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The Swing (of Things)
We successfully survived the first full week of school, so that’s a good sign.
By all accounts, this year is off to a good start. Hakan is really digging the whole routine of getting ready for the bus, and heading off to school without his parents. When he gets home, he can hardly wait to do his homework. We think it’s something about the status of having reached this age – he’s really doing it, just like his older siblings.
We recently got word that Carver will be joining an advanced math group and an advanced reading group, which is probably best for him. He’s doing well in school, as always, enjoying the interaction and being around peers.
Avey is off to a great start, too. She opted to do choir this year, as the school makes it difficult to do more than one music thing. So violin is on hold, possibly to be picked back up in the future, but she has such fun and is so good with singing that it seems she’s likely to keep doing that for the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, Kira has been busy with her calling as RS president. She’s got a big luncheon she’s hosting at our house this week, and so we spent most of Saturday detailing the entire first floor of the house so that it looks like real people live here. The timing is unfortunate, as it’s also the very first day that I have to be on campus teaching, so I can’t be here to manage the dog or take Merritt somewhere. We’re still pinning down the plan for Apollo during the whole thing, as he tends to get quite upset when strangers show up in the house, but we have some options.
I’ve been spending my time putting the last touches on syllabi and making sure my course plans are going to work. I went to campus on Wednesday for a faculty meeting to kick off the semester, so that was nice to warm up to the commute again.
I also spent time this week working on our back yard. After weeding the garden area a couple of weeks ago, I evened out the dirt to blend it back into the rest of the yard, and I moved some of it to even out one of the dips a little better. I then planted grass seed. It’s coming in nicely so far, and I can’t wait to have it all in. I’m not sure I could stand that eye sore of a weed garden any longer. I’m now aching to lay the foundation for a future shed in another bare spot close by (I need to eventually tear down our shed). I was so sad early in the week when we walked by a neighbor’s house who had some perfect bricks in his front yard looking like he was giving them away. I knocked on the door to make sure they were up for grabs, but he told me that he had already arranged for someone else to come and get them. Of course, they are still out there all these days later, so maybe I’ll ask him again in a few more days…
The weather has been amazing this week, staying in the mid to upper 70s. Of course, the boys after school are ready to just hang out on the couch and unwind, but we got them to the park on Saturday at least. Merritt is so predictable, as he just hangs out on the swings the whole time. Sometimes he’ll move to a different swing, but it’s definitely his favorite thing to do at the park. We have another great week in the forecast, so let’s hope there’s more fun in store! My youngest brother is flying out on Friday for the long weekend, so we’re going to try to show him a good time.
Check back next week for more madness!