It has been an eventful few weeks here, and I am weary from all the craziness. Yesterday was an exciting day with lots of emotion as the kids wrapped up their school year, which all the neighborhood moms celebrated by ambushing our children as they came out of the school or off the bus with water guns, super soakers, and silly string. So glad to have a quiet morning today to be still, let the kids sleep in, and just reflect. Even I slept in till 6am and forewent the early am workout today.
Jared has now completed 7th grade. He came home from school yesterday gloating and saying in his ever-deepening voice "Mom, I'm an 8th grader now! Only one more year and I'l be in high school!" Yikes he is growing up so fast. And yet, I look at him and--notwithstanding his physical growth (he is up to my eyebrows now and growing daily; he can wear Tom's shoes)--I see so much growing he has to do emotionally, socially, and in the areas of organization, time management, and self-discipline. So as I love him and encourage him in who God created him to be, I also am being mindful of ways to spur him on in those areas. His language arts teacher this year has recommended him for the advanced class for next year with the caveat that "he needs to work on his organizational skills and writing in complete sentences over the summer." So we will be doing a little bit of summer school at home. Jared has recently taken up fencing lessons, and is pretty excited about that. He will begin his summer conditioning for the cross-country team in a few weeks, meaning 3 early mornings of running a week. I'm hoping for some carpool options so I am not having to get the girls out of bed early...
Anna has now completed 4th grade. She finished the year well, making the A/B honor roll all year long and achieving awards in many subject areas. She is thriving on her violin and will be picking up piano lessons starting next week. Even though a little stage fright at her violin recital this week left her at a loss for notes about midway through her piece, she remained poised and recovered well with a little queue from her teacher/accompanist. And she even calmly and articulately recited a poem she had written as an introduce to her piece before she played it. Her swim season is in full swing, and she has done 3 meets already, with another on the horizon in Tallahassee at the end of the month.
Lilly, I'm sure, will be happy to have her siblings home with us now. She has been missing school, asking me almost every day "do I go to school today?" and saying "but I want to go to school!" when I've told her that she doesn't have school today. She has been having fun being my helper in household tasks, and she has been resilient as we have had SO many places to go and obligations in the past week or two. One day this week, I counted that she had been buckled into car seat, stroller, or bike trailer 14 separate times in one day. She and I were both ready to just stay home at the end of that day.
Tom is working diligently to finish his air war college readings and exams and papers. The poor guy really never has a chance to relax and just enjoy life. I will be so glad for him (and for the kids and me) when he is finally through with it and can simply do his job (and even take some vacation days!).
On the scoliosis front, we have successfully gotten Lilly's medical records from CHOP down to a pediatric neurosurgeon in Alabama, and are awaiting a call from his scheduler to get LIlly in for a consult and possible surgery on her spinal cord. Again, we continue to be blessed to enjoy "normal" life for now, because I know that upcoming surgeries are going to make life difficult for a time.
So, hopefully, lots of beach days, Big Kahunas Water Park days, and lazy days at home await.
