New School Year, New Routines

Today S-Boogie expressed surprise when I explained that she would be the only one starting school this fall. For as long as she can remember, either Mommy or Daddy has also gone to school with her as well. I'm pretty relieved to not be going to school but I have been a little more sad about her starting first grade than I thought I would be. She went to a preschool that was every day and then she went to kindergarten last year so I know she can handle it. First grade just seems so grown up that I can't believe we're at that point already. I'm also a little nervous because her teacher is a brand-new, first year teacher who looks like she's about fifteen. I know every teacher has to have a first year, but I also remember how incompetent I was my first semester teaching and worry about how things are going to go for everyone. S-Boogie's previous two teachers were both quite experienced so it's a change for me.

I am a little glad for the start of the year and the chance to get into a better routine. We travelled a lot this summer, and I really haven't been feeling very well with the pregnancy, so we've all become quite lazy around here. For one thing, I've decided to try having a rule that we'll have no television on school days. She doesn't finish school until three o'clock and it just seems silly to waste some of those few hours before bed on television. We're all pretty addicted to it--the kids love it and I love having them quiet for a while--so it will be an adjustment. I also think I need to start doing a better job at cleaning our house. I've never been great at keeping it up, but with only one bathroom and a tile floor in the dining room things get messy fast. Plus Mr. Fob is here all day and so we make a lot of dirty dishes and other types of mess. I'm trying to decide if I want to do any sort of special stuff with Little Dude as well; I'll probably take him to story time at the library once a week. That's the weird thing for me: realizing that he'll get to do stuff with me during the day that she will miss out on because she is in school. I also need to get better at exercising and I hope that walking back and forth to school every day will help me out. I guess I'd better get to bed so I can wake up bright and early to make sure we all have breakfast on time. At least with only one kid at home I can still get my afternoon nap in every day.