Proverbs 3:5 continued

Sara with Evan and Eliza at their home in Cincinnati, March 2013

Once we had an accepted offer on our house here in Wisconsin, we could get serious about looking for a house in Dayton.  Even though we weren't particularly excited about buying a house--we especially weren't excited about having to sell another house--we had crunched numbers, debated, and discussed, always coming back to the idea that we should buy instead of rent.  Because we had lived there before, we knew the area quite well, and we thought we had an idea of where we wanted to live.  We decided we wanted to return to the same church ward as before.  There were two areas outside the ward that attracted us, but, ultimately, we felt it was important to go back to our old ward, and we were excited to be close to the friends we had left behind.  We felt we could move forward knowing we would buy a house and knowing what neighborhoods we would consider.

Now I need to go back in time for a moment.  Back in February I had decided it was time to get serious about Mary and what the heck she was going to do about school.  (By the way, February is usually way too late to make schooling decisions for the following fall.  Remember that, parents of young children.  My excuse was that I'd had a baby and temporarily checked out of life.)  I'd communicated with some people at the school district I thought we would move to, and, while they were very helpful, caring, and professional, it became clear to me that Mary would be better off at a Montessori school for another year.  (I write that sentence like it was no big deal.  The decision was agony.  I lost a lot of sleep over Mary and school.  Heck, I still lose sleep over Mary and school.  I probably lose even more sleep over David and school. And, yes, I even worry about Sara and school.  I clearly have a problem.)

It was obvious which Montessori school she would attend, so I contacted them to schedule a visit.  They were totally full next fall, with a long wait list.  I remember hanging up the phone, shocked.  I knew very well that February is late in the game.  But I had agonized about the decision!  How could there be no space for her??  I felt panicky in my chest and sick in my stomach.  And, then, those feelings melted away ... and I felt peace.  I knew that things would work out for the best for Mary.  I had to have patience while those things worked out.  But God was aware of her (and me) and it was going to be okay.  (By the way, I still don't know for sure what "okay" will be.)  The school had agreed to look at Mary's application and file it away.  They promised to give her preference the following year.  But, surprise, a few days later, after they had received the application, they called to tell me they really wanted Mary.  They created a space for her! So I scheduled a visit for a couple of weeks later, and they agreed to hold Mary's spot until we had a chance to see the school.

That's when the girls took our road trip to Ohio.  Sara, Mary, and I.  (What was I thinking?!  Sara was congested and in the middle of her fussiest phase.  I was sleep-deprived and utterly exhausted--this was in the middle of getting our house ready to sell.  Mary seriously saved the day with her helpfulness, patience, and positive attitude.)  Mary and I (and Sara) visited the school.  Mary loved the school.  I, on the other hand, had some pretty serious reservations about it.  I shoved my reservations aside because I could see no other alternative.  I knew it was a blessing that there was a space for Mary at that school--a door had been opened for us, so we passed through the door, even though it still felt like we hadn't yet reached the light.  There was no doubt in my mind that public school in any Dayton area district was not going to be a good fit for Mary the following year, so after our tour of the school, I registered her there.

Even though we weren't ready to look seriously at houses in Dayton yet--our own house wasn't even for sale yet--I kept having the feeling I should look at a few houses with our agent while I was there.  So she met up with me for an hour after our school tour and we looked at a few houses--in a neighborhood that met our needs and seemed to make a lot of sense.  Unfortunately, the houses we looked at had some serious issues and were quickly crossed off the list, but we weren't really in the market so it didn't matter ... yet.

As it would turn out, the most important part of our trip was staying with Greg brother's Christ and his family in Cincinnati.  It was a fast trip, but my sister-in-law Leslie convinced me to stay an extra day.  Leslie and I are close, and it was so great to hang out with her.  It was good to see Chris and the way he serves others.  And I loved seeing my niece and nephews.  They are such good, good kids.  Eliza lovingly took Mary under her wing.  And Luke and Evan were just as sweet as could be with Sara.  Best of all was the feeling in their home.  There was a feeling of love and peace and faith and dedication to the Lord.  Incidentally, I also: went to church with them, made the drive to Dayton and back, saw what the area where they live is like.  But, of course, at the time I didn't think much of any of that.

Okay. Now let's fast forward to mid-April.  We accepted an offer on our house, so we were in a position to look seriously at homes in Dayton.  That very weekend we discussed what our plan should be. We wouldn't be moving until the end of July, so we had plenty of time. We would schedule a time to go house hunting later in the spring.  But we felt this great sense of urgency!  And we could not shake the feeling.  We needed to find our house in Ohio ... right away!

Now I am going to try even harder to make a long story short.  (Believe it or not, I've been trying all along.)  Suffice it to say, Greg and I felt we needed to find a house almost immediately but we didn't feel good about anything!  There was nothing in the ward and schools we wanted that we felt comfortable buying.  The obvious thing to do was to wait ... but we still felt that sense of urgency.  We discussed and debated for hours on end.  Finally, one morning we woke up and realized we should buy a house I'd seen back in March that was still on the market.  I had immediately crossed it off the list back then because it was too small-- just over half the size of our current house.  But everything else about it made sense.  And we realized, though we would have to make some sacrifices and change some of the ways we lived, we could make it work.  Greg and I talked about what we would have to do to downsize--we even went through the house and noted much of the furniture and belongings we would have to shed.  Then we called our real estate agent to put together an offer.

We felt confident in our decision.  We knew we had carefully considered many, many factors.  And this house clearly made the most sense.  In fact, it was the only one that made any sense.  We felt good about our offer, but also nervous.  I remember kneeling at my bedside and praying very specifically, "Father in Heaven, we really believe this is the best house.  We have done our best to make the best decision we possibly can.  We feel good about this choice.  So if buying this house is not the right thing, it is in your hands now, and I will trust that you will take care of us."

Our offer was not accepted.  In fact, due to one little accidentally missed email, the sellers didn't have a chance to see our offer before they had accepted another one.  It was disappointing.  But also a relief--I felt this was the Lord looking out for us.  Only I was totally confused.  Because we were back to square one.


To be continued again ... final post coming soon.

Mary's Awesome Fantastic Show and Other Montessori Mary Awesomeness

Mary's grandparents happened to be in town for this--

What luck!!  Each year Anna's Extended Day class learns a number of songs, dances, and plays which they perform at the end of the school year.  It's an entire hour of entertainment by one class!

(Extended Day is the Montessori equivalent of kindergarten.  The children spend the morning with the 3-4 year-olds.  Before lunch the younger kids go home, and the 5-6 year-olds stay for the whole day.  They solidify their individual reading, writing, and math skills; take on additional responsibilities in the classroom; continue to work on geography, science, music, painting, and sewing; go on outings; undertake class projects like cooking together or preparing for this performance; research various topics together or individually; and build friendships.  It's such an amazing and special year.)

Mary and her friend Nora named this year's performance "Fantastic Show!"  They all worked together on the invitation.  (Mary drew the little scene at the bottom left side--it's of the Jumping Beans play with her as the housekeeper with a kerchief on her head.)

Greg, David, Grammy, and Grandpa Steve attended the show on Friday.  Then Grandma Evie, Grandpa Mike, Sara, and I attended the show (and ice cream social) on Monday.  It was fantastic!!  Really, it was remarkable.  I was stunned.  They performed so many plays and sang so many songs and did a variety of dances from around the world!

I rarely video record much.  A few snippets here and there.  But this I really, really, really wish I had recorded the entire thing, start to finish (with a high quality camera) because it was so amazing and joyful.  Sigh. I do have a video of Mary starring in the Jumping Beans play HERE, "Fried Ham" HERE, a clip from a silly "Singing in the Rain" song HERE, and a clip from "Move to the Groove" HERE.

Best of all (for this momma), was that Mary shone.  She simply shone!  She was entirely in her element performing and serving as a leader of the class.  I was blown away.  I think my jaw was on the floor.  (And tears were definitely in my eyes.)  I knew Mary was happy (very happy) at school.  But I had underestimated the extent to which Mary was excelling and the amount of confidence and leadership she developed.  It was like I was seeing the REAL Mary.  The reserved, uneasy Mary was nowhere to be found.

After Monday's performance, we all celebrated with an ice cream social.  Mary loved being with her friends.  It was a love fest among the kindergarten girls!  Meanwhile, numerous people came up to me and commented on what a great dancer Mary is.  None of the video clips do it justice, but, trust me, that girl can DANCE.  And I had no idea!  Sure, I knew she could follow directions in ballet.  But, like I said earlier, my jaw was on the floor when I saw her really performing.  (Is this bragging?  It's not meant to be.  But when I am blown away by the awesomeness of my offspring, I have to write it down!  Perhaps I should stop being so surprised by their awesomeness.)

I was sure to get pictures of Mary with her teacher and assistant.  Mary was with them for three years.  What a special bond she has with them.

Mary and Kim W the class assistant.  Kim lovingly cared for Mary for three years.

Mary and her teacher Anna.  What a gift for teaching Anna has.  She is amazing.  She saw Mary for who she is, and Mary simply blossomed with Anna's love, experience, and nurturing.

It was an emotional afternoon for me.  I think I cried the whole time.  Call me crazy, but I really believe God led us to that school and that Anna needed to be in Mary's life. It's difficult to see something that has been so amazing for your child coming to an end.   It's especially difficult since we decided not to send Mary to a Montessori school next year.  (I know she will be fine, even excel, in a traditional school.  She will even shine--in that quiet, teacher's-pet, perfection kind of way.  But will she really shine?)

Since we are on this Montessori school subject, and I'm not sure I can emotionally handle revisiting it again in another post, I am going to go ahead and post the pictures from Mary's final Go-to-School-Night.  It happened back at the beginning of May. Greg and I had to split up that night, since we had a busy evening.  But since I had opportunities throughout the year to observe and help in Mary's class, I sent Greg with Mary.  He took these pictures.

Mary works on drawing and labeling a bird.  

Wherever Mary is, her best friend Brooke is too.  Those two are inseparable!
 (Brooke is working on tracing and coloring metal insets.)

Mary works on her cursive. 

Mary works on math with the bead frame.  She is able to work with really large numbers this way.

Anna checks in with Mary.  She gives her a little reminder when Mary gets stuck.

This girl loves her work!

A final word on Mary awesomeness--and, don't worry, this isn't about school.  Most of the weekend was centered on David.  It was David, David, David all weekend long.  But she was a real trooper.  She was definitely a little jealous of the book we made for David.  And, even though she was trying really hard to be strong, she did shed a few tears after David's baptism.  She said she wanted to be baptized now--but they were sweet, sincere tears.  But over all, she really hung in there.  She was excited for David and supportive of him.  She was helpful and happy.  I know she drives him crazy, but he is very blessed to have Mary as his sister.  I also have to give another shout out to all the grandparents for coming!  With everyone here, there was always someone available to make Mary feel special.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to you all for coming.  It might have been Mary who needed you here even more than David.

Big sister love

Mary continues to adore her baby sister.  Though, sometimes she treats Sara more like a doll than a little person, which makes me (and Sara) a bit nervous.  But what continues to impress us is how helpful Mary is with Sara.  

Mary loving on Baby Sara back in February.

A few weeks ago the girls and I drove to Ohio to look at a Montessori school.  Driving 500 miles each way for a one hour visit to a school seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do.  Looking back, I realize I was a little bit crazy.  The point is that I could not have done it without Mary!  She was amazing.  She sat right next to Sara in the car and took care of her, wiping her spit-up and giving her a pacifier.  Mary was incredibly patient when I had to stop to nurse Sara.  And she was mature and understanding when I had to drag us all to the bathroom for the umpteenth time to change Sara or when buying her lunch was delayed even more while I calmed a hysterical baby or when I insisted we eat our food on the go in the car so we wouldn't lose more time or when I needed her to carefully hold Sara because I didn't have enough hands.  Sara and I literally could not have traveled to Ohio without Mary.  Of course, Mary needed to go--it was her future school we were visiting after all.  But I came home with an even deeper appreciation for Mary.  It's kind of a strange feeling--to really truly need the help of one of your children.  It's kind of a neat feeling.

How I love my girls.  Aren't they beautiful?

Mary and Sara on Easter Sunday.  Mary at age 5 and a half and Sara at almost 3 months.

A story by Mary

Recently, Mary has loved writing stories at school.  Here is an example of one she wrote and illustrated this week.  I love it!

First she writes the story using the movable alphabet.  Then she writes the story on paper.  And, finally, she adds an illustration.  Her teacher told me the only word Mary needed help with was "cage."  Mary just barely started writing stories a couple of months ago.  She has improved so fast!  Yay, Mary!

Isn't it adorable?! (And kind of amazing, if I do say so myself.)

November too

I have been posting so much about October this month, it's like this month didn't happen.  But it did.  It wasn't as busy (or as uncomfortable) as October.  But definitely sugar-free.

Since this is a time of thanksgiving, let me tell you five of the things I was thankful for this month.

1. Mary's school

Mary is having a wonderful year.  It's turning out even better than expected.  She is confident and fulfilled. I am prone to grumble about the cost and distance.  But sending her there was clearly the right decision.  I am grateful she spends her day in a place where she is safe and loved, a place where she is comfortable enough to let down her walls of reticence, allowing her true self to shine.  I am grateful that she spends her day in a place where she can develop her gifts and feel the joy and satisfaction of work and learning.  (And I am grateful that I get to enjoy these benefits by having a child who is much much less whiny, bored, and needy!)

Here are some pictures Kim, the assistant, snapped of Mary and a friend hard at work in the classroom.

Mary scrubs the floor while best friend Brooke does some laundry the old-fashioned way.

Mary (top) and a friend work on fractions.

Earlier this month we had a chance to visit Mary's school in the evening, so she could show us some of her favorite lessons.

Mary works on the trinomial cube.
  Right now, for Mary, it is a puzzle, but later it will be used to teach trinomial algebraic expressions.  (Don't ask me how!)

Mary shows us how she is learning to count by 7's.  (There are similar bead chains for counting by  2's, 3's, 4's and so on.  She doesn't know it yet, but she's already learning her multiplication facts.)

Mary works on adding two 4-digit numbers.

She hasn't learned carrying yet.  But she does know to start with the units column, even though she doesn't know (yet) why it's so important.

Yes, she's definitely been into numbers this year.

Mary let David look on.

2. David's school

I am grateful for David's school too!  David's teacher appreciates him, and she has been really proactive in finding ways to help him have a great, successful year.

Every month the school meets together for a short 15-minute assembly called a "Community Gathering."  One grade-level performs, and then the whole school sings the school song.  It is short and sweet (very sweet).  This month the second graders performed a couple of thanksgiving poems.

It was very cute.


3. Phew!  That's over with.

So I'm seriously considering going to graduate school (again).  It's probably not the most convenient timing for our family, but as a military wife you don't always have a lot of choices about timing and places in life.  Anyway, I'll eventually write more about this, but suffice it to say, for now, that I had to take the stinking GRE.  My scores from last time are old and expired, so, yippee for me, I got to take it again.

ETS recently changed the test.  It went from a reasonable 2-1/2 hour exam to a whopping 4-1/2 hour marathon.  Yikes!  People, I'm pregnant!  Do you know a pregnant lady who can sit for 4 and a half hours straight?!  (Oh, wait.  There's one 10-minute break.  Gee, thanks.)  I was registered to take the test earlier in the fall, but it became clear that wasn't going to happen.  I could barely sit for 10-minutes, let alone almost 5 hours.  Plus, I found it hard to study when I wasn't feeling well.  It was really, really hard to relearn all that math while in bed.  Even worse, it wasn't just relearning math--this time around, because the test had changed, there were plenty of concepts I actually had to learn for the first time.  With a foggy pregnant lady brain.  (It didn't go very well--Greg can attest to that.)

Ugh.  This stupid test had been hanging over my head for MONTHS.  I was beginning to realize that I was going to have to try to take the test with a nursing one-month-old and an utterly sleep-deprived brain.  That seemed like a bad idea.  So I rescheduled my test for the end of November, said a prayer, and hoped I'd find enough time to take some practice tests, and, most importantly, that I'd miraculously be able to sit through the test itself.

Miracles happen!  I took the test Saturday, and I have lived to tell the tale. Nothing went terribly wrong--my rib cage didn't start aching, I didn't have heartburn, my bladder was never on the verge of exploding, I didn't have a headache, my blood sugar was under control.  Miracles galore!  The test administrator (a mother of four) even gave me a private room, so I could stand up as much as I needed throughout the exam.  Miracle!  The test was tiring, but not any harder than I expected.  I even got a perfect score on the verbal.  With my foggy pregnant lady brain no less!  Woo hoo!  And I managed to score above average (slightly above average) on the math.  Now that's a miracle!

Miracle, yes.  Nevertheless, it's a miracle I'm glad is behind me.  Mary has been praying lately, "We're thankful that Mommy took her test."  Amen.



4.  Thanksgiving

I am grateful for Thanksgiving.  It was a low-key affair this year.  Greg ran a 5K with one of his Boy Scouts in the morning.  Then Greg's cousin, Deserae, and her husband, Mikhael, and their son, Elim, joined us for the day.  We hung out, watched movies, ate, watched movies, ate, played games, and ate.  They are our only family in the area, and we were so happy to share with the day with them.  I definitely think Thanksgiving is a day to be shared.  We're pretty selfish about Christmas--we aren't ones to travel somewhere or host a big group for that holiday.  But Thanksgiving is definitely lonely unless you share it with someone else.  We had a lovely time.  To mark the occasion, I will even include a very unflattering picture of myself.

5.  Baby!

Now that the stinking GRE isn't hanging over me and now that I'm feeling much better, I can finally focus on what is the most exciting.  Our baby girl!  She'll be here in less than five weeks.  No, we are not ready.  At all.  But I figure, hey, we've done this before--we'll pull it together just in time.  Right?

I am very grateful for this baby.

This glimpse of the baby (which I know is sideways--grrr--I'm sorry) is from the summer.  She is much MUCH bigger now.  Trust me.

Mary turned 5!

Here are pictures of Mary's 5th birthday.  (Since her dad was out of town on her birthday, we pretended it was the day after he got home.  Shhh, don't tell Mary.)

 We surprised her with gifts first thing in the morning ...

She loved her new big kid scooter ...

And check out this adorable new outfit for Katie from Grammy and Grandpa ...

She also loves a cuddly new blanket from Grandma Evie ...

After the pre-dawn gift-giving extravaganza, we rushed David off to school.  Then on our way to Mary's school, we stopped for some donut holes to share with her class at the birthday celebration.

While we were waiting for the celebration to begin, Mary got right to business working on the hundred-chain ...

Soon enough, all of the children were gathered together in a circle.  Mary waited patiently with her dad ...

Mary carried the Earth around the Sun five times--to symbolize the five times she has traveled around the Earth ...

Then Greg and I shared some pictures and stories about Mary when she was a baby.  The night before Mary and I had picked out some things she wanted us to share.  Some of the class favorites were this and this.

After the children shared with Mary things they love about her (so sweet!), Mary passed out the donut holes ...

Finally, the children sang happy birthday to Mary, and she held up the number five.  Hooray! ...

The children sang "What a Wonderful World" to Mary.  (I think the world is amazingly wonderful because Mary is in it.)

Last was a mini dance party to the wiggle worm song.  Always a blast ...

Then Mary dismissed each of the children one by one to return to their lessons.  As each child left, he or she shook Mary's hand and wished her happy birthday.

Like previous years (here and here), it was lovely and meaningful. I was teary-eyed that this was her last birthday celebration in Anna's class.


That evening Mary chose Culver's for dinner.  (Greg took the kids while I stayed home on the sofa.  The morning had been a bit much for me that day ... but I was nearly heartbroken to miss any part of Mary's celebration, including the Culver's dinner she'd been planning for weeks.)

Finally, that evening we enjoyed Mary's cake ...

Happy birthday, Bear!

You have amazed us every single day of your five years.  And we have no doubt you will continue to amaze us ever more.

Back to school preparations (or lack thereof)

David and Mary go back to school on Tuesday.  I'd put off all back to school preparations until after our trip to Door County.  So I'd like to say that I've been rushing around this week buying new clothes, sharpening pencils, and organizing school supplies.  But mostly I've just been a lazy bum about it.

Normally, I would carefully work on choosing a back-to-school outfit with them.  But David is a boy.  He will be perfectly happy wearing one of his two thousand Star Wars shirts.  Besides, he refuses to wear any shirt without "something big" on the front, so, really, I'm not going to bother trying to wrestle him into a nice preppy shirt.  (I gave up last year.)  And he can wear a pair of his many old, faded shorts.  These are all the same shorts he's been wearing since he was four.  That's how skinny he is.  (People, please please make me get rid of his shorts!  I'm sure they'll still fit around the waist next summer too, but another summer with them would be just wrong.)  Anyway...Star Wars T-shirt, faded shorts.  Check. David's all set.

Mary, on the other hand, would love nothing more than to go school clothes shopping.  But that girl can just wear one of her new summer outfits.  We had to go mid-summer shopping for Mary.  This was our first summer out of the toddler section, and I made a few mistakes at the beginning of the summer.  For one, I completely underestimated the shortness of the shorts in the girls section.  So all summer Mary's underpants have been hanging out the bottom of her shorts.  Frankly, I was too sick to care, and, besides, she's only four (and it's not like we managed to get out of the house much).  But come August, it occurred to me she was going to have NOTHING to wear during those first few warm, summery weeks back at school--unless she was going to be showing off her bum cheeks to the whole school.  So I basically bought her a whole new summer wardrobe, one that keeps her bare cheeks and panties out of sight.  As long as the weather stays warm, she'll have plenty to wear.  So no new school clothes.

As far as school supplies go...I've been just as lazy.  I am normally super uptight about buying EXACTLY what is on the supply list, driving around town to five different stores in search of the teacher's preferred brand or size.  But this time I decided I was making one trip to our nearby Target, and it would just have to do.  When I arrived, I realized the major flaw in my plan.  I should have made my one trip to Target six weeks ago.  Everything was picked over and out of stock.  (Why is it not reasonable to expect to be able to do your school supply shopping the week before school?)  But I took a deep breath, recommitted myself to making it work, and got to work with my favorite shopping companion, Mary.  Trudging back and forth between the back to school area and the office supplies, we managed to cobble together a near-complete list.  So the markers are the wrong color, the erasers the wrong brand, the pencils crappy, and the glue sticks too small...I don't care!  This is a monumental achievement for the OCD/Type-A/perfectionist/people-pleaser person in me!  Yeah, David's teacher might be a little annoyed.  But any therapist would be extremely proud.

As far as Mary's school supplies...nada.  It aligned perfectly with my laziness.  (Though we did have to write a big fat supply check to her school.  Ouch.  But, honestly, less painful than buying the supplies yourself.)  We did, however, have to buy her a lunchbox since she will be going full day.  Which was no small matter.  Her school aims for waste-free lunches. We're definitely zip-lock bag/juice box/paper napkin folks in this house.  But I can be a team player.  So we had to find a kid-friendly, dishwasher-safe (my requirement!!) bento-type system and a lunch box it would fit in, all in pretty colors of course.  Definitely more work than one trip to Target.

The last step before starting school (except for a couple of important-ish things I'll take care of this weekend) was visiting their classrooms.  Yesterday morning we stopped by Mary's school for a tour of the new building.  It's beautiful!!  I was feeling a little grouchy during the 25 minutes it took to get there (ugh), but the new location is lovely and the building is wonderful.  We checked out the whole school, but the best part was seeing Mary's classroom.  It's big and bright with a gorgeous view of a Wisconsin prairie.  Anna, Mary's teacher, happened to be there working in the room, and as soon as she saw Mary she immediately ran to her and scooped her up.  Anna loves Mary so much.  I almost started crying when I saw how safe and loved Mary felt in Anna's arms.  Needless to say, Mary loves Anna so much too.

Mary is going to have a great year.  She's been going to a Montessori school for the past two years with the same teacher and same kids.  She was in what's called the Children's House, which is for 3-6 year olds, and it's really meant to be a three year experience.  The first two years the child attends every morning.  And the 3rd year is the capstone experience.  It's called Extended Day, and it's the Montessori equivalent of Kindergarten.  After the younger two-thirds of the class leaves each day, the older children stay for the afternoon.  They are a small, intimate group, of about 7-12.  They spend the afternoon refining reading, writing, and math skills; cooking; taking nature walks; sewing; listening to chapter books; working on projects.  They also learn how to be leaders and how to help the younger kids.  

It's an experience we realized we want Mary to have.  It will be a change, her being gone all day.  And I have no doubt the transition will be bumpy--she will be so tired after school!  But she is ready.  It doesn't feel like sending her off to kindergarten though.  She will be with a teacher who has already loved her for two years.  She will be with good friends.  Though the building is new, the classroom feels comfortable and she's already  familiar with the materials and methods and routines.  It's a relief not to be sending her into the unknown.

I'm excited to send David off to school too, for him.  We visited his classroom last night and dropped off his school supplies.  He got a WONDERFUL teacher! (David had a brand new teacher last year, and, while I have the deepest sympathy for new teachers, I was ready for David to have someone more experienced this time around.)   I have heard she's the best, and, since she was one of the science fair judges last year, I got to know her a little, and I can see why she's so beloved.  As soon as we walked in the door, she recognized him (her classroom was across from his last year) and gave him a big hug.  My heart melted--he's an affectionate kid, and I felt like he was going to be in good hands.  

Also, David is in the same class as his best friend Bailey.  Again!  That's three years in a row!   I know a few other BFFs that have been in classes together for years at his school.  I just don't think it's a coincidence.  I think the principal and teachers make an effort to keep good friends together.  In fact, David has a number of other good friends in his class too.  Hooray!  If it's a good, healthy friendship, why not allow the kids to foster it and be happy at school?  That is so different from how I grew up--they always made a concerted effort to use class assignments as a way to break up groups of friends.  (Why???  Looking back, it seems so cruel and pointless.  Obviously you need to separate kids who are truly disruptive or in some kind of dysfunctional relationship, but if it's a normal happy friendship, why try to break it up?)  Apparently, David's school is keeping up with the latest research.  Just another thing I really like about his school:  They encourage friendship, instead of fearing it. (For example, you don't see things in the classrooms like having the seating chart be "shy girl," "rowdy boy, "shy girl.")

So, now that I have rambled enough, I am coming around to my point.  I think this is going to be a very good school year for my kids.  I know there will be bumps along the way, but overall I expect it be a positive experience with lots of learning, growth, and friends.  That is why it is hard for me to be sad about David and Mary going back to school.  I really will miss them, but they have greater things waiting for them.  

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By the way, next year, when they're both at a new school in a new state I'm sure I will be a WRECK!!  Oh, it's going to be so hard.  I'm saving all of my tears for then.

By the way again, we have no idea what Mary will do next year.  She'll be quite young for first grade--her birthday's not until October--but it's hard to imagine her going to kindergarten next year, especially if it's only half day where we move.  I love Montessori, but not the tuition. So who knows.  We try not to play up the "you're going to kindergarten this year" thing, in case she does go to regular public school kindergarten next year.  But most of her friends are starting kindergarten this year, so we do tell her she's doing kindergarten too but it's called Extended Day at her school.  And that she might do regular K next year but maybe first grade but really we don't know so just have fun this year and we love you a lot.  She takes it all in stride.  (Probably the only thing she takes in stride.)

Another Montessori night with Mary

Mary took Daddy to school one evening and showed him a few of her lessons.  (Sadly, I was at home with a sick David.)

Mary working on addition ... 

Mary doing a little sewing ...

(She HATES licking the yarn before threading it.  "Disgusting!!")

Mary's class has been OBSESSED with geography this year.  They can't get enough map-making! This is Mary making a map of Australia ...

And nothing like some good old table washing!

Then Greg rushed off to coach a soccer game.  And my sweet Mary came home to me.

By the way, we decided to send Mary to her Montessori school again next year.  Originally it wasn't even an option: The school is moving to a new location half an hour from our house, and Mary would be going full-day so tuition would almost double.  No way!!  But we slowly reconciled ourselves to the fact that it was by far the best thing for Mary and good for our family in ways too, and somehow we could make it work.  So make it work we will.  And I have no doubt that Mary will have another marvelous year.