Doing better at this blog is a new goal. I am trying to organize my time so that at least once a week, I journal here my thoughts and the goings on in my household.

We are back in the swing of the school mode, I guess. Ethan started 3rd grade yesterday. It was the first year that I didn't stay home to get him on the bus. That was hard for me, but he seemed to take it in stride. First day jitters weren't a problem. Ethan's school loops, so he has the same teacher and kids in his class this year that he did last year. No anxiety with that at least.

I did, however, get a call from the school. The dreaded first day call.... Ethan was stung by a yellow jacket. I guess he and other boys from his class had stumbled on a nest in the "peace garden." Not so peaceful yesterday. He got iced down and covered in baking soda toothpaste. He managed to breathe in and out like we practiced and made it back to the classroom.

I wonder sometimes how to prepare he and Hope for all that is coming. I've lately been teaching a lot more a reliance on the truth that God is always with them. We have been praying more on the spur of the moment for things big and small.

Charlie and I go tonight to meet Hope's preschool teacher and see the classroom. Hope will be going to preschool two mornings a week. Ugg... she's only 3. I'm not ready for this. She also has taken to dressing herself in the morning in the most delightful outfits. They make me smile, so I actually let her get out the door with them. Except for Sundays... we have to have some standards for church.

I have been reading a lot lately. How much is actually absorbing, I don't know. I have also been struggling to "be there" for Charlie. He is discouraged about a lot right now and I haven't done the greatest job of lifting him up. It's something I have struggled with for the whole almost 10 years of our marriage. You would think I would have learned how to by now.