For the Journey


Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So today is my new favorite day. ~A.A. Milne

"You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance." ~Psalm 65:11
Well, you haven't seen our "first day of school" pictures yet because we haven't had the first day of school.  All of that will change on Monday though.  We've spent the last two weeks pretty much just getting ready.  Once school was over in May, I put school and everything about school out of my mind.  Usually I shop for uniforms and school supplies and new shoes in June, but I didn't do that this year.  I felt so behind and so unprepared, but we finally found uniform pants for Mason today so now we have everything we need for the new school year.  Oh, except Hannah Kate's pencil box that won't be here until next week because I didn't order it in time.  And I'm still on the hunt for a new lunch box.  But I'm sure no one will notice except me.

I'll be honest.  I DID NOT even want to think about school, much less start getting ready for a new school year.  But we had orientation TWO WEEKS AGO!  Yes, two weeks!  Hannah Kate's teacher is just precious.  She's a first year teacher . . . and she is excited!  Her classroom and her hallway bulletin board were immaculate.  As a matter of fact, most of the other teachers hadn't even decorated their rooms yet.  But Miss Vaughn has.  She even had cookies for all of her new students.  She's really cute and also short.  She's taller than her 1st graders but not by much.  As a matter of fact, when she introduced herself to one of the little boys in her class, he looked at her and said, "You look like just a big kid!"  I couldn't help but laugh.

Hannah Kate is ready.  And she's excited about going back to school again.
After we saw Hannah Kate's classroom and met her teacher, it was time to meet Mason's teachers.  Yes, plural.  He will change classes this year.  I thought I was ready, but I had a feeling I wasn't.  And, I wasn't.  Somewhere between the 1st grade hall and the 4th grade hall, I completely shut down.  We met Mason's teachers, but I didn't get not even the first picture.  In my defense though none of their rooms were decorated yet, and apparently 4th graders don't have bulletin boards.  We had such an awesome 3rd grade year and 3rd grade teacher, and I just wasn't ready to move on.  I wasn't ready for new teachers and harder work and the crazy after school schedule with dance lessons and therapy appointments.  I started feeling the same old fears again.  So I've spent the last two weeks facing those fears, literally.  

In the meantime (as in three days ago), I received a phone call from the Director at school.  She told me there was a mistake with Mason's schedule, and it was necessary to change his schedule.  This was very good news for us.  Of course, it also means that the teachers we met two weeks ago aren't Mason's teachers after all, and we haven't met his teachers at all!  So we'll be doing that on the first day of school.

I honestly can not believe it's that time again.  It seems like just yesterday that school was out for summer.  And now summer is out for school.

So besides shopping for school supplies and uniforms and such, we've just been lazy and sleeping late and going to the pool sometimes and staying up late.  


I've also been getting ready for Ellie's birthday party tomorrow.  Even though her birthday was three weeks ago, I'm so glad I decided to wait until the craziness of July was over before hosting her little party.  I've enjoyed it so much more than I would've last month.

I wanted the last week before school starts to be "relaxing."  Whatever that means.  But not only have I been working on Ellie's birthday party.  I decided to paint the dining room.  I hate painting.  I said when we finished our house four years ago that everybody better like the paint colors because I was never doing it again.  The dining room is now the third room I've painted this year.  I've actually had the paint since last December, but I just never made the time to do it.  It wasn't even that I didn't like the old color.  I just had a new vision for the dining room.  People always ask me why we have that room and if we even use it.  We eat in there on special occasions like Valentine's Day and birthdays and such.  But we use it more for homework and school projects.  There's a big table and a lot of room, and it's quieter in there than in other parts of the house.  So, yes, we use it a lot.  For the first time in three years, I'm actually a little excited about school starting.  I'm not nearly as anxious about Mason and reading this year.  He made so much progress last year and has done so well that I almost feel like it's a new start.  So I wanted a "new" dining room to match that new start since we'll start spending a lot of time in there again.

Normally I wouldn't undertake a major project - yes, painting is, to me, a major project - during the same week I'm getting ready for a birthday party.  But I did.  And not only that, but I did another DIY project, too.  I don't do DIY.  I'd rather just pay somebody else to do it!  I feel about DIY the way I feel about baking.  It NEVER turns out like the picture (or the Pinterest!).  So I just don't do it.  But I have to say I'm pretty happy with how my projects turned out this week, and I have several more I'm hoping to accomplish during the rest of the month.

Last weekend Seth and I went out on a date for our anniversary.  We also went mattress shopping.  Y'all.  I'd rather buy a new vehicle than a mattress!  I don't need a new vehicle, and I don't want one.  I've bought two vehicles in my lifetime and both experiences were easier than this!  Because let me tell you.  Apparently, a mattress is a long-term investment.  

Our first mattress set was given to us when we got married (so we didn't even go shopping for it).  It's 14 years old.  And it is time.  It sags awfully in the middle, and I feel like I'm sleeping (or trying to sleep) on a slope.  Every time Seth moves (he actually flops around ALL NIGHT LONG - yes, flops), I move, too.  I can not remember the last time I slept through the night without waking up.  And it's not because there's a baby in the house waking up either!  Even when Seth isn't here, and I'm in the bed by myself, I still can't sleep.  I think I woke up 100 times the other night.  That's when I realized why I'm so stinkin' tired all the time.  That's also when I realized that we have got to get a new mattress.  

Well, we looked and looked.  We laid and laid.  Even Seth did!  And we even came to an agreement and picked out the mattress we wanted.  Because not all mattresses are created equal.  And there's a whole lot that goes into a mattress.  And do you know how many gallons of sweat and dead skin cells are in your mattress if you don't have a water-proof mattress pad on it?  Well, I didn't know.  But I DO have a mattress pad.  Needless to say, I came home and washed it again just for extra measure.  

After all of that, I'm still not sleeping on a new mattress.  We decided to wait a few more months before making the purchase investment.  But I have to be honest.  Last Saturday night as I was laying SLEEPLESS in bed, I was telling myself that I could've been SLEEPING on a new mattress.

And that's pretty much what's been going on around here lately.