Back in the Saddle Again

Wonderful, wonderful! We are back at schooling. Ah! How I love it.

I stayed up late with darling husband watching TV, then reading (a most boring book). But I was so very proud of myself for getting up right at 7:30 despite the last several nights without good sleep. I popped up, got onto breakfast, woke up the girl (the boy was just waiting on me to come out of the room) and was ready to go.

My plan was to start at 8. Our days are ruled by 8am. We start after 8, and every subject takes half again as long, every failure is doubly devastating, and every distraction completely derails us. I don't know what it is. But when we start at or before 8, we are in a Disney cartoon. The children are all sparkling and glistening with adoring eyes for their loving mama. Squirrels scamper to sit on the couch to bathe in the lessons. Eight o'clock is an important thing!

So imagine how I felt when I finished checking my email and readied myself to begin with Bible and prayer (and now hymns!) and I glanced at the clock on the monitor corner. It said 8:54. What??? It was like we'd hit DEF CON 5--or is 1 the most urgent?

"Daughter of mine, check the calendar over the couch; read it to me!!"
"My son, check the calendar in the kitchen!! what does it say on the 14th?"
I start frantically typing in the search field 'Daylights Savings 2010 schedule.' I got a page for South Americans who are falling back this time of year, for what it's worth. Finally it processes that my daughter is all excited because it says 'church meeting.' I file away for later that I will have to tell her (again) we changed the meeting day. But son is saying, 'daylight savings time begins.'

The computer isn't broken. It is 9:00 am. How deflating. The squirrels run for cover. First day of the new year and we were already behind.

Praise the Lord for not caring about clocks as much as I do! We had a great day of school, starting out with learning three new hymns. 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus; Amazing Grace and Holy, Holy, Holy. We made our own passports for Geography--My girl's included pictures from Texas, Oregon, Hawaii and Grass Valley. They flew through math--a remarkable miracle all by itself. A resounding success, even if everything was an hour later than planned. No meltdowns, no non-school rabbit trails.

We can't afford that hour tomorrow, because we add Get Fit to the schedule at 3. We will hit the college track to do some fitness things with KidsROCK, including the timed mile! Man, I will be giving myself lots of room for improvement! I have been shamefully lacking in discipline with my own physical fitness. In fact, you could say I am quite consistent about it. :)