Back to School and Home Alone!

Yesterday was the first day of school here. Here are my little students, ready to go:

I surprised myself with how much I was able to do before they left. I had ideas of things to do to make the day special and fun for them, but I wasn't sure that I would have the time to do them. The night before, Talia asked me to paint her nails and I did, then Katrina wanted the same but we were out of time, but I actually had time to do them before school in the morning. When I took them to school, I overheard Katrina happily telling her little friend (who was a boy) about her painted nails :)

I managed to crank out a fun breakfast that I saw online (apple shaped pancakes) and I made some little apple place-mats for our dinner that night and got out some cute napkins and cups and straws. Dinner was not fancy (it's so not my area of expertise or enjoyment).. we had "dippy eggs" and toast ;) Then we went to a local frozen yogurt shop (where you get to serve yourself & choose from lots of toppings) for a special treat.

Intentions

This summer I had a goal to do a lot of fun things with the girls to try to make happy memories for them. I made a plan at the beginning of the season, we made summer bucket lists and we talked about what we could do that would cost us the least. We did most of what I wanted to do and I'm really happy with the way that it went! Towards the end of the summer though, I started to think about how intentional I had been with making fun memories and though I felt good about that, I realized that I had let some other things slide a bit (we hadn't been very good about reading scriptures together daily or doing family prayer each day). I think those things are very important for our family, so I decided that I needed to be more intentional about fitting those things in, as we move into the school year.

Goals

Ken and I talked and decided that with the way his schedule is right now, we could all wake up at 7am each morning and have family scripture study and prayer together, to start the day. It's day two and we're going strong ;) haha I feel good about this goal and I think it's going to work as long as his schedule stays like this (we'll see what happens when he graduates in a few months- adjustments may have to be made).

Changes

It's hard to believe that I've really come to this point of having both of my kids at school all day, every school day. Katrina's in grade one and Talia's in grade three. I won't have any little side kicks with me during the weekdays anymore! I'm looking forward to the extra time I will have to get things done and hopefully keep things more in order in our home. I'm working on figuring out how best to manage my time so that I can be most present with my family when the girls (and Ken) come home from school. I have lots of ideas but instead of sharing them now, I'll share them when/if I do them!

Although I'm excited for the extra productive time I will have, I am also sad to see my little munchkins go for so much of the week. I have really enjoyed having them home during the summer. I can't let myself think too deeply about it, or I'm likely to cry, so I just stop myself whenever my thoughts try to go there!

Have you hit that stage when all of your kids are off to school?
If so, what have you learned along the way about how to make the most of your time both while they're at school and when they're home?

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Please subscribe or follow to keep in touch.