Happiness

  The kids are back in school! Declan is in 7th grade- Wahoo!- and Rosie is in 1st. They got Father's blessings that first week of school and are super excited to be back! Rosie is proud to not be in kinder anymore and to be a first grader! Declan is excited to have 7 different teachers and choose his own electives. Mom is excited to have a little extra free time until she gets a job. Dad is busy with all the new first year law students. Asher got a job working at Green Machine pest control. Life is good!

  The kids went back to school last week. Asher is a Senior and Declan is in 4th grade! They go back to school early so they can have two weeks of Spring and Fall Break. It’s pretty nice! Then Asher had a Church activity where they went to the lake. He spent seven hours in school, can home and then spent five hours at te lake. Pretty busy! Asher is pretty busy in general! Here is Rosie going to the dentist- she had no cavities and did really well!

School started yesterday! The kids first day of school went well! Asher is a Senior at Highland High School and Declan is in Fourth Grade with Mrs Yocklin at San Tan Charter School. Asher has a few challenging classes and Declan likes his class.  Elizabeth will be a freshman at Mesa Community College majoring in Conversative Biology and a Rosie will be at home with me. Ethan is currently in Blackfoot, ID for his 3rd transfer and Jonah is in Woodside/Queens for his 3rd transfer as well. They are both doing very well and we are so proud of them and their service to others and to the Lord. Josh is going back to school too! He got accepted to the PhD program of Complex Adaptive Systems at ASU. He can work on his degree while working at the same time. He is also teaching an online class.  I have eight piano students for this school year and I love each one of them! I enjoy teaching during the week. It’s going to be a great school year! I’m excited!! 

Rosie- 5 1/2 months Field trip! Dad and Rosie   The kids are slated to go back to school in person part time on Sept 8th! Hooray! Online school has been pretty good, but there is nothing like learning in person. Especially for my first grader Declan and for my boys in band. Everyone is ready to go back- especially me- although Ethan likes working from his bedroom lol. They will go two days a week and then if all the health metrics are met, they will go back full time on Sept 22nd. Hooray! I will miss not getting Rosie the baby up from her nap to take Declan to school but this will be worth it! I hope I have enough masks for everyone! It’s good news all around! 

My kids are literally climbing the walls! 😆 In Arizona, we’ve had the highest amount of COVID cases in the Nation. Governor Ducey opened up the pools and gyms and restaurants about a month ago and the cases skyrocketed after that. We’ve been mostly staying home, trying to flatten the curve. It’s been hard and fun at the same time. We’re trying to find the joy that is in the mess of life. Our School district has said that the kids will go back to school on Aug 5th. On the 17th they get to choose between online school and part time going to class and being part of class online at home. All of my 5 kiddos- including Declan- have chose to go to school. Recess will be in smaller groups and lunch the kids will be able to eat in different places in the High School. I think masks will be optional but we don’t know for sure.  It will be Elizabeth’s Senior year (go class of 2021!), Ethan and Jonah will be Juniors, Asher will be a Freshman (four in High School!!) and Declan wil...

Well, the kids are all back to school! Except Declan. Who now wants to go to "Mommy School". We do it a few times a week for 10-15 minutes at a time. A craft, a short lesson, a snack. Today we are learning about rocks- and using a kit with sand and gems we got from my Grandpa. He's such a big kid- he even stopped using his binky yesterday! *I told him he was a big boy and handed him a sippy cup full of water instead of the binky and he was fine with it. We'll see how he does at nap time today!  The boys have had a hard time adjusting from 6th to 7th grade but they will get it! I start teaching piano lessons next week so hopefully we'll be in a routine by then! Back to school we are!

  First Day of School Pictures!  It seemed like we were still recovering from the summer, so everyone woke up a little tired. They still woke up a little early and pretty excited! Elizabeth had a 7th grader preview day so she went the day before and we had 2 first days of school! On the first day of school we usually do a yummy hot breakfast and homemade cookies at the end of the day.  This year I made cookies for Elizabeth but was all sugared out to make some more for the boys first day. We also do Priesthood Father's School Blessings the Sunday before. It seems like everyone will have a great school year this year! I usually get a blessing too, since I am starting a new year as being the Mom of all these school aged kiddos- and a baby. I got blessed that my headache will go away. Yay!  Elizabeth- 7th Grade. Ah! I have a 7th grader! She was excited and nervous and had a great day at school! She even ended helping others who were lost or who had ...

Asher, Jonah, Ethan and Elizabeth The Kids are off to School! Yay!! It's always a bittersweet experience. Sad to see them go and grow up so fast. Glad that they are growing and learning and I can have some time to myself. Here are the pics from this morning! It went pretty smoothly, except Asher wanted a black pencil box instead of the clear one I had gotten him and Ethan seemed to need a desk organizer right away! Elizabeth has Mrs. Hall, who was her top pick, Ethan has a new teacher, Jonah has Mrs. Bretzke- who we love from last year and Asher has Mrs. Rissi (who had to get a sub half day today and tomorrow to attend her Gma's funeral). I asked each one of them what they were excited about going back to school. Elizabeth: "The Talent Show" Ethan: "The Fields Trips! Do we go on one this month?"  Jonah: "I don't know!"  Asher: "I don't know" They are excited to get a start on the new year! Yay for ...

Jonah still wears Red and Ethan still wears Blue. I wonder how long this will last? Today is the third day that the kids are in school. Already the "Honeymoon" phase has ended and the kids have started to wane in their excitement. It has been so hot that they had no recess at all yesterday and do you know what no recess means for kid Elementary School age? It means they bottle up all their energy and spend it when they get home. Luckily I had them swimming Wednesday and in the evening on Thursday. We may take a break today, because swimming every day wears me out (not that I am complaining or anything!). Today I let them walk to school by themselves. I stood by our house and waved Goodbye. I went to take the recycling in and when I turned back Jonah had turned around and was giving me the Biggest wave ever. It's those little moments that make it all worth it. I hate sending my kids to school and having them be gone all day, but I know that I would not be able to teach the...

Ethan- 3rd Grade Elizabeth- 4th Grade Jonah- 3rd Grade Asher- 1st Grade All 4 kiddos- ready for a new school year!! Go, Abbotts, Go! (Wed. Aug. 8, 2012) This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.