Freedom to Choose

Our family is now back into the school routine. Last week, Oliver & Evan had their first days of school. Two weeks ago, Oliver was at school doing band camp & preparing his classroom for the incoming students. On Friday of that week, the principal told the faculty that he had been moved to a different school and a new principal was going to be coming in on Monday. Monday he met the new principal, did some more final preparations for the first day of school on Tuesday. That morning, Ryan had an assessment with the kindergarten teachers in order for them to help place the students in appropriate classes. The elementary school had a back to school night that evening so we went to meet the first grade teacher who will have Evan's name on her roll, Mrs. Pratt. She seems very nice and I hope that Evan is able to get to know his fellow class mates a little bit throughout the year.

Unfortunately, Oliver couldn't sleep on Monday night. He still gets a little nervous before the first day of school I guess. On Tuesday, he was up early & dressed quick so I didn't get a picture of him on his first day of school. As always, he looked sharp. Oliver is blessed to work with coworkers that are trying to be good teachers & who help him enjoy his job. I'm glad he likes what he does. And I personally think he's great at it. He came home on Tuesday afternoon and I'm pretty sure he passed out before his head hit the pillow. He took a couple hour nap & was pretty groggy when we woke him up for dinner.

Ryan & I drove Evan to school & walked him to his classroom with his aide, Lacie, who worked with him last year. He was very excited while we were there. He kept pulling things down, knocking things over, bringing things over to show me. I finally decided that he was probably so overwhelmed because Ryan & I were there so we finally left after about 20 or 30 minutes. He stayed until 12:30 all that week with them feeding him his packed lunch. He did well. 

So excited to get in the van for his first day of school!

Going in with his aide on the second day of school.

Now, today Ryan had his first day of kindergarten. Yesterday morning we went in to meet his teacher & get a lot of information. Unfortunately, it was about 45 minutes of Mrs. Johnson telling the parents stuff and Ryan was getting bored. But we made it through and I think he was excited despite being sad to have sat still for so long. 

Yesterday, also gave me some anxiety. I thought I would've been fine with this whole going to school thing considering he went to preschool last year and he will still only be gone for 2 hours and 45 minutes each day. But yesterday afternoon, Ryan wanted to go to the playground. So we went to the school playground after school was out. There were three boys still there from school-2 brothers and a friend of the older brother. I eventually realized that the younger brother wanted to go home but the friend wanted the older brother to stay & play. The friend wasn't being very kind to the little brother, teasing him & taunting him. A little while later two other boys came to the playground. When one of the new boys replaced the last syllable of the little brother's name with a swear word, and the friend of the older brother thought it was awesome, I'd had enough. I wish I could say that I was a great example & gave those boys a stern lecture or had a discussion with them about bullying, but no, I just walked away & took my boys to the other playground. Do I wish I'd said something, yes, but the feeling that lingered with me more than what I didn't do, was the fact that 8 & 9 year old boys have this meanness in them. They weren't just trying to be funny, they were being mean, purposefully teasing and taunting. Thankfully the older brother eventually took the little brother home & I hope that he'll learn to stand up for his brother sooner rather than later. But more than that, I hope that I can teach Ryan how to stand up for what's right. To be kind to those around him even when its hard and may not be the cool thing to do. To know that if someone says something like that about him, that he can ignore it and not let it be added to his identity. 

So my sad feelings lingered for several hours until we were able to have family home evening. Oliver had to stay late at school for the high school's back to school night followed by a meeting of the Community Council. When he finally made it home, we had our family night. Ryan chose to sing "Do as I'm Doing" which Oliver made us sing 6 times. then we had a discussion about choices. With a little discussion about Satan's plan for our lives vs. Christ implementing Heavenly Father's plan for us and a discussion about all the choices we get to make each day. We also talked about the things Ryan will get to choose each day: how to treat those around him, how to have a happy look on his day, etc. It was good. Then Oliver gave Ryan a father's blessing and while I wasn't the recipient of the blessing, it was good to hear it said and actually helped me with my anxiety. 

Today, Ryan woke up so excited this morning. I hope he stays excited for awhile and gets to make new friends and learn so much this year. 

Evan wanted to help as I tried to get a picture of Ryan's first day of school.

I hope that Oliver & I are able to help teach him the things that will help him be strong & be kind. Things that aren't part of the core curriculum for the state, but are part of the core curriculum for me.

Trying to get a normal smile out of my son. This one works well.

Walking confidently in to school to find his classroom. I'm so proud of you Ryan!

Words

I finally got a library card. Yay! Our little town just got a new library that opened back in April. It took me 3 months, but I finally went over and got a library card and borrowed some books.
In the previous nine months, the only books I had read were either ones already in the house, or that I would borrow from the "library" in the Creek house basement. So recently, I'd read a few series suggested by my mother-in-law. One series was about a group of quilters. The stories were about their lives, what makes quilting special and then several books about their ancestors and what made quilting connect one group to the other. It was good to read.
I just read a little series about women in a book club. The interesting part about this series is that each book is from the point of view of a different book club member in the same time frame but is written by a different author.
In the last 3 weeks, since having the library card, I've read The Hobbit, Anne of Green Gables, The Help, & The Book Thief. We also got the first Boxcar Children book and read it to Ryan. He really liked A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein as well. There's a poem called The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt. It's the longest knock knock joke ever.
Last week, we went back to the library and got some more books. The second Boxcar Children book, Charlotte's Web, & The Magic Faraway Tree. We're almost done with the Boxcar Children book and I know I'm excited to read the other two with Ryan as well. For me, I borrowed The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Gathering Blue & The Secret Lives of Walter Mitty & James Thurber. I'm so excited. I love words. I love how people can combine words into different ideas and different expressions. How the words they think up, the stories they tell can bring out emotions in me and help me think about things in a different way or to just think about things that I haven't thought about in a long time.
Sadly, I can't find every book I'd ever want to read in our little library, but I'm so grateful for the ones I can find.