Back To School

I think this has been the smoothest transition to a school year we've ever had! It helps that summer camp is such an exhausting madhouse, of course. School feels like a vacation for the kids after that. We did get to spend one day at the beach with their cousins, and even Whiz Kid enjoyed the waves this time. He and Little Bear earned their green bands in swimming at the YMCA during summer camp, so he's much more comfortable in the water than he used to be. The Princess still prefers the sand, but she dips her toes in the waves periodically.

Little Bear's first homework assignment was a "Hero Board." He was supposed to put at least 3 pictures on it of people/characters that are heroes to him. The combination he selected was quite interesting. He chose Pichu, the Pokemon baby version of Pikachu, because he says his stuffed Pichu helps him sleep at night and keeps nightmares away. He also picked his patron saint the Martyr Victor, and George Washington. The most interesting thing to me was that I did not mention George Washington to him at all. Maybe my mom's love of history is silently rubbing off on him in spite of Whiz Kid's vocal contempt.

We've nearly completed a children's book series with our evening Kindle reading. It's the "Origami Yoda" series by Tom Angleberger. It's really cool! I like it as much as I liked the "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" series. Whiz Kid was introduced to it at camp by a friend who brought the books along. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys real life comedy and common sense at a middle school level.

Last week our new priest and his family arrived. I was very nervous about the change, since I don't like meeting strangers and we were very comfortable with our previous priest. They seem like wonderful people, however. His son is about Little Bear's age and already knows the boys' close friends at church through the summer camp they (the other boys) attended. He and his wife seem to be around my age in general, and their daughter is 12. I think all of my worrying was for nothing. He was willing to let the boys serve at Vespers even though that meant 4 kids and only 2 adults in the altar, which I know can be very difficult to manage. One of the ushers went up and assisted with supervision. From what I've seen so far, he appears to be a very patient and conscientious person, and I think we've been blessed. We still miss Fr. James and his family, and I hope the best for them in their new pastorate.