School Bag in Hand, She Leaves Home in the Early Morning

Last week we made some serious decisions and some big changes.  On Monday I took Ethan to school, got Alyssa started on her school work, cleaned up after breakfast, and started laundry.  Alyssa wanted me to sit down beside her and walk her through her math work, and she was literally throwing a fit every time I told her to give it a try and ask me for specific help if she needed it.  Rebecca wasn't getting rocked to sleep sufficiently to stay asleep when I set her down.  Marcus wanted to watch something on Netflix and was upset when I said no.  The laundry...well, the laundry needed to be switched to the dryer, then hung up, and a new load needed to be put in, and this needed to happen a couple of times, because it was a big laundry day. 

I was upset with Alyssa, because I tried last year to wean her off of having me sit beside her saying, "Okay, what's the next step of the problem?  And what do we do now?"  I told her that now she's a third grader, and she needed to start doing more work on her own.  She knew how to do the work - she just didn't want to do it unless I was sitting beside her.  I was frustrated that Rebecca wasn't staying asleep, and I was almost falling asleep myself while trying to rock her.  I was also frustrated with Marcus, because he's at that stage where he bursts into wailing sobs when he doesn't get his way, and it's quite bothersome.  And the laundry...well, I've never really enjoyed doing the laundry. 

Oh, and I forgot to mention the dog.  (I always call Sadie "Dog" or reference her as "the dog" when I'm upset with her.)  We started the morning being woken up by her throwing up a sock.  She likes to eat socks - a lot.  I've looked it up, and apparently it's a Labrador thing, because a lot of them do it.  We've tried to keep the socks put away, but she always manages to down a few.  Mostly the boys'.  So she threw up a sock early that morning.  Brian and I cleaned it up, and we went back to bed for just a few minutes before we had to get up.  Then later I fed her breakfast and put her in her kennel so she could hang out with us while we ate our breakfast, and she threw up both her breakfast and another sock. So washing her bedding was added to the laundry routine for the day.

So I spent about 30 minutes trying to manage all of this while thinking, "There's too much going on in our lives right now.  Something has to go."  At first I thought it was the dog, but it didn't seem fair to make that decision without Brian, plus she really is a good dog, and she's getting better behaved all the time, and it would be sad to give up on her just as she's starting to settle down.  Then I thought, "Homeschool.  I don't think I can homeschool right now, and maybe it's not the best thing for Alyssa at the moment."  And throughout the morning I prayed and told Heavenly Father that I was going to take the steps to put Alyssa in school, and that if it was a wrong decision, please stop me. 

I was sad (very sad) when I signed her out of Mid Columbia Partnership, but then when I went to McGee to register her, it felt right.  And when I met her teacher I got so excited.  Her teacher is wonderful!  After talking with her I was so thankful that Alyssa would be in her class, because if there was ever a teacher that was perfect for Alyssa, it must be Mrs.  Halverson.  She's a happy, bubbly person, who seems to have just enough fun mixed in with the structure and work to make school enjoyable.  She also told me that her students were learning to be completely responsible for their own work, which is one of the reasons I'm sending Alyssa to school anyway.

I came home from registering Alyssa all excited, and I told her how much fun she would have.  Alyssa whined and moaned and cried.  We went in before school on Tuesday so Alyssa could meet Mrs. Halverson and learn about how the class works, then she had all day at home to get used to the idea.  She was so excited when Wednesday morning came, and she had a wonderful first day of third grade.

Here's the kids enjoying some popcorn after Alyssa's first day at McGee Elementary School

Now she's riding her scooter to school each morning with Ethan and a group of neighborhood kids.  She's doing all the work that's required of her during the day, and when she comes home she gets out her homework folder and starts on that without me having to ask.  She's making friends left and right and having a great time.

Over the last week I've enjoyed having that quiet time in the morning when Alyssa and Ethan are at school and Rebecca's taking a nap.  So far I've been catching up on the housework that I got behind on while Marcus watches PBS kids.  Then I put Marcus and Rebecca in the stroller and we walk to pick up Ethan before lunch.  I haven't been any less busy, but my brain has been able to slow down a lot.  There's been a couple of times that I've sat down to nurse Rebecca, and I've realized that I wasn't doing anything except sitting and nursing Rebecca.  I wasn't trying to figure out how much school work we had left, or trying to work switching and folding the laundry into our lesson schedule, or trying to think of what we need to accomplish today to be ready for our lessons tomorrow.  i was just sitting and snuggling with my baby.

I do miss Alyssa a lot, but I can see that she's growing in new ways and expanding her comfort zones, and I really feel that sending her back to school this year has been a good decision.


And in other news:

Rebecca found her thumb.

And Marcus fell asleep while running errands today.  I pulled him out of the car and tried waking him up by bribing him with Oreo cookies and having him stand and walk into the house, but he just collapsed on the driveway and fell back to sleep.