Wednesday, August 27, 2025

First day of school



Before the great flood of ‘25 ravaged the living room, I had taken my courage in my hands to face the school room.








It was in its usual end-of-summer state.







Buck was very interested in the proceedings





In my archaeological digging I discovered this legally binding document.





Once the room was fit for human habitation, I sat at the table and worked on school stuff while Buck sat as close as possible, staring unblinkingly at me.





In progress and much improved









I decided I wanted a little rearranging, which required Buck’s area to shift while he was in it. After a summer of solitude, this was absolutely the most exciting day of his life in months.


And he was completely exhausted afterwards.







Clean, “after” pictures:













And a bunny still recovering from the frenzied hopping occasioned by the furniture rearranging.







After my school preparations were pretty much done, we had Caleb and Lizzy each invite a friend and we brought them to the fair.









We got them in the gate, slapped ride wristbands on them, handed each pair $20, and waved goodbye. Then Jason and I walked off hand in hand to browse the exhibits or sit in the shade as we pleased.


I love having big kids.


First stop after lunch: duckies.





















Second stop: bunnies.







Sooo many bunnies.









All the bunnies.

















The girls’ volleyball games started a week before we started school.











They practice and have home games at a facility in this breathtaking setting.











I dropped Liz off early to warm up for their first game and then took a walk with my camera before the game started, and I encountered this critter which is either a very young R.O.U.S. or a juvenile groundhog.











Lizzy is on JV, whose games are followed by Ada’s varsity games.







Our very exciting local civic development is the opening of a new coffee shop less than a mile from our house—the only coffee shop in town, which has been sadly lacking therein.



Lizzy and I were determined to contribute our patronage as soon as possible.



Lizzy got some playing time in the second game.






And both teams won!





date night



This week, Monday was the big day.




Ada had to take her own picture since she left for work before Caleb was even up for school.





Although my schedule looks easier on paper this year—so much so that I had been wondering what I’ll do with all my newfound free time—since the kids get more academically independent every year; I have found out what I’ll do with my time.


Read the Federalist Papers.


We can do all the discussing, homework assigning, and correcting that needs to be done in a few hours a day, but the upshot of deciding I’m going to teach high school government this year means that I have many hours of homework myself.


The plan was to write a total of 25 essays
The work divided evenly among the three men
In the end, they wrote 85 essays in the span of six months
John Jay got sick after writing five
James Madison wrote 29
Hamilton wrote the other 51

How do you write like you’re running out of time?
Write day and night like you’re running out of time?


Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Non-Stop” 




Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...