First Week of School

Our principal said in his instructions for the first week of school that our goals were:
1. Nobody gets sick.
2. Nobody cries.
3. Everybody eats.
4. Everybody gets home safely.

I'm not sure if that happened for all 1600 kids at my high school, but at least in our family, we accomplished those goals. I wondered if I would cry the first day (Mr. Blue is, of course, my baby) but although I felt my eyeballs get a bit misty, the feeling passed quickly because he was already settling down to put together a puzzle. And he and his sister were in fact fine and enjoyed the first week. They both have wonderful teachers. We are blessed.

And I hope the parents of my students will be able to say that I did a good job teaching their children. Because even though they look like they're grown up, with their makeup and muscles, their parents still think of them as their babies, especially on the first day of school.

What I Haven't Been Posting

• I am SO unmotivated to do anything beyond sleep, eat, feed the children, and read. I'm blaming the heat. In case you haven't heard, it's been extremely hot--all over the South, but I'm referring to where I live, in Texas. We've had 34 days straight of over-100 degree temps, and if it keeps up through next week (and it is predicted to), it will break the 42-day record set in 1980. I was relieved to learn from several friends that I'm not the only one who has lacked the energy to do more than get into survival mode and stay there.

• Another thing that was bumming me out was the puppy's insistence on pooping in the house. She was "mostly housebroken" when we got her, meaning she holds it all night long and almost never pees in the house. Yet she was going into the bedrooms or behind a chair and pooping once a day, in the afternoon or evening (she always poops and pees in the yard when we take her out first thing). This would be after we had taken her outside and given her the chance to go!  It turns out we weren't doing it right by letting her free-roam in the house when she isn't totally ready. We needed to fully crate-train her. If she's not on her crate or outside, we keep her on a leash in the house by our side (she won't go if she can't hide. Even outside we have to ignore her before she will settle down and go--she is a modest young lady!) Anyway, it was important for me to realize that Gidget is a dog, not a child, and that being in her kennel is not a punishment (we are giving her a small treat, or peanut butter in a hollow "bone," when we put her in the kennel, and now she goes in it more willingly. Obviously we will let her have more freedom as she develops more control. It's been an  interesting experience and I'm glad we are making progress.

•   I agreed to have a Mary Kay party because I went to one a month ago, liked the products but didn't have enough money to buy them all at once. If people buy things at your party you get free stuff. But the catch as I get closer to the day: I HATE asking people to buy things on my behalf. You should have heard me tell a friend about the party: "You don't have to come, or if you come, you don't have to buy anything..." I would be the world's worst salesperson. It's good that it will force me to get my house clean all at the same time, but I am kind of torn between hoping that not enough women will come (you have to have three) and then feeling that NOBODY LIKES ME ENOUGH TO COME TO MY PARTY. Oh, social anxiety, you suck. At this point I don't even WANT the skin care stuff--I just want to never talk to the lovely, sweet young woman selling it EVER AGAIN.

• Funny kid story: at church the kids' ministry series for the past few weeks has been "I Love My Bible." There's a song that lists all the books of the Bible (and it's much cooler than the one I learned in Sunday School). Miss Pink decided to learn all the books with AND without singing them. When she was first learning the New Testament, she threw in "Colorations" and "1st and 2nd Testamonians." Oh, those Testamonians, always testifying everywhere they go! A friend told me that when she and her daughters were discussing the Apostle Paul's conversion, her younger daughter said, "You know, when Paul was struck blind on the road to gymnastics!"

          I love how they hear things.