All five grandkids start the new school year today. That's a big wow for me! One starts fourth grade, two start first grade, and the youngest two return to their preschools, though each will be on the young side of their classroom composition. So, big steps forward for all!
For me as well. Ed is still waiting for a favorable wind to bring him into his final sailing port, so I wake up to an empty house. It's cold and it's dark when I get out of bed. Yes, the sun does crack the horizon by the time I go to the barn to release and feed the chickens...
... but the feel of autumn is unmistakable.
(a mist covers the prairie just beyond the farmette lands)
I need to be at my older girl's house a few minutes after seven and I dont want to get stuck in traffic, so I am on the road way before that. Tradition has it that I take the First Day photo of her three kids. It's silly, of course. She's a good photographer. But I love these routines that give a good push to a new beginning. (Witness: big deal about breakfast, every single day.) I very much love always being there at the start of the new school year. (And if I could be in two places at once, I'd be in Chicago too. With permission, I'm posting as well the "first school day" pic of the Chicago girls.)
(Snowdrop)
(Sparrow)
(Sandpiper)
(Juniper and Primrose)
And it is joy. Sure, one child is a tad nervous about the reentry into the social quagmire that is the classroom, and another is tearful when left by parents in a totally new setting, but this is all insignificant. All five kids are happy campers. Or rather schoolers.
Which, of course, puts us old people in great moods as the new school year begins.
I drop off the older kids, I do grocery shopping, I drive over to the bakery. All this before my first cup of coffee!
(always fun to see what designs appear on the breads)
My breakfast (finally!) is with music and my computer. So yes, a long one. On the porch, but I'm bundled in a sweatshirt. The cool air stays with us all the morning hours.
I could get ambitious, but something of that labor-free weekend stays with me and so I go slowly with my tasks for the day. I clean up cat messes, I weed a little, I scrub a bathroom, I attend to my unhappy mother. And finally, I settle in with my second cup of coffee and a book. To get that feeling of peace that I always want to have with me as I set out to pick up the two older kids at the end of their school day.
We come to the farmette of course. Familiar and sweet.
I'm not surprised to hear that all five kids had great first school days. It's like a spring garden -- there so much hope, so much enthusiasm for the project ahead, that it's easy to get sucked into all that positivity. Old friends stay loyal, new friends are responsive, teachers are smiling, the work load is small.
Such a good first day... For all the kids out there who went off to school for the first time today: may your enthusiasm never waver, and your friendships grow strong.
Happy year ahead!
