Tues PM Aug 15

Today was good.  We didn't have any particular plans, so the kids worked (all day!) on getting their rooms clean & otherwise just vegged & watched TV or played on the computer or read books all day long.  Tomorrow is our final day of summer.  I think I'm going to take everyone to Burger King for lunch to bid a final adieu to the summer.

While we were home today, I was working on laundry when Savannah walked in & asked me something.  She was bored & looking for something to do, so I quickly decided that she needed to learn how to do laundry.  One of my plans has always been that when my kids turn 10, I will teach them how to do their own laundry, how to cook 1 simple meal and get them a good concordance to use in training/discipline from then on.  Well, since her birthday fell while Larry was gone to Mexico, we didn't do much of anything & planned to focus on her birthday when school starts & she has her birthday party.  I've just let it slide since then, though.  Anyway, so she was standing there, anxious to get started.  I walked her through how to start a load of clothes & she was sooo excited to learn how!  Tonight while I was gone to the "Meet the Teacher" programs for the boys, she did 3 more loads of clothes!  I'm so glad that she's enjoying this!  :)

Tonight we went to Andrew's school to meet his new 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. F.  She actually retired 4 years ago, but they convinced her to come back part time & teach from 8 to 11:30 in the mornings.  She shares a room with another PT teacher who only teaches in the afternoons.  In the afternoons, the classes all switch to another teacher, so when she leaves, Andrew's class goes across the hall to Mrs. H for language arts.  Mrs. F will teach the other subjects in the morning hours.  He seemed OK with both teachers, but is not exactly thrilled to death about school starting.  He'd prefer to just skip the whole thing, I think.

We also went & met Samuel's 1st grade teacher tonight.  She is young & silly and seems like she will be loads of fun!  This is her 3rd year to teach @ Whitehouse, so she's relatively new still, but I have already heard lots of neat things about her.  Her discipline management plan is totally different from anything I've heard of before & it looks really neat!!  Too hard to explain here, though.

Anyway, everything seems good.  I'm ready for school to start so that we can all get a little structure back into our lives.  My summers with the kids are usually very organized & routine-driven, but this summer was a little different than usual, so it wasn't quite the norm.  Next year, I'll have this down better & will be able to handle 5 kids more easily, I think.  (We'll see!  LOL)

I go back to work on Tuesday (22nd).  The first 3 days of school, the little girls get out early, so I'll spend those 3 mornings at the day care center putting my classroom together.  I'm anxious to get back to that, too.  I really enjoy my job & am anxious to meet my class!