A Brand New School Year

 

Wow. Another school year is upon us. It truly blows my mind how old they are all getting. Probably because I remember being in those grades. And it makes me feel old to think I have kids in those grades that I remember being in!

Today was the first day of school for the state of Idaho. It was day thirteen for us, since we started up a few weeks ago, but now that it is "official", I thought I would post.

Here is Collin, our SIXTH grader.

Collin's classes are:

Algebra

Spanish 1

Latin 2

Spelling

Science

Grammar and Writing

Vocabulary

Literature

World History and Geography

Bible

Intro to Logic

Typing

Editing

Piano

Here is Kaitlynn! Our FOURTH Grader!

Her classes are:

Saxon Math 6

Grammar

Handwriting

Spelling

Science

Editing

Latin 1

Piano

Trust me, as each year adds on more subjects, I am more and more overwhelmed and time consumed, but we have had a great start, a lot smoother than in years past. It has been hard giving up all the free time I had all summer, I know for a fact that the number of books I get to read will be going WAY down. :)

Now, onto the strangest of Smith news.

Here is Christopher, who is now in Kindergarten!

And, who is GOING to Kindergarten.

Sorry, should have warned you, hope you didn't hurt yourself when you fell over in shock.

Many months ago, we found out that Sam was to be gone for 8 months, basically the entire school year. Knowing how hard it is for me to be a single parent and not even being able to comprehend the prospect of doing it for so long, I made a hard decision. As parents, we all sacrifice a lot for our children, making decisions that are best for them. Sometimes though, we have to make decisions that are best for us. And it would have been better for me to not try and homeschool a third child for the first time being alone for the school year. I prayed a LONG time, had others praying, and was at peace with the decision,

With the summer turning out the way it did, and not only is Sam not deploying, but now we are moving, I again struggled with the decision. Do I put him in anyway? Up until this morning, I was still doubting. Is it the right thing? Daddy isn't gone, and that was the reason I signed him up in the first place. I decided to go since the parents had to stay today and then make up my mind. I am glad I went. I felt such peace in the first 5 minutes. For 5 - 6 weeks, this will be a lot of fun for him. Mrs. Norris is fantastic, her room was so great, and he will have a lot of fun. As the move gets closer, the less time I will have as we will have so much to do, and now I won't feel like he is getting shortchanged.

Here is our handsome little guy!

He was VERY excited about his new Spiderman backpack.

 

Today we drove, but most of the time he will be walking. The school is right next to our neighborhood.

 

Here he is at the line, where they wait for the teacher. He is easy to find, look for the tall one. ;0

There are 18 kids in his class.

He is in the afternoon class, from 12:05 - 3:00. They have computer lab, library, art, music, along with learning to read!

Mrs. Norris explaining the class rules. I chose this teacher because she is good, creative, yet FIRM. I saw exactly that and I liked it.

So, this begins a new and different school year.

The big kids have asked a lot of questions, since Tiffer is the FIRST one to ever GO to school. And I do have to admit, it was kind of fun to experience the "first day of school" that I have always heard about.

Tomorrow starts the regular schedule, I am sure there will be many stories to post about. I pray he has fun, he learns and mommy adjusts to having a child gone for 3 hours a day for the first time ever.   :)

OTHER NEWS:

The papers have been signed! I repeat, the papers have been signed!!!!!!

One last signature awaiting from the top of the command chart in Texas, and all is done.

Sam leaves for Mississippi next week for his meeting with the Guard and, hopefully, to find us a house! Please pray for safe travel for him, and for a house.

His first weekend of Guard duty will be January, and it looks like we will be moving in OCTOBER. Maybe even early October. Like, FIVE weeks from now. Whew. The nerves have hit and the reality has sunk in. We are leaving. I am excited, yet sad at the same time.

Other , other news:

Since we are leaving 9 months ahead of when we thought we would be moving, there are things we wanted to do before we left that now have to be done in a hurry.

I have a great friend in Salem, Oregon that I have wanted to visit, and now I am!

Kaitlynn and I leave Friday. We are having a "girls" weekend. We are driving to the Oregon coast, about 9 - 10 hours away and staying right on the beach. We plan to stay up late and sleep in late! With walks on the beach, the cliffs, a little antique shopping in the cute little stores, ect, we are very excited. Amy and her husband and their 5 kids will meet us over there Saturday evening so I can do sunset pictures on the beach for them, then we will follow them home and stay with them for the rest of the weekend. Stephen pastors a church in Salem so it will be nice to go and worship with them. We met in our first year of Seminary in California 13 years ago. Amy and I taught jr. high together while our husbands went to school together. She was with us in the delivery room when Collin was born and we share a lot of great memories. Her oldest daughter is only 5 months older than Kaitlynn, so we are excited about getting them together. The girls haven't seen each other since they were crawling. Amy and I met up 2 years ago at a Dude Ranch in Oregon, but I am excited to meet the rest of her children, who I have only seen through pictures. We will make the drive back on Monday. We plan on stopping at the Oregon Trail museum in Bend, Oregon, and one of the major waterfalls as well.

I KNOW there will be plenty of pictures and stories to post after this weekend. Please pray for safe travel for us, I can't remember if I have ever driven that far by myself!

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement. This is a stressful, yet exciting time in our life and we are anxiously awaiting to see what God has in store next.