Time Marches On

School starts three weeks from yesterday. (Imagine I inserted a sad face emoji here since I don't want to actually add one.) Phoebe marked the calendar "1st day of school!" She's excited enough for all of us. I am not ready to say goodbye to summer. I never am though, so it's not a big surprise. But this year I have a few additional reasons to want to hold on to the lazy days of summer.

The kids have been exceptionally helpful while they've been home. In addition to doing chores (which still aren't always completed, but the house isn't in total chaos so I think we're doing pretty well), they've played with and read to Sophie. This has made it possible for me to hold Topher. And while that sweet baby is really improving when it comes to nighttime sleep, he cannot seem to figure out daytime sleep, unless he's held or rolling in the stroller or car. Thus, having my days available to sit and hold him has been important. I'm not sure how we're going to handle not having the big kids here to help each day.

Also, Peter is moving to Middle School this year. Now, I've been told that this Middle School is actually amazing and a wonderful place of learning and positive peer interactions (outlier middle school?), so that's not what has me worried. Nope, the thing I'm anxious about is the start time. Instead of leaving the house at 7:25 in the morning, he'll need to be out a whole hour earlier. He's finally embraced the wondrous concept of sleeping in, just in time to wake up super early. And that means I'll need to be up super early too, probably after not much sleep the night before. I guess it'll be good practice for high school and early morning seminary in a few years.

This week we began the process of getting ready for that early wake-up time. We were out of the house and at the park not long after 9 o'clock yesterday morning. So all we need to do is shift that two and a half hours earlier and we'll be golden.