School is in session

School started a few weeks ago and things have been rather busy here while we are getting into a routine. Pulling the kids out of school almost 3 weeks early back in May and thrusting them into the chaos of a major renovation on a house in Boise has caused a considerable amount of upheaval in our schedule, some laxness in what used to be steadfast rules and leftover “to do” items that have been accumulating for months. After cramming in as much work and play as possible over the past few months we are changing course and attempting to redirect our energies to school work, Matthijas’ therapy, after-school activities and redistributing responsibilities.

Johannes is as busy and as he gets more comfortable with his new position, he is allotted more assignments and responsibilities with a few upcoming out of town assignments coming up.

I on the other hand am trying to play catch up. I finally bought my Quickbooks Pro program today and have a three hours prep course this evening. I have been winging it for the past few years but now is the time to crack down and make my work count for something, tie up the loose strings and make all these properties into a real business. I have been avoiding this for a long time but my silver IKEA box stashed in my closet filled to the brim with receipts is starting to look a B-movie villain with jagged teeth that may eat me in my sleep if I don’t tame it.  It sort of reminds me of the book about magical beasts that attacks Harry Potter and hides under the bed snarling and growling.

Here are some pictures of the  kids on their first day of school, and Arcadia getting on the bus a few days later. It has been fun to have just Jasper home in the mornings and let him have some time to himself where no is pulling lucha libre moves trying to extricate an abandoned toy that was suddenly remembered the second Jasper takes an interest.

Matthijas is enjoying his new class and new teacher. He has been moved into a integrated “at-risk” + head start class with some friends from church. We are excited that he graduated from the non-verbal class and put in with regular pre-school kids. I got to help out last week in the class, and for the time being his familiarity with the class and schedule seem to be a huge benefit and keep him on par with his classmates. Hopefully he will be able to keep up with them and progress at the same rate so he doesn’t fall obviously behind .

Arcadia is back into Girl Scouts, and has already had two field trips and an overnight sleepover. It is her main social activity and she really enjoys it. We just need to add in some piano lessons to the school year as soon as we get schedules organized and she should be set for the year.