the first 40 years...

we're settling into our new routine and new life. home schooling is going well, we're still tweaking to fit our life and i feel like everyday it gets better. isaiah is loving his kindergarten class and is making new friends. the girls and i are enjoying our 'girl time' and the little break it brings to have the boys at school a couple days a week.

i think part of my anxiety and emotion regarding all that has been going on, was the anticipation of the change in life. and it was true that we were catapulted into a new phase. just like that we are dealing with 'school age' things.

friends who lie, girls who are mean, new vocabulary and a new level of attitude. in general it is safe to say all three of them have matured leaps and bounds in the past few weeks.

i find myself praying fervently for isaiah as he's at school. that he will be a leader, not a follower. that he will have fun, but will also work hard. that he would be the one who is not mean, and doesn't get pushed around, but protects those who are weak and is not afraid to stand up for what he knows is right. it's a whole new world for him...and me! i find myself remembering conversations my parents had with me, things they said, i hear myself repeating them verbatim to him.

alaythia has a bully in her life. the last few times she's come home from church related activities she tells us about what went on. i know how mean girls can be. it was not easy to watch and listen to my daughter repeat these things to me. i fought every mother-bear urge coursing through my veins, took a deep breath and told her the truth of who she is. and reminded her who she will be.

sophia...well i've affectionately started calling her my tasmanian devil. just yesterday during school, i turned to find her gnawing on a piece of chalk she had pulled from the chalkboard. she's into everything and really fast. all of my whispering in her ear about not becoming a 'crazy' has not worked!

and just like that things have changed. that is the thing about parenting, its never constant, just when you get comfortable, you move to the next phase. a friend gave me a magnet for my birthday a few years ago it said, 'don't worry, the first 40 years of parenting are the hardest.' i laughed when i read it, but i'm starting to think it's the truth!