First Day of School

The first day of school arrived like it always does amidst excitement and anxiety as to what the new school year would bring.  And as always, two weeks in, we believe this is going to be the best year yet.  The kids all like their teachers and have all found old friends on the playground and made a new one.  Jacob got the teacher he wanted and I've been equally impressed so things couldn't be better in 6th grade.  Charlotte has had the toughest transition as last year's teacher did not believe in homework and this year's teacher believes in a LOT of homework.  I just feel fortunate that she's so very talented and organized so while it's kind of a pain, she's managing very well.  Laurel has the nicest second grade teacher at the school so who can complain about that.  And Mary is at the same preschool as last year - we loved it then so this year will be more of the same.

I am once again heading up the Art Adventures program for our elementary and must say the best revenge is working at something long enough to see amazing results.  Last year the Art Adventure program sort of dropped into my lap when the coordinator had to quit to look for a job and my other helper announced she was going through a divorce.  Thus began a bumpy journey which included missing the deadline for submitting training numbers (thankfully, they still let us come), taking 9 women to the MIA for training ON THE WRONG DAY, and then not doing the greatest presentations because I took the piece no one wanted (you know, the-captain-always-goes-down-with-the-ship mentality).

But this year, I hit the ground running.  I submitted a flier for the Wednesday envelopes the first week, asking for a three week run.  And I laid out exactly how the program worked and what was required on that flier hoping that candor would be effective.  I just collected the forms at two weeks so I had some time to recruit if needed, and 18 - EIGHTEEN forms came back - a record for our school.  We only really need 16 volunteers to run a robust program and in past years we've gotten by with 10-13 so I am pretty jazzed to say the least.  I have checked and double checked the training dates so I feel pretty confident we'll be at the MIA on the right day this year.  And since I don't plan on being frazzled going into the actual presentations, those should go better as well . . . although I'll probably end up with the piece no one wants again since I believe you should never ask someone to do something you're not willing to do yourself.  So yea, life is good, really good!