Its the last day of summer break here. We finally have our teacher assignments for the year. Our backpacks and lunch boxes are new or have been cleaned. All snacks and lunch items have been purchased for a week or two. The back to school supplies sit nicely in reusable shopping bags ready to take in (thank God I bought everything on that list before school got out last year!). New clothes and shoes sit in nice piles so as to not mix in with the wrinkled mismatched clothes (for now). I am personally bleaching 20 pair of white socks that played in the dirt this summer without shoes (even after warning them 100 times not to). And finally, I am charging the camera batteries and breaking out my whiteboard sign.
The updated version is coming! First full year in Belgium, here we come!
I don’t use twitter or tweet, but one of my favorite things to do on FB is to read the “best of” tweets. They come from a ton of different sources that compile them and the more I read them, the more they appear in my feed. Today’s were back to school tweets. My favorite (pardon the language):
This is so me. I’ve been so excited for them to go back this year, mostly because I feel like I’ve been dropped into an alternate crazy universe since we got here and they’re driving me insane! I’m in the middle of a mid-life identity crisis and they’re making it harder to find my way out!
But then I started thinking more about it and having the sadder-type emotions. And with that comes all my hopes for them for this year and the future:
- I hope it’s a great year and doesn’t go by too quickly
- I hope I’ve made the right decisions for schooling (we decided to stay at the American school, but have Meredith and Wesley in french immersion – I pray this was the right choice)
- I hope they are cooperative
- I hope they are always nice to everyone
- I hope they find/make/keep best friends. I have one who is usually everyone’s friend, but never has a best friend and that makes her feel left out
- I hope they never feel left out or make anyone else feel left out
- I hope for light homework
- I hope for easy comprehension for them – no tears!
- I hope they like their teachers (and I will pray for their teachers)
- I hope they make the right decisions when they need to
- I hope Bennett won’t be too sad without them (he really likes them!)
- I hope the bus rides aren’t too bad (because I don’t want to drive!)
- I hope they’re not judged too harshly on what we pack in their lunches (😳😂)
And finally, for me, I hope a new normal comes quickly and painlessly, and my mid-life crisis starts to make sense (What am I going to do with myself for the next 3 years?!?).
For now, as their summer comes to an end, I’m forcing a last ditch effort to start the year with clean room and cleaned out closets and drawers. Hopefully this will wear them out because I let them sleep until 10 today (every day) and tomorrow is going to be painful. I can hear the whining already…
Cobbled 
First, bus rides are good for them. It builds character and exposes them to the world!
Second, French immersion sounds good, but why not Natalie too?
Third, of schooling doesn’t work out, there’s always home-schooling! You are a Dr. So you are plenty smart enough to teach them. Unfortunately, I’m not a Dr. so I couldn’t teach my kids at home(haha).
Fourth, you are almost 6 months in so you only have 2.5 years to figure out what to do! Yay for the first 1/6 of the deployment.
Fifth, it can’t be a mid-life crisis yet. You have to live longer than 70.
Sixth, people judging you for their lunches need to mind their beeswax! You don’t report to them and they need to just let those kids eat. Tell Nat, Mere, and Wes anyone who says something about their food, I’ll fly over and have a chat with them.
Seventh, enjoy it and don’t blink. If you do,they will be in college and moving away. Apparently, I blinked twice because two are gone!
And lastly, your writing style is really good. Engaging, descriptive, funny, and not too sugar coated. You should start your book next.
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They don’t have French Immersion for Natalie’s grade 😥, but they should have it next year when Meredith is in it. It started with Meredith’s class when they were in kindergarten and it’s rolling up (from what I understand)
I could never homeschool. Never. They don’t listen to me and I have zero tolerance and patience.
I think I’ll kee organizing for the next 2.5 years
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