First Day of School and Routines

Ahhh, the first day of school! It was actually yesterday, September 2nd. This year I have three out of five kids in school.

BC is entering into kindergarten, and very excited about it! JS is in first grade this year. RL, my oldest, is in second.
They only do half day kindergarten here, so I have BC home in the afternoons. JS was a little nervous about transitioning from half days to whole days, but he seemed to like it well enough yesterday. He was pretty pumped about riding the bus home with his sister. Since we only have one car, their dad can take them to school, but not pick them up. I think the idea of bus riding was more of a concern to me than my kids. It has turned out ok though.

School time means switching to school routines. We've been working on that one for a couple of weeks now. The kids no longer get to sleep in late and be lazy all morning. (That means mom doesn't get to be lazy either!) Here's what a typical school morning looks like for us:

• Wake up


• Get dressed


• Eat some breakfast, brush teeth


• Make sure everything is in backpacks and ready to go out the door

Pretty simple, right? You would think so! We try to get backpacks and shoes ready as a part of our bedtime routine so that we don't have to worry about it in the mornings. Actually, the first day of school ran rather smoothly. Everyone was very excited and we were ready to go out the door early. I was so proud of everyone for taking care of themselves and keeping on task. I even got some cute "first day of school" pictures. : )

This morning, though, was totally the opposite of yesterday. Anything that could go wrong did. I guess I need to work on being ok with that. Routine is good, but when life throws you curve balls, you gotta adjust your swing to hit them out of the park. (IDK, it sounded good as I was typing it!) Anyway, I just need to remind myself that having a routine in place is important, but it can't be so rigid that I freak out if something happens to throw it off.

For example, my toddler decided today was the day to pick up two hand fulls of cheerios and throw them across the dining room while I was trying to help JS get his folder back into his backpack. Crunch! Crunch! is all I heard as another child decided to walk all over them. Ugh. Where's the dog when you need him?

Actually, today has been the "day of spills". Cheerios, water, juice, milk, coffee...you name it and it's been spilled. Do you know what though? I've managed to maintain my composure, in spite of all those accidents. It's a good thing too, because one of them happened while I had a young friend of mine over that I am currently mentoring. It wouldn't set a very good example for her if I lost it when my coffee was spilled on the couch cushion now, would it? I simply told her that accidents happen, and messes can be cleaned. Maybe the next time her toddler spills milk, (or anything for that matter) she'll think of me and smile. I hope so. I pray so.

I guess what I'm trying to say as I ramble on about all this is that no matter what kind of perfect routine I try to put in place, there's always bound to be glitches. What matters is how I react to those glitches. At any given moment, I can have anywhere from two to ten little eyes watching me to see how I am going to react. That's very sobering to think about. Glitches are temporary. The impression that I make on their little hearts is often permanent. Need I say more?

Matthew 18:6 "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."