So what's the deal? It's simple - he has to go back every day. He's fine in the car, doesn't fight me to leave the house. He chats with his brother while we drive to the first morning drop off. He talks with me pleasantly on the way to his school. And then just about the time I make the final turn to get us to school, Scooter gets very quiet and whispers/whines something like 'I don't want to go in without you.' You see, the first day you can walk your kid all the way in the room. On the second you can guide them through their morning process and walk just inside the doorway of the classroom to say goodbye. For the rest of the first week you are allowed to walk those kids down the hall to their lockers and say goodbye. But then the niceties are over.
They call it the 'hug zone', the door that leads into the school on the kindergarten hallway. Scooter's locker is a whopping 20 feet from the door. He knew that I couldn't walk him in this week, we had prepared him. And he was fine about it, right up until the moment he was supposed to walk over the threshold yesterday. Tears, whining, more tears and clinging to my legs and body ensued. Eventually someone just had to take him from me and I saw the principal take him from her, calm him and start walking toward his teacher. And yet, when I picked him up he was happy and confident.
This morning we actually got to school a tad early and sat in the car talking about it. I asked him if he wanted to pray about walking into school on his own. This is pretty standard for us. I can give the boys all the normal platitudes about everyone being nervous or scared and first days being hard for everyone, but eventually even I will run out of words. So, we pray. We put our trust in Jesus. I thank Jesus for all the special things about that child out loud and in their hearing and then we ask Him for his help. So Scooter nodded solemnly when I asked him if he wanted to pray, but before we did so I also gave him an extra little boost. I reminded him that Jesus was with him all day, every day, even when I am not with him. I told him that Jesus knew him inside and out and even knew how many hairs were on his head, which I, as his mother, did not know. I told him Jesus had known him even longer than I had, before he was born. I told him that he could talk to Jesus quietly in his head during the day, anytime, when he was scared or lonely and Jesus would hear him and be with him. He could ask Jesus to help him be brave and He will answer. Then we prayed, got out of the car and walked to the hug zone.
It wasn't perfect, he didn't confidently walk through the door and smile and wave me off. Like I said, some days it's not about what happens. But, what did NOT happen was that tears did not fall. They were close, there was a little voice cracking and almost losing it, but he didn't cry and he didn't cling to my leg. Scooter just couldn't make himself cross the threshold. Eventually the principal called discreetly to his teacher who came and took his hand, commanded Scooter to give his mom one more goodbye hug and then took him down the hall with her. No tears. Really. It's going to be slow going with Scooter on this stuff, but I really can foresee the day that I will drive through the drop off line and he will hop out and run to the door and his class on his own. We have agreed to help the neighbors out and take Scooters buddy, Noah, to school one day this week when their schedules are a little hectic. I have my fingers crossed that this will be the day (tomorrow or Thursday??) that he will walk in without any issues since he'll be going through the door with his friend. Okay, maybe not without ANY issues, but let's say LESS issues.
Poor little guy, it just takes Scooter so long to get used to everything. I am hoping that he will adjust to soccer practice and his team more quickly than last year so I don't have to deal with any major drama this weekend at both his and Riley's first games. Of course, Scott has to work that day and my dad will be in the process of helping my sister drive her car and her stuff back from Las Vegas. I'm sorry - hadn't I mentioned that? MY SISTER IS MOVING BACK TO TEXAS!!!!! YAY! Technically, she and her husband will be living in Austin again, but it's a whole heck of a lot closer and I am absolutely thrilled that I will get to see her more than once or twice a year again. The kids are pretty pumped too and we all can't wait to spend Labor Day with her before she heads from Dallas to Austin. Anyway - my mother and I will be left to deal with both kids adjustments and games for the first round of soccer. There will be a whole lot of praying going on between now and then, let me tell you!
In other news - the weather is finally going to break a little! For all my Wisconsin readers, what that means is that our highs this weekend are ONLY going to be in the mid 90's. Really. I am pretty darned thrilled about that. Tomorrow will be day 63 this summer of over 100 degree days. That's a lot. Most of them have been in the last 2 months so it has felt like we were never going to get any relief. Yesterday and this morning we even had some overcast clouds (what's a cloud???) and a few sprinkles. Not enough to make a dent in our severe drought, but I was so thrilled I went out and just stood in the rain to remember what it feels like.
I have spent the last week preparing and then beginning my cooking/freezing process. I really hadn't planned on doing all of this at once, just cooking one-freezing one for a while so that we would have some extra meals on hand for busy week nights. However, last week I found so many great (ridiculous almost) deals on meat and dairy products which is the bulk of the ingredients for my freezable dishes that I bought enough to make my normal run. For those of you that are not familiar, my normal run is somewhere between 25 and 30 recipes which will make our family between 50 and 60 meals. I usually cook all the meals over 2 days, but generally not in the summer. This time I decided to spread the cooking out over a week so that I am only doing the cooking in the morning and by the afternoon high temperatures (and energy conservation so we don't overload our overtaxed grid) I can keep me and the house cooler and not break my back. So far I've managed 10 recipes and have 17 meals in the freezer. We've eaten 3 as I've been working. I have 18 more recipes to go, but 2 of them are actually side dishes that I will split up for a few meals and this is something new for me. I won't be able to get the exact figure until I am finished and know what I end up with in the freezer, but it's looking like about $2.75 per meal and most of those are casserole type dishes or have pasta or rice in them so sides aren't necessary. Plus my family will have healthy, home cooked meals on our busiest nights instead of frozen pizza or fast food. We'll also have some of our normal fare during the next two months to break up the monotony and also because we generally enjoy just a normal pork chop or chicken breast or roast, especially during the fall months when it starts to get cooler outside.
Riley has been a huge help to me while I have been working. Well, as much as he can be. Since I won't let him cut vegetables or raw meat with a sharp knife he has taken to using his kiddy knife to cut up strange combinations of crackers, cookies and fruit bars; he mixes them in a bowl, pops them in a pretend oven and tells me it's for Scooter or Daddy or better yet - our customers. Didn't you know I had customers? Some days that little guy follows me around helping make beds, switch out laundry (he even started trying to fold some small towels), unloading and loading the dishwasher and picking up toys around the house. He can be such a hard worker. And then he will decide that when I asked him to not walk across my freshly grouted tile it wasn't really a rule, but more like a guideline (they have been watching Pirates of the Caribbean a lot lately, they love Captain Jack Sparrow - sorry) and he just does what he wants anyway. We've had a lot of talks lately about listening to momma and doing what I say.
Speaking of tile - I guess I should show you what we've been up to around here. We spent some time fixing and patching walls and I figured out how to match my existing texture and completed that process. So, I finally got to paint. It was a big job - our kitchen, living room and hallway - ceiling and everything. I let the kids help since there weren't any concerns about drips on floors or trim or anything. They actually covered a lot more ground than I expected which put me on double time going back over their work to make sure we didn't have big paint blobs or missed spots. They wore a couple of my painting t-shirts and got a lot of paint in hair and on feet. It was a blast.
I can't tell you how much better it feels to walk out of my room each morning and into rooms that don't have cracks and are painted a new, pretty color. I liked the colors I had, don't get me wrong. But they were very brown and I had had them for over 6 years, I was ready for a change. I also was way past ready to cover up the orange brick of my fireplace. The mantle fell down when Riley was a baby so I have suffered without for a long time. I hate it most when it's time to decorate for Christmas. The plan was to tile over the thing, but then it occurred to me that if I painted it and loved it I could save some money. If I painted it and hated it, I hadn't lost anything and could still tile over it. I took that dark grey paint I used for the stripe in the boys room and painted the brick. I know you can't tell in the pictures, but our walls are now actually a light grey, they look pretty white in certain light or in the pictures, but they are grey. What do you think? I am loving it and have decided to hold off on the tile. It needs a mantle, I know, but that's coming eventually. Oh, and yes I realize I dripped primer onto my painted doors and will have to touch those up as well.
What do you think? We are kinda diggin it! So it was finally time to tile the kitchen. F-I-N-A-L-L-Y! Ok, if you didn't already know, I have lived with concrete floors in my kitchen for about 2 years. Before that there was some pretty nasty vinyl down there that had gashes and tears in it and peeled away from the base boards. The reason for that, it turns out, was that the previous owners had just laid the stuff down over the original Mustard Yellow and Olive Green Linoleum (with a seriously intricate mosaic pattern) and only laid it to the base boards without removing them. The original stuff must have went really well with the mustard yellow and doo-doo brown mini-tiles that had been the back splash in our kitchen once upon a time. Anyway - the floor that was here didn't look clean no matter what I did to it. There hasn't been a decent floor in the kitchen since I've lived here, but I have been very, very patient. And it was so worth the wait. I think I appreciate it more for the wait. Riley jumped in to help tiling too.
Don't you just love the dark stained concrete in the background? Not pretty, done on purpose and sealed stained concrete. Nasty, dark thanks to the black glue used for the ancient linoleum and dust producing unsealed concrete that I couldn't walk on barefoot 5 minutes after I mopped it because it was so nasty. Gone now! Yay! And here are the results:
Bella loves the new tile, she's always happiest when she can lay that big bulk of hers on a nice cool floor. I guess I can't get these pictures any bigger so you can't really tell it's tile in all of them, but I swear it is. There's still a ton to do: painting the window sills, re-caulking the windows on the inside, replacing the trim on my pantry and water heater doors, painting the cabinet doors above my laundry and painting the inside of the pantry, finishing the grout sealing (I ran out of my first bottle a third of the way through my dinette), and of course base moulding. I have no idea when I will be able to replace the carpet in our living room and do the moulding all the way through, but I think I'll be working on at least the kitchen walls that are not common to the main room soon. It's still a work in progress and won't be done immediately because we do this stuff slowly, when we have cash on hand to pay for it and we do it ourselves (with a lot of help from my sweet daddy). It'll get done eventually anyway.
I am absolutely thrilled with how much we have gotten done in the past month and a half. I love walking on my new tile floor, it's so pretty. Actually, it's kind of dirty in these pictures because the dogs tracked mud in yesterday (there was mud!!! from some rain!!!!) and I absolutely refuse to use the nasty old mop that's been cleaning that concrete on the new pretty floors. I'll buy a new mop this week and get cracking - right after I finish sealing the grout.
I'm off to do some more cooking and then take my hubby to pick up his truck. Can you believe it? One year after we replaced the engine AND the radiator, the radiator went out - again. At least it's under warranty and wasn't a major expense. Soccer practice again tonight - please pray that the boys handle it better with Scotty there with us. Busy weekend ahead with parties and visits with friends and family. And oh yeah - Tyler officially moved into the YOUTH GROUP (yikes!) at church this past Sunday. He will be going to his first Wednesday night worship and bible study tomorrow night, we're so excited.
Love to all - Have a great week!
Your new floor looks amazing! Great job.
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