Making A Home

First Day of School

No, not for my homeschoolers.  We started back at the beginning of September.  Today was the first day of public school for Sam and Malaika.  It's a day I thought (hoped) would never come, but with all of the chaos of life right now, and their out and out refusal to do their schoolwork properly at home (as well as some other attachment-related behaviors we are currently encountering), their therapist thought it best that these two enroll in public school for a while.  And being out of ideas and options at this point, and thoroughly overwhelmed at life some days... I had to agree.

Sam, 10, Molly, 8.

These are both children who attended a half year of kindergarten previously in public school.  And they are BOTH children who were suspended during that time.  Many of you no doubt remember Sam's "shark boy" incident... (as it turns out the girl he bit is the daughter of one of the checkers at the restaurant supply store I do most of my grocery shopping at!  Eek!)  Molly's offenses (yes, multiple) were more along the lines of "the teacher doesn't have any right to tell me what to do!"  Huge entitlement issues, that one. 

So today (being one of Brian's visitation days), Brian brought all the kids to my house, and we cermoniously walked them to their first day of school. 

They are nervous but "curious"... they hesistated to say "excited."  Wish them luck... wish us ALL luck!  Or prayers... prayer would be even better.

Spelling Bee

Went to a play yesterday with my friend Jared. So thrilled to have a friend with a love for the
Theatre even bigger than mine! He texted me late Saturday night to ask of I wanted to go to a show, and thus commenced a whirlwind of scrambling to find a sitter. Brian doesn't take the kids at all on Sundays.

I am thankful to have a few friends with teenagers! The kids got to hang out with a nice 15 year old, (then grandma after) while Jared and I saw ” The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” then tried out a new church with a Sunday evening service.

The play was on it's last performance at the Bellingham Theatre Guild, so I can't even recommend you run out and see it, but I'm so glad I got to. It was a musical (yay!), and was incredibly funny and witty. It was fun to see a few people I'd met while working with Hallie on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Really renewed my thoughts that I want to be a bigger part of the local theatre community. But my acting experience is pretty much nil. So I have yet to figure out how to get involved. I did a lot of backstage work in high school, but it seems must theatre groups have a standard crew. Hmm...

And the church was fun. Different, but pretty great. I look forward to going back to check out out again.

Here is a blurry phone photo of the cast after the show last night:

Another Hike

Today we are hiking Lake Padden. I didn't get very good sleep last night, so I'm dragging today... Needed to up the energy, so we invited friends along to get some exercise. I love that the weather is still being agreeable this year...and that we live in such
A beautiful area with great hiking trails.

I appreciate that my children and I can share experiences like this together whenever we choose (not dependent on a school schedule), and that we have good friends to join us!

P.E.

I've been making an effort lately to get healthier. I've
Been eating better. Exercising more. And my (poor) children are being drug along for the ride. There is almost no junk food in our house (though they still get plenty with fun daddy!) And when I walk... Often they have to go with me out of necessity.  

I don't know.... Do you think 5 miles was too much for them?

Testing

Hers my next test... Blog via email. Maybe this method allows photos? Let's see how this works....

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Testing

Time to sit down and blog had been at a premium lately... Which is why it isn't happening. That, and it's a hassle to transfer photos from my cell phone (my always available camera of choice lately) to my computer. So I finally found a way to blog from my android phone.... Which I should be able to do at any moment, after snapping a photo in real time! So here is my first attempt. Hmm.... Not seeing where to add a photo... I'll keep trying...