L'Shanah Tovah!

Happy New Year!
...and to celebrate today...we're going to party like it's 5777!
Either that or we'll clean the bathrooms, do laundry, vacuum, bake bread and do the grocery shopping.
Because on a day off from school, that's how we roll.

I am supposed to be doing a leg workout right now.
However, my legs had different ideas after running a Half on Saturday and made it clear this morning after a few miles that they wanted to rest.
So blogging it is.

I know it's bad with blogging when I go to sign into the blog and can't remember the pass-code.
Wow.

Not that it has been really busy here.  In fact, we go out of our way to make things NOT busy.
It may be held against the kids when they apply for college that they didn't play on three different travel teams, have private lessons,  do math enrichment and their parents weren't even in (gasp!) the school PTA.
It's a risk we're willing to take.

Caroline is enjoying dancing on a couple afternoons a week and the boys love splashing away in the local pool.
We've started a Blue Knights group at our church and are having a lot of fun with it.  Jim and I usually have the boys play outdoors, but since it has been rainy and wet, we were relegated to the blue room on Friday.  We had just finished talking about Blessed Jose Sanchez del Rio and had the boys work together to build a scene out of his life using Lego bricks.
Of course, they chose the most gory scene they could.
But they learned a lot, worked together well and did a great job.

Jim and I got a baby sitter for the kids and went to Shepherdstown, WV on Saturday morning to run in a Half.
It was rainy and cold, but we still had a good time.
We shaved almost 15 minutes off our time from last year and ran all but 1/4 mile after the water stop at Mile 8.  After all those hills through the Antietam Battlefield, walking seemed more than justified.
The post-race beer was most excellent.  

Everyone seems to be transitioning well to school.
Sam's ability to attend and strategies to focus are improving and we've had no issues with homework or behavior in school so far.  A HUGE improvement from last year, and we are very thankful.
If  ADD were contagious, it seems like Caroline has now caught it.  For the first time she has a teacher that has a degree in Exceptional Education and she is going toe to toe with the Magnet Kids.  And It.  Is.  Awesome.
A majority of these children have never had to be organized or been challenged or failed - so it is super interested to watch.  It's getting better.  Now the shut down is not instant when a challenge is presented.  But it's still a struggle.
Benjamin loves school.  To the point where he pouts on the days he has to stay home with me.  He is writing his complete name now and just seems so stinkin' grown up.  Sniff, sniff.  He is by far the youngest and smallest kid in his class, but that doesn't seem to bother him.
And Nate.
Nate never stops surprising us.
A month in school and the kids is reading.  Like, really reading!
Didn't expect that.
He came home with the notation of "Hardest Working Student".
Huh?  Not "Most Obnoxious" or "Best at Farting on Demand)??

Wonders never cease.

And now, it's 7:15 and I can hear rusting upstairs, meaning my day is officially started.