September Update

Sorry, no catchy titles and no pictures right now. But I did want to post something! I was asked two weeks ago to be a "real" preschool teacher at the school we were last year, and we had a week to get the classroom ready. It's been a whirlwind since then. This was our third day of school with the little ones, and it's been really great, and really overwhelming at the same time. Everything has gone really well so far, much better than I expected, but I have a lot of ideas and no time to think about them or implement them. Fall is always a busy time for our family, but this is insane!

So...we'll see how it goes. We're trying not to schedule anything extra right now, and do the bare minimum around the house. But here's what's on our plates for the next couple months:
-I leave the house (with kids ready for school) at 7:15 every morning
-come home (with Jane) at 1:15.
-our neighbor Michael comes over two afternoons a week for preschool at our house (which I'm loving- he's such a great kid!)
-one afternoon is for errands (so we don't go home right away)
-pick up big kids at school (leave house at 3, back at 4:00)
-then an hour to unwind, which is filled with emptying backpacks, sharing stories from the day, etc.
-dinnertime comes all too soon, then the bedtime routine starts. Kids in bed by 7:30ish, then lunch-making and catching up on stuff.

Plus:
-Brendan is training for the Chicago marathon in October, so he's going out running about 4 days a week.
-I am in charge of registration for the women's retreat at our church, which is coming up in a month. I have not done registration before, and probably wouldn't have volunteered to do it had I known I'd be teaching. But I did, and I am, so I'll just see how it goes...from different sources it's "not that bad, kind of enjoyable" and "crazy hectic". I'll take the former, please!
-Jane's birthday was a few days ago, and she's having a little kid party soon (again, planned before the teaching job)
-there's a whole bunch more, but those are the basics.

*Sorry to bore you with our schedule, but that's how it is, folks. I haven't taken many pictures recently, but I'll try to post some soon and get back to our "pictures with a few words" type posts.