Where Have I Been?

We've had a great start to the school year! Li'l Empress gets up (mostly) happily every day, and practically skips her way through the morning routine. She's so pleasant and even the bus driver, Miss Lynne, commented on how she is enjoying Li'l E's sweet joyful demeanor. 

As far as we can tell, her adjustment to the bone-conduction hearing aide in the classroom setting has also gone well. Our hearing support teacher had me take pictures of the device and send them to her. She used the pictures to make a "cheat sheet" for all of Li'l Empress's teachers to reference. What a great idea, right?!  Li'l Empress also uses the portable FM system for in-class teaching time and is getting used to that along with her teachers. I get the impression that she doesn't love leaving her home classroom for specials (she told me yesterday that she cried in Art class because she likes Mrs. S's class room best) but I would expect that from most any Kindergartner and especially from MY kiddo - she's always more content with the familiar places that she knows Daddy or I have deemed "safe."  Both The Boss and I have been very pleasantly surprised by the easy acclimation to the new environment and routine. Compared to how she transitioned into last year at pre-school and then again this summer (to the new hearing aide) we were really expecting much more of a battle and a longer adjustment.

The older kids are all settling into their regular school routine pretty well. I think that having both Baby BlueEyes AND Li'l Empress on the same routine this year is really helpful this fall. I've seen a new level of maturity in BBE since school started, like he's growing into his role as Li'l E's primary touch point for both the morning routine and the bus ride. She calls him her "breakfast buddy" and her "bus buddy" and it's like he's preening in the attention. Tooo cute :)  Dr. D has turned into a serious morning person - up and moving and out the door almost before I can even get my stumbling self down the stairs. Must be all those early football camp days that formed a new habit!  And LadyBug gets herself up in time to perfectly coordinate her hair, make-up, and outfit for each day. Somehow in there she almost always finds time to eat and give the "big sister okay" to Li'l E's outfit, too. I have taken to keeping my bedroom door shut until my alarm goes off, to avoid the lights on in the hallway at the ridiculous hour she gets up to accomplish all that!

Shaggy has been working hard to organize his belongings and ready himself for his departure to Denver. When he's not working like a dog at Chick-Fil-A, he's sorting clothes, making lists, and cleaning his room. We've had some nice mornings here at the house together and it's going to be all.too.quiet. every morning once he's off to Colorado. There's a post about that coming but not now. I'm happy in my river of De Nial. :)

This week, he had a big chunk of time between shifts at work so he helped me sort over 14 bags and boxes of all kinds of baby paraphernalia, clothing, toys, and lots of other stuff for our fundraising efforts. So much stuff that I am actually doing another yard sale event.  I've been doing the F@cebook sales diligently all summer but the inventory was getting a tad stale. And in God's timing and provision, I got not one but TWO huge loads of donations that are almost all sure to be great sellers. (Both loads came from folks I barely know. How cool is that?!) Also in God's perfect timing, my new friend contacted me and offered to let me set up a bunch of stuff in her front yard at their neighborhood yard sale event.  I continue to be amazed at this gal's generosity, as well as the compassion and generosity of virtual strangers who just hear about our efforts and want to come alongside us and join in our purpose.  It's quite humbling.

 14 or 15 bins of clothing, most of them overflowing, 

from newborn sizes up through adult apparel.

Toys, strollers, bedding, home decor

We've got it all!

Join us in praying that it ALL goes, too!

The load of "Back to School" paperwork, before school even began, was overwhelming this year. I don't even want to look at Li'l Empress's IEP binder - it's a mess and totally unorganized after the scramble to close out her time with the Intermediate Unit, request a transfer from P.M. kindergarten to A.M., and amend her IEP for the coming school year. After all the phone calls and emails that the transition generated, I didn't want to touch the phone for a week! (Again, that stuff is a post in and of itself...)

I've been sorting, cleaning, purging, and organizing my way through bags and boxes and bins of STUFF. Lots and lots of stuff. It's always a huge chore to re-claim my home from the lazy hazy days of summer and this year the yard saling has added a huge new dimension to that. Somewhere in there we got to sneak away Labor Day with our friends, but that seriously feels like mooooonths ago already. We also had a big family wedding to prep for and sheesh, I forgot how much I hate school supply shopping. I sheepishly admit, we did not do one stitch of back-to-school clothing shopping this year. I just couldn't add one more thing in and really, except for sneakers that BBE seems to always need, the kids' wardrobes are fine for now.

And so, that's where I've been. August and now early September has been spent. Literally spent. Wrung out and hung to dry....  Which might explain why my blogging mojo feels like a wet dishrag.