September 5, First Day of School 2017-2018!!!!

With the kitchen torn up, my recovering from LASIK (yep, that happened), and Timothy taking my van every day, it was a rough first week of school.  Oh, the getting up at 5:45 was pretty painful too.  But we persevered, and we had some great moments, including the taking of the back-to-school photos.

 Emeline, mad that I made her hold up five fingers to indicate that she is starting the 5th grade.  Oh, the humanity.

 Grade seven.

 Grade three.

 Grade one (I LOVE Harriet's shirt!!!)

 Too cute for school.

 Pre-school!  He was so excited to get his own math book and penmanship book.  He even got his own homeschool box instead of sharing with Harriet.  The excitement was real.

And the best back to school outfit award goes to . . . Clover!!!  (Although the boys deciding to be Ranger's for the first day of school was pretty stellar too, as was Harriet's shirt--I made her wait to wear it so it would be her first day of school shirt because I love it so much.)

We started school on Tuesday and it was pretty much a bust, although I can't complain because my house didn't burn down.  I got up early and woke up Miriam for school.  Then I took Timothy to work on base and came home in time to feed the kids and then head out again.  I started south on Harrison to get to Fruit Heights, where Miriam was to have her first music theory lesson with Jerald Simon.  When we got to the last light before you go down the hill into Uintah, policeman had set up a road block and turned us around.  We could see some smoke, but we weren't sure what was going on, so we drove out to 1-15 and then we could see and smell the billowing smoke.  We weren't sure, though, where the fire was exactly, and I figured I would at least find Mr. Simon's house and pay for the month's lessons before going home, despite our being terribly late.  We finally found his house after several wrong turns, and his next student wasn't coming, so Miriam did get a lesson in.  Highway 89 was still closed on our way back, so we had to detour around to the I-15 again.  We eventually made it home despite horrendous traffic and immediately looked online to find out what was up.  What was up was the Uintah Fire, that destroyed several homes and burnt about 700 acres around Weber Canyon/Uintah area.  Where mom and dad used to live on Combe Road was evacuated.

Anyway, once I got home I had time to feed the kids lunch and do a little bit of math with everyone before I had to take Cowen to Ninja Warehouse and pick up Timothy.  The traffic was insane because much of Harrison and 89 were closed due to the fire.  Timothy and I picked up Cowen on our way home and then picked up some food because cooking has been hit or miss (mostly miss) with the kitchen remodel happening.

On Wednesday we did a little better.  Miriam had a piano lesson that she could walk to (yay!) and we got all of our most important school work done.  Thursday we spent watching videos about Hurricane Irma and "All About Hurricanes" for science.  We also watched videos of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.  It was heavy stuff.  We talked about the fires in the west, and Waterton getting evacuated.  Right now we're doing a "Natural Disaster Update" every morning at breakfast and we've added Mexico and Indonesia to our prayer list.  On Thursday Miriam practiced her piano and it was so beautiful.  I missed listening to her!!!

Friday was crazy.  We did our first logs for My Tech High, and did some math and typing.  Dad brought me his car at 8:30 so I could borrow it for the morning as Timothy's car was still in the shop.  I drove Dad to work and then drove Miriam to her first debate class (she loved it) and then picked her up and dropped off Cowen at the LIFE Commonwealth back-to-school party, twelve and older segment.  Miriam was supposed to attend that as well, but she was in trouble (good thing for me because I needed her help a lot that day).  I tried very hard to get a frog-eye salad made but eventually Miriam just made it for me.  I did get brownies made, and when Timothy got in the door we were able to make it to the LIFE Commonwealth back-to-school party, family segment, on time.  We had a good time.  Cowen is now thoroughly bonded to "The Pack"--the six or seven boys who are attending LIFE this coming year in the 12 and older category.  Good luck to their teachers.  I am quite happy to be teaching the 4-7 year old group, which has 5 students, including Oskar and Harriet. Timothy went to high school with one of the other moms in the group, so they chit chatted for about 30 seconds to catch up on old times.  The party was a great idea because the kids are waaaayyyy more excited for this Thursday (LIFE day) than they were before.

So good times had by all the first week of school, despite fires, and post-op appointments for LASIK, and all the other crazy.  Next week will be busier in some ways (Miriam's swimming starts and LIFE starts), but easier in others (Timothy has his car back).  Happy homeschooling!