any part of the day due to their 2 second attention span and apathetic ways. So, instead of the waiting dinner I sent them out the door to do PE as that was the next thing to be accomplished on their schedule list. Can we insert the word anal retentative here????? Evye's bike ended up locking up due to the mud on the school track so I sent them across the street to run the church steps...........and run they did. Aubrey happily went with them and for 30 minutes they stair stepped. It was funny watching them.....although I couldn't help but think that seriously needed to be me out there running my butt off...........quite literally. By this time I was falling asleep on the couch as I nursed Gavin. I dozed off in my state of utter sleep deprivation only to discover when I snapped out of it a very quiet vacant house and Garrison, Grant and Garrett nowhere to be found. Like a case of bad babysitter turned parent I went ridiculously looking for them. And of course they were found across the street on the church steps gleefully running along in their underwear...despite the fact I really do dress my chidlren in the mornings......with the older ones. Oh well, at least they expended some pent up energy.

By 7 I was half dead and just ready for everybody to go to bed so I could sleep. I think the most pathetic part about this is that Gavin has now been sleeping through the night for 3 weeks now!! So, I have only myself to blame for my little sleep deprivation and irritable issues. Oh.....and my anal retentiveness to stay organized and on a schedule....that may have factored into the frustration level. I definitely never planned on a 10 hr school day. Tomorrow, I have decided, there is only 30 minutes allowed p/ subject....whatever is left has then become homework and we'll see how that works. Maybe that'll cure the never ending school day.

They didn't make into bed until 9 and were not asleep until 9:30 and we're supposed to rise again tomorrow before even the town roosters are awake and do this all over again. It seems the only time I ever sat today was to nurse and school. Whoever dared say motherhood is not a real profession has not lived the day I just lived and has not tried to teach classification to an air headed 2nd grader or tried to convince a 9 year old that he really has not regressed to a horrifying 2nd grade level since he doesn't remember the division he left off with in May. I have worked and been on my feet since 5:30 this morning and it is now nearing 11 pm. I am really ready for bed.