FiRsT dAy Of ScHoOl

Read Across America & Celebrating Dr. Seuss' Birthday With Crazy Hat Day!

Tracks & Footprints

It snowed on Tuesday, as I already mentioned. By afternoon, the temperature had fallen enough that it was sticking. We got a decent enough covering for the kids to go out and make some dirty snowballs and require their snow clothes to be washed. Yay, more work!

Speaking of work, as some of you already may know, the principal of the kid's school called me a week ago a wanted to know if I wanted a job. I don't really need another job, but they needed someone and were in a pinch and so, after 10+ years of being out of the outside workforce, I am now a district employee. Strange how that works. I swear, if you want work, come to Kansas. There's jobs (and general work!)  here! Shoot, sit at home and they'll call you, apparently!

The school receives grant money for fresh fruit and vegetables. That produce needs to be washed, cut and divvied up between classes ('three-school' (friday's only), pre-K (2 classes, AM & PM), Kind., and 1-6th) and since I do that on a smaller scale at home, they need someone now and I am free (sort of), I figured, why not? So, hi ho hi ho, off to work I go to do what's necessary to calm the fiery dragons keep the kids healthy and fed. Tuesday I counted raspberries....I don't even want to know how many I counted. Yesterday I cut and counted cauliflower and then apples and I did a good 150+ apples- cut, core, slice, divide. I was beat! BUT, the cool news in all of this is, the goats benefit too! Guess who gets all the 'throw away' goodies?

Since there is often much to much for the girls, it's yet another reason to get some pigs! I hadn't even thought of the school cafeteria for excess food. This should work out real well and if we're lucky, these pigs will cost us near nothing and provide a lot of yummy bacon...and imagine this, it may already come pre-apple-seasoned <grin>!

It'll take some time to adjust my schedule and certainly Rachel and her leg has thrown a bit of a monkey wrench in things in that we're taking them and picking them up but on the days I work late enough, I'll just stay and hang out and help in the classrooms until school's out.

They asked me if I wanted to be a back up cafeteria aide (if someone were to call in sick (there's only 2 of them!) and I quickly nixed that, they have to be in at 6:30! Not that 6:30's a problem, goodness knows by the time stamps on some of my posts, but with milking chores (and kidding coming up) and store business and work + general life, there's no way. And to be on call? I just can't (and don't want to) do that. I love being at their school, I wish everyone could attend a school like this but I have to draw the line!

On to snow though, here's some photos of the kids out playing. Yesterday Rachel asked me if people with broken legs can sled. I told her people who sled end up with broken legs. I'm so not fun! Bwaahahahahaha

Note the crawl tracks on the left and the footprints on the right. Oh, and the kitty prints on the far left.

Notice Rachel tasting the snow!

First day(s) of school

Artwork and M&m's and a photo

Watercolor by Drew

Rachel's M & m's-how stinkin' cute (no pun intended) that she wrote at the bottom "My mom macks biprs" (My Mom makes diapers)! We didn't do a whole lot of practice with our letter writing over the summer being busy and all with the move. I know, we're poor excuses for parents :o).

And a snapshot taken by someone photographing Grandparent's Day at "B.O."

Grandparent's Day at "B O"

What a sweet day it was indeed. For those of you who don't get the title, maybe I haven't explained it before. It's really quite touching hilarious! Dear Rachel made a mistake when asked one day what school she would be attending in the Fall. She proudly replied that she would be going to "B O school".
She didn't find the humor in it when we all started to laugh. She still doesn't get it, not that we've explained it to her, and she still will occasionally call it B O. Oh well.

Drew and I were stand ins for all the Grandparents. We got to do an art project. As you can see, Andrew's looks pretty good doesn't it? I'll take credit for that thankyouverymuch. He got himself into a tissy when Rachel asked for her regular seat back and made him sit in the slightly larger computer chair that we had borrowed to sit in. By the time the pictures were finished he had come around enough to put a cloud on it and add some polka dots as the finishing touches.


We got to eat lunch in the cafeteria too! I mentioned earlier that the chicken and noodles was on the menu. Despite what Rachel says about it being as good as Great Grandma's, I can say with certainty that it is not. First of all, it's not even the same thing. It's more like, well, I don't even know what to liken it to. It wasn't horrible but it was thin pasta like fettuccine with a chicken gravy and chunks of chicken over dehydrated mashed potatoes. Not awful, but not the chicken and noodles I think of.

All in all it was nice. Lotsa kids had their grandparents there so it was bittersweet of course. BUT, it 'tis what it 'tis. After lunch Rachel went out to recess on the playground and Drew went down the hall to preschool.

School Days

I love and hate this photo all at the same time. I love it because it encompasses everything there is about (my thoughts) on school, mostly romantic notions (if school can be thought of that way). At the same time, I feel like it takes something away from me.

If you click on this photo it should show it in full screen. You'll see how happy the children are, truly truly happy. They come home like this EVERYDAY! I feel truly truly happy (for the most part).

I meet them everyday at the end of our drive, I wave to the driver to let her know "I'll take it from here, thanks!", and take their hands and they vie to tell me about their day.

I love this photo because it shows how happy they are to be home, happy that they've had a good day, happy about life. I hate this photo because it symbolizes time lost, time gone by, growing up, memories missed.

I hate that they ride the school bus for just a couple of reasons. It's a tug of war with my heart. Maybe it's silly.

First of all, it's good that they are going to school. We did not nonchalantly decide to put them in school. There are a few reading this blog who are home schoolers and you'll know we did not come to the decision to send them to school lightly. Not that I value (or don't value) your opinion, but these are our kids and this IS the best decision for them (right now). But I'll discuss that some other time.

Throughout preschool and Kindergarten we took Rachel to school and picked her up. While it was a pain in the rear at times to often drop what we were doing (often times delivering a goat or working in the yard) to go get her (I know that sounds kinda bad but it is what it is), it was a time when we got to see her come out of class, talk to the teacher, and experience school in that respect.

I kind of miss that now. I miss the interaction we may have with their teachers. Knowing daily if there was a problem I could find out right then and there if one of the children had a bad day right from the horses mouth. Now, we don't have that interaction. I send them off with a driver, they are dropped off by a driver and shuffled around by people all day long. Entrusting the lives of our most precious children to others is extremely difficult, let me tell you.

We don't have to send them, I REALIZE this. But it's good...for everyone.

Anyway, there it is..

Every morning at 6:45 our alarm goes off. I get up, I normally wake Rachel up, Jeremiah gets up. I walk into the kitchen to make lunches, Jeremiah dresses and comes into the kitchen to make breakfast for he and Rachel.

While Rachel eats, I finish their lunch, pack it into their lunch bags and put Rachel's in her backpack. I do her hair, help with shoes if need be and we see Daddy off to work at about 7:20. There's been just one day where we've actually been standing outside waiting for the school bus but all the rest of the days we hear the "beep...beep...beep" as the bus backs up into our driveway and Rachel races out the door, me following behind trying to get shoes on, as she races across the yard and waits for the bus to completely back up and stop before she waves goodbye, throwing kisses and boarding the bus with a smile and saying good morning to the driver. I wait until she's pulled out of the drive and walk back into the house.

Rachel is the last pick up on our road and so the driver backs up into our driveway, which is nice!

Early morning routine complete.

Andrew wakes up, we feed the goats and his school bus shows up at 11:30 on the dot. He's the first to get on. I wave goodbye and then it's back to work. The driver for Drew's bus, Mrs. R., comes from the east and since their school is west of us, she just pulls over, picks him up and continues straight. Our driveway has a pretty big shoulder so it's safe.

In the afternoon they ride the same bus home that Rachel rides in the morning with the same driver, Mrs. B. (the preacher's wife for a local church). If Drew didn't have siblings at the school, he'd ride the little preschool bus home and I suppose he still could but this is easier.

Anyhoo, so that's school life here.