Today was the first day back to school for most kids in the area, but not for us! Our day was spectacular and amazing and fabulous and filled with learning and fun and new memories and gloriousness. I am feeling so energized for the upcoming "school year", feeling so grateful for our incredible and supportive home school community, and feeling so thankful to have the experience of this day with my kids.
The kids woke up this morning feeling rested after a full night's sleep - no alarm clocks blaring, no need to wake up earlier than their bodies naturally woke themselves.
Joe and I have been talking about trying some new routines to try to bring a little more order to our household, so last night I printed up a "Morning Routine" chart and hung it on the fridge. I showed it to the kids when they woke up and they were kind of excited about it. Most of the things on it are personal hygiene/self care related (go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, eat breakfast, get dressed), but there are also assigned chores for everyone in the family - mom and dad included. For the kids I made a chore wheel that spins so that every day they rotate chores, with one of the slots being a free day. Lily had a free day today, Mary put away all the clean dishes from yesterday, and Joey collected all the dirty laundry, brought it downstairs, sorted it, and started a load.
I know they will need a lot of help at first, but my hope is that they will gradually learn to do more on their own. I also made afternoon and evening routines. Most of the chores on the lists are things that I was trying to do by myself every day, and while the kids would occasionally help voluntarily or when I asked, lately I had been feeling overwhelmed trying to do it all alone. I'm hoping that this will be a concrete way for me to remember to involve the kids more in the day to day things that keep this house running smoothly - mostly help with the dishes and laundry and general tidying up. They were pretty excited to help out today, but I'm sure that the newness of it will soon wear off. Today was a success, and that's a good first step.
We ate breakfast together and said morning prayers and talked about our plans for the day. We read a few books together. The first chapter in a children's book of Bible stories - we are going to read through the Old Testament together this year. The story of the tortoise and the hare - we have been talking about the virtue of perseverance. A book I picked up for 25 cents at a book sale recently that I remembered enjoying as a child called How Much is a Million? which the kids enjoyed as well; we were all pretty amazed and entertained by the book's descriptions of millions and billions and trillions of things. We added a new Van Gogh print of a painting of sunflowers in a vase to our collection of his work on the front of the refrigerator and talked about how it was similar to and different from the other Van Gogh paintings that are already hanging there.
Then, because the weather was hot and beautiful, and because we could, we packed up all of our swimsuits and towels and sand toys and life jackets and floaty things and a cooler full of food and drove to the beach to spend the day with a large group of homeschooling friends celebrating our freedom to NOT go back to school!
Here is Katie being adorable. I'm glad her brother and sisters get to spend so much time with her all day long, rather than spending it in separate rooms of a school building. She adores her older siblings, and they cheer on all of her little attempts at walking and talking and other milestones.
We had a great time hanging out with friends old and new. Here's Joey examining an interesting rock he found. He made a collection of interesting rocks to bring home, including one that had a double ring going all the way around it. I have told the kids of a story I once heard that said a rock with a ring going all the way around it is a wishing rock. Joey said his rock was a double wishing rock worth two wishes!
After we had been there for several hours, Joey came running over bursting with excitement. "Mom, you have to come to the playground and see what I can do!" He wanted to show me that he had learned how to do the monkey bars all by himself! He was so proud and you could just see him glowing with confidence! Just a week and a half ago we were at a playground and Joe was lifting Joey up to do the monkey bars. That day we had tried to encourage him to go across himself, but he wasn't able to do it yet. Today he can! He did it over and over, and I'm glad he had the time today to work on this new skill. I'm not sure he would have been able to do it on a crowded playground surrounded by dozens of kids during recess, but today he had plenty of time and space to work it out, and he was so happy.
Lily had the best time today chatting and playing with her friends. It's so cute to watch them play together. One of their favorite games to play is called "super cats" where they are all cats with special powers. I often hear them talking about what today's variations are going to be. "Okay, so I'm a rainbow cat and we are playing super cats sandy beach!" "Nooooo! Let's play super cats playground!" "Okay!" Adorable.
There's another epic story to tell behind this picture. See the inflatable elephant Lily is using? It's actually one I used when I was a kid. I looked up to check on Lily and saw that she had let go of the elephant and it was floating away. "Mary! Quick! Rescue the elephant!" Mary ran across the beach and into the water, but it was too late. The wind had blown the little elephant out of the marked swimming area and into the lily pads. Lily was so upset. "Don't worry! I'll save it!" I reassured her. I found someone to watch Katie, ran back to the changing area and pulled my swimsuit on, and then charged into the water like a Baywatch heroine.
I started doing a forward crawl, but I hadn't gone far when I started to get short of breath and realized how out of shape I was and how long it had been since I had actually swam any considerable distance. I switched to a front breast stroke which was easier since I didn't have to lift my arms out of the water. The wind was still blowing the little elephant further and further away, and I was beginning to wonder if I should have thought this through a little more carefully before embarking on my rescue crusade. Still, the elephant was just blowing along the shore in the lily pads, so I reasoned that I wasn't actually heading out into open water in the middle of the lake and could easily turn towards shore if I got too tired to continue. The breast stroke became too much effort, and then I remembered how easy it was to do a side stroke - once in high school at a hotel pool I did over twenty laps using the side stroke without getting tired. This was more relaxing and I was feeling confident that I was going to make it to the elephant. But then my brain was freed up to worry about other things. Were there snapping turtles in this area of the lake? Biting fish? Leeches? What if water splashed in my eyes and I lost a contact - how would I drive home? Is the cold water making my wedding ring loose enough to fall off? Is the water in my ear going to give me swimmer's ear?
I realized that Mary and Joey and some other kids were walking along the shore following my progress, and that the elephant was headed towards a fishing dock. At this point I was really huffing and puffing and wishing that I would have jumped in at the fishing dock, but it was too late for that. I had to swim the last hundred feet or so through weeds and lily pads and floating green stuff, but I RESCUED THAT ELEPHANT, GOSH DARN IT! I used the last of my strength to swing my body up onto the fishing dock and I felt GLORIOUS. I walked triumphantly back to the beach, and I heard a crowd of kids whispering to each other, "There she is! That's the lady who did it!" YOU BET I DID.
Shortly after that, I took Katie to the bathroom to deal with her poop, and imagine my dismay when I returned to hear that blasted elephant had floated away again. You have got to be kidding me. This time I walked over the fishing dock to get it, only to find that just as I got there the wind had blown it out and away from the dock into the middle of the lake. I knew there was no way I had the energy to make a second incredible swim. Lily was especially upset, and Joey and Mary were also concerned about the poor lost elephant. We watched it and the wind started to blow it towards the shore further on around the corner, so we ran back to the edge and started to follow it. It really looked like it was going to get blown right up to the shoreline and the kids and I were all gathered there waiting for it. Suddenly the little elephant shifted its path and headed back out and away again. "We're going to lose it!" wailed Joey, more distraught than ever. "Hurry! It's your last chance!" shouted Mary. I sighed, grabbed a tiny life vest one of the kids had for support, and waded out once again. This time the elephant was less than a hundred feet out so I reached it much more quickly, but I was so tired I don't think I would have made it without the little life vest. We all walked back to the beach and I deflated that danged thing. I just know I am going to be incredibly sore when I wake up tomorrow, but it did feel amazing to successfully save my beloved toy, and to hear the kids praising my prowess.
I was reminded of a time my own mother had taken us to swim at a pond. One of our floaty toys drifted away, and she swam across to get it. It was only a tiny pond, and not as far as I swam today, but I remember as a kid feeling so awed by her ability to swim through the mucky weeds to rescue our toy. I hope my kids are just as impressed by me.
Here's another achievement for the day. Early in the day Mary and some friends decided to build a wall. Here they are after working on it for a short while.
As the day progressed, other friends joined in and helped out. Sometimes they took a break and played on the playground, swam in the water, ate some food, etc. But they kept coming back to their wall project.
They worked and worked until the sun was nearly set. Here they are putting on the finishing touches. As I took this picture they said, "There is so much scientific engineering that went into this project!"
Finally I had to insist it was time to stop. Katie was tired and needing to go home, Joey and Lily were already dressed and ready to go home, and I was worried it was getting too dark and that mosquitos were going to come out and attack us. Here's their final pose.
And a close up of the river system they built. They had a bridge and a tunnel and split the stream into three different pools.
And here's a video of the thing in action. Mary was adamant that I post it online and share it with the world, so here you go. Enjoy.
We didn't get home until nearly 9 pm - a truly epic long beach day. On the drive home, Mary said, "I wish I could just keep reliving this day over and over!" We all agreed it was the best not-back-to-school day yet! No need to end the day early in order to wake up early for school the next day! The kids were eager to talk to dad about everything we did today.
After I helped Katie settle into sleep in her crib, the kids had snacks and brushed their teeth and climbed into their beds. Mary silently continued reading Book 5 in the Percy Jackson series, which she had also been reading while we were driving today. I read aloud to Joey and Lily. First Lily's choices: Harry the Dirty Dog and then singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and then Joey's choice: The Talking Eggs, another book from when I was little and which for some reason he's been wanting to hear over and over lately. They were both sleeping before the end of the story.
Here's to many more days spent living and learning together!
