"I Hate School With All My Heart"

Wow.  So, here we are a month into school, I'm just now getting around to blogging about the first day, and the blog post title pretty much sums everything up.  Hahaha.  J/K.  But only kind of.  Hahaha.  I will say that this is the most lackluster enthusiasm-for-a-new-school-year that we've ever had around these parts, but other than that direct quote from Isaac -- "I hate school with all my heart," shouted angrily at me during drop-off one morning before hurriedly wiping away his tears, jumping out of the car and banging his fist once on the passenger side window (with fury in his eyes), and then stomping his way into the school building -- the kids have been dealing with school... okay.  {Ringing endorsement, I know.}  While Jane and Isaac have been the only ones (thus far) to vocally declare their hatred of school, I don't know if anyone is super stoked about having to get up every morning and get back to routine.  

Nevertheless, we managed to get pictures taken and everyone out the door on time for school the first day thanks to Scott's help while I was curling Jane's hair.  (Even with her waking up an hour earlier than she needed to, it still almost made us late with how long it took for me to help her with the curling wand.  Doh!)  Unfortunately, nothing noteworthy really stands out in my mind for our first-day-of-school-happenings other than the fact that I failed to have their promised chocolate chip cookies ready for an after school snack and was later berated by Isaac for not only NOT having the cookies made, but also for referring to them as a surprise when I said I'd make some for family home evening that night instead.  {To be fair, he's not wrong -- it's not really a surprise when I say things like, "I'm going to surprise you with some cookies for FHE."  Hahaha.}  While I might not have anything else scintillating to report specifically about anyone's first day of school, I can at least give you a (very) broad overview of how the year is going so far...

Grace -- 12th Grade

No longer a "rising Senior" but a Senior in earnest now, Grace is living the dream with a course load of all easy classes except for AP Lit.  Her only real stress for the year is getting all those college applications and essays and whatnot taken care of and turned in on time.  She continues to be a #carpoolmom for any friends needing rides to school from seminary and/or rides home at the end of the day, and I think it's safe to say that all the actual moms are thankful for her generous spirit.  ;) 

Sophie -- 10th Grade

Sophie's sophomore year is off to a great start, even if we have already missed a few days of school thanks to being sick.  She's taking some challenging classes this year, but I'm sure she'll do great and in the end, she'll have a couple of AP classes under her belt.  Helping matters significantly (at least so far as sleep goes), is the fact that this year there are only two days a week of early morning seminary.  Woo hoo!  Hahaha.  (They have online study for Monday and Friday, and then meet before youth activities on Wednesday evenings.)  

Jane -- 8th Grade

My precious little moonbeam is in her last year of junior high and I'm hoping we can get through the year without Jane hating school with all her heart.  Hahaha.  She's doing band again this year -- and unfortunately is not loving it -- but other than that, I haven't heard any major complaints about any other specific classes at school.  

Alex -- 6th Grade

Alex seems to be rocking the 6th grade so far, and by rocking it I mean he hasn't had any major anxiety attacks in the morning about having to go to school.  That's a massive win in my book, so I'm not sneezing at it.  His interests still run more towards screen time than academics, but I'm hoping to slowly but surely wean BOTH of the boys off of their electronics addiction now that school is back in session.  Wish me luck on that one.

Isaac -- 1st Grade

And now we get to our comic relief of the group.  In addition to school, he also hates music with all his heart as well as doing chores.  Hahaha.  Additionally, he's kind of this interesting paradox of seeming older than he is, like with his vocabulary and the way he phrases things at times, while also seeming much younger than he is with regards to being self-sufficient and helpful around the house.  His catchphrase is, "mom -- let me tell you something..." and it's become a running joke with all the others because he says it so often.  His teacher seems great and I'm hoping that no news is good news when it comes to problems he may be having at school.

This is quite a pitiful post (especially since so much time has gone by since the last time I blogged), but this is all I've got.  Emotions were running HIGH the first couple of weeks of school -- getting back on a sleep schedule was (and still is) RUFF, not to mention how mentally draining it is to be at school all day long -- so it wasn't too surprising that by the end of each day Scott was walking into absolute mayhem after work with meltdowns happening in surround sound.  Thankfully, things have gotten a little bit better and I'm crossing my fingers that they'll continue to trend in that direction.  (A mother can always dream.)  I still have other end-of-summer stuff to catch up on, plus all of our August birthdays, so in theory, I'll be blogging again soon to recap everything and keep our family record going strong.  Until then, I'm signing out!