School is just around the corner. Our school books arrived today, and the nervous ball of ,"What am I doing home schooling my children?!!", subsided right then and there. Looking at all of the subjects my kids and I are going to tackle I realized that I made the best decision for us all in bringing them home. Are there going to be days down the road where I fantasize about 6 hours of alone time on a Wednesday when my kids should be in regular school? Absolutely. But in seeing the stacks and stacks of new (and gently used) books I knew with a certainty that can only be felt deep within that bringing them home was the right thing to do for us. It will take us a bit to juggle everything. We will have to try and try again when it comes to figuring out which subjects to do in which order, and what works best at what time of the day, but we will get it eventually. I am so grateful that I had the guts to do something that everyone but me was so uncertain about. That I had the wherewithal to know deep inside what was right for my family right now, and to fight for that. I am proud of the battles I faced, both externally and internally, and I am proud that I did not give up the fight even when I wanted to cower and send them back because it was what others wanted me to do. Growing is good. It is sometimes super, duper hard, but it is good.
With school comes sports and girl scouts, and now dance too. All 4 kids are playing soccer, and because of a recently signed budget bill in Ohio my kids are allowed to play sports for their local school even if they are home schooled. This means that Andy is officially on the middle school soccer team. It also means that Andy gets to have the same coach as Josh as the school hired a new middle school soccer coach. Yeah for us!!! I love Josh's soccer coach, and I know that Andy will thrive under him. Josh will be playing (sorry, Andy, Sarah, and Elizabeth) on my most favorite soccer team again this fall, and I feel that this will be one of the last seasons it will be this same group of boys. I will cherish every game. Elizabeth moved up to the U8 division this season, and is going to have her hands full. She is now playing with only girls which I like (sorry, A.L. - I know how you disagree), and is also playing on a bigger field. She is a pretty good player, so I am excited to see her develop as the season goes on. She will also begin ballet classes at the dance studio my sister owns. Not quite sure how that will go, but we'll see...
As for Sarah - Bob and I got to watch her play soccer this past Saturday. It was very special for us because just 6 weeks ago she was in the Cleveland Clinic, and I wasn't sure she was going to be able to play soccer again. I was happy to see her out on the field. You don't really realize how amazing simple things in life are until they are taken away from you. This is how I felt watching Sarah play soccer. Life is different now for us - it will always be different, but watching her play made me realize that it will still be amazing. Sarah has also decided to stick Girl Scouts out another year. She is not sure that it is right for her, but wanted to take another stab at it before giving it up. She is also going to start taking ballet lessons at my sisters studio. She took lessons there before several years ago, and was (from what my sister said) a very talented ballerina - she just never really took to it. She decided she wanted to try it again, so here we are.
Fall is my favorite time of year. The 'Katy-Did's' are out in their full glory at night. The weather cools. In Ohio (knock on wood) September and October bring beautiful days. Football begins. Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth - my long lost friends - come to visit once a week. If all goes well we will be in a new home too. Life is good right now. The busy fall days ahead will be filled with things we love, and for that I am grateful.
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