A quiet Labor Day Saturday

Today has been a very quiet Labor Day Saturday.  Andrew had to be at work at school at 9am, and we are cautiously optimistic he'll be home around 9pm tonight.  It's a long day for him.  I've been enjoying the beginning of college football and watching the Buckeyes continue their dominant ways over Texas!  It ended up being close at the end, but it was mostly a fabulous OSU performance.  With Andrew gone, it isn't as much fun to watch the games so I had it on, but was also picking up the house.

It's also been incredibly quiet in our neighborhood today.  It's an incredibly gorgeous Saturday, in the 70's, no humidity, not a cloud in the sky.  It's a wonderful day to be outside, but that sure isn't happening around here!  None of the kids and families who live close to us are out, and honestly, no one is out walking or working.  I took Bettis out for a walk, and it's oddly quiet for a normal day, let alone a Saturday of a holiday weekend!  

Tomorrow I am headed up to my mom's house for a weekly cleaning session.  Tomorrow evening our Fighting Irish play, and I'm so grateful Andrew and I will have an evening at home together.  And then we still have Monday...woohoo.  It's a little daunting to realize it will be six weeks before we have another long weekend.  This is one of the hardest stretches of the school year, especially in our house where Andrew stats for football and usually works another 2-3 days a week at athletic events.  I'm trying not to think about that though, and just be so grateful for this moment in time, which for today is all college football!

It's been a humdinger

This has been, by far, the most challenging beginning to a school year I have ever experienced...even more so than COVID in 2020.  We have three new staff members who are amazing, but still need some additional assistance, understandably.  We have some new students who have exhibited unexpected challenges requiring me to spend a significant amount of time in classrooms to offer support, and we have some parents who have lost their minds and have required an unbelievable amount of time to deal with them and try to resolve "issues".   It's been more exhausting than I can describe.

And it was HOT.  Oh my goodness, it was so miserable.  Thankfully, an amazing front came through late last week, and right, now it's beyond gorgeous.  Tonight will be down in the 40's!

This weekend is Labor Day weekend and college football begins.  I love this time of year, and I'm ready for school to settle down as well!

Tomorrow we start

The clothes are laid out, the alarms are set, we are all ready for our first day of school.  For Andrew this is the beginning of year 30(!!), and Catherine is so excited to begin her first full year.  She started her job after the beginning of the year, so she is very pleased to be doing this from the beginning.  It's really sweet to see how excited she is.  And I'm starting year 6 in my job.  I"m so grateful to have a job I love so much.  The beginning of the school year used to make me sad when the kids were younger because it was the end of our carefree summers, and it marked the aging of my kiddos.  Now though, I'm excited to see our students returning tomorrow.  Here we go!

It's almost that time...

This coming week school begins.  Catherine, Andrew, and I all have students on Wednesday.  I'm ready...or as ready as I'm going to be.  I allowed myself to leave early yesterday afternoon, knowing it was the last Friday that I would be able to do so.  While I am very grateful for the summer, and for the flexibility and more laid back schedule, I'm also grateful for the full time schedule of the school year that allows me to have a "full-time" paycheck.

Last week I made sure that the kids all took time to visit my grandmother.  We were there about 45 minutes, and she really enjoyed having us all there.  I'm not going to lie, it is really, really hard for me to visit my grandmother.  For so many years, she was such an amazing force in lives and that person we visit now just isn't her.  I struggle with that.  Regardless, after our visit we drove into town and had dinner at a pizza place, where two of my cousins (and a husband) and two of their kids joined us.  We had a blast and we agreed it is something we should do more often!  I'm so glad we made those things happen.

Today I made another visit north to help my sister work at mom's house.  That is another post, but it was definitely a very long day.  I'm grateful for a quiet evening right now, especially since we had dinner plans with Thomas and Lyndi last evening.  Tomorrow is church and then dinner with more friends.  August is never my favorite month, but it is the beginning of college football season so I can't be sad about that!  And of course it will be the holidays before we know it! 😁