And They're Off

Like many of you, we celebrated the first day of the new school year this morning.  I really don't think celebrate is too strong of a word either.  Sure, there were no balloons, no singing, and no cake (the official sign of anything party in my opinion).  We did however, have chocolate chip pancakes, pretty hair, and outfits, and lots of picture taking to capture the event.  The girls were both excited and a little nervous for the change in teacher, classroom, and in Isabelle's case, a change in school altogether.  I'm happy to say they were up, dressed, and fed, captured on sd card, and each one arrived on school on time.  When the kids were little women would often comment that "it goes by so fast".  I truly didn't believe them.  I found the days of crying, pooping, fighting, biting, making messes, and cleaning up after them to be somewhat mundane and drawn out.  That's not to say that there weren't many moments of joy: at the first giggle, the first step, the random use of the word 'actually', the big sister reading to little sister(s) moments, the dress up games, and all the fun stuff of pre-schoolers, there was indeed plenty of that.  I just remember many moments of feeling depressed, and isolated during those times, it clouded my perspective of how sincerely short that season of kids truly is.   For those of you with little ones, believe them when they tell you.  They've been there, they know what they're talking about.  Today as I was taking photos of my girls I was almost overwhelmed with how many days are already behind them.  I realized I likely won't have them to myself for hours at a time ever again.  I am struck with how all those hours of reading stories, going over the alphabet, teaching them their colours, making bunny bow after bunny bow in order to practice tying shoe laces have paid off.  My girls are now fully functioning members of their classrooms, they are students of academia now, learning more complex things like long division, and the tricky grammatical rules of the English language.  I am all too aware, that the days of childhood do indeed go quickly, and soon enough I'll be looking back on today, thinking how much they were still like babies, even though as they left for their first day of Grades 3, 4, and 7 they all seemed so grown up.  I pray that with the Lord's help I will continue to be a teacher to them, a primary influence in their lives.  I pray they learn compassion, and kindness in even greater proportions than academics.  Schools will always be there to teach that which can be learned through books, my role is to model to them, and support and encourage them in the ways of Jesus, and to nurture in them the Fruit of the Spirit. 

So off you go my girls, I am so proud of each of you as you boldly take first steps into the 2011/2012 school year.  I love you!

My heart melts to see them so happy together, even for just a moment

She was a little nervous walking into this sea of Jr High kids.

This guy.  Not sure what he's going to do with himself for 6 hours with out his playmates today.  If only I could teach him to dust, do laundry, and scrub toilets.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world friends.  Thank you for stopping by, especially those of you who stayed with me to the end of the post :)

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