Tag: school

Hallelujah!

The boys just left for their last day of school before Christmas vacation and I can proudly say that I made it through the entire semester, trimester (whatever it is that they’re doing here) of getting up early and getting them off to school.

Every day I woke them up (OK, Calvin did wake me up once or twice), made sure they were dressed in the appropriate uniform — not an easy task because every other day was a PE uniform day and Carter and Caleb were not on the same schedule — checked to see if take-home folders were back in backpacks and homework was signed, figured out if it was AWANA or library day and finding the appropriate books (or yelling at that particular kid to find said books), organized shoe hunts (every day it seemed like people were missing shoes right as the bus was pulling up), and corralled them all to the kitchen to sit down and eat breakfast.

The part I’m most proud of is I actually sat down and ate breakfast with them each day and read to them from Bible and prayed before they left. I couldn’t have done all this without the help of my “sister wife” Lucy, who got breakfast on the table every day and packed the boys’ lunches, but for this night owl who is a 10am riser at heart, getting up before 7 every day is a BIG FAT DEAL.

So I’m accepting this award for Most Improved Morning Routine with pride and I plan to celebrate by sleeping in for the next two weeks. Merry Christmas to me!

Fa, la, la, la, la!

The other day we went to the elementary school winter concert. I was amazed by how many parents (both moms and dads) were in attendance at 2pm on a workday. I guess when you put such a high value on education that you’re willing to pay big bucks for it, you take advantage of every opportunity to see if your investment is paying off.

The hour long concert featured songs performed by each grade, plus a few group numbers at the beginning and the end.


2nd grade


4th grade


combined choirs

Their singing was better than our camera work, but I’ll blame it on the squirmy baby who was not nearly as fascinated by the concert as we were.

And for those of you who either can’t or don’t want to sit through the videos (I don’t blame you — there’s something about sharing DNA that magically makes these events tolerable) the following photos are for you:

He totally knew I was taking a picture of him even though I was all the way across the gym. Love that smile.

Wearing cousin Mia’s dress — can’t believe she was ever this small!
Singing his little heart out. I loved watching him sing with so much energy that his entire body moved. 

Carter was pretty far away from me so all of the photos I took of him had large balding heads in the foreground. This is the best of them.

And if you made it this far, your reward is another nausea-inducing video. No really, you might want to slap one of those seasick patches on before you watch this since the swaying of the kids plus the swaying of the camera is quite a combination. Maybe next time we’ll spring for a tripod. No, we won’t. I’m not going to be that parent. (I’m also not going to be the parent holding an iPad in the air to film it — there were several of those too.)

winter concert

The other night we all went to see Calvin perform at the middle school band and choir concert.

Calvin is in beginning band — they won’t be ready to perform until spring. Judging by the sounds I hear coming from his saxophone as he practices, that’s a wonderful Christmas gift to us all. The advanced band played Lady Gaga’s Poker Face and Taio Cruz’s Dynamite, along with a few other typical band pieces. They sounded way better than anything I ever heard from our middle school band.

Stretching her legs during intermission . . .
There’s my singer!

Hmm . . . don’t the shorter kids usually stand in the front row? In this case there were several tall boys in the front row completely blocking the kids behind them. I got a lot of awesome pictures of Tall Boy standing right in front of Calvin. Too bad I don’t know Tall Boy’s parents. I could have been their official photographer for the event.

7th & 8th grade combined choir

They sang a few songs that had nothing to do with holidays or winter, but they sounded nice. I spent most of my time zoomed in with my camera trying to time the swaying bodies to get a shot of . . .

this smiling guy. 

raising them right

Occasionally there are issues on the school bus — especially because the bus is mixed with students from Elementary, Middle, and High School. Today my three got off the bus, the younger two in tears because they got in a fight with one of the high school boys who was picking on one of their friends.

Caleb was upset because the 9th grader was swearing at him and giving him the finger and Caleb confessed, “Mom, I spelled ‘S, H, I, T’ at him because I know I’m not supposed to say it.”

At least his spelling is improving . . .

sick Lucy

Lucy wasn’t able to come yesterday because she had to take her husband to a medical appointment at the hospital. Then last night she came down with a nasty flu so she is home again today. She called me a few minutes ago and said, “I was so worried about you this morning Madame. I knew you must have been struggling with the upstairs and the downstairs and getting the kids ready for school.” Hilarious. It’s true that she arrives and gets breakfast on the table before we come downstairs and then makes the boys’ lunches while we eat and read the bible story for the day. And she finds and fills their water bottles, makes sure their backpacks are sitting by the front door and helps the kids onto the bus.

Yes, the kids would say that I was struggling as I proceeded to burn the first 4 pancakes — I guess I’m out of practice. But other than a forgotten water bottle, I managed to get everyone fed and out the door on time. Now cleaning up the explosion that is left behind? That’s where I’ll really be struggling. I’m waiting for all those sympathy cards to start flooding my mailbox.