Firsts And Beginning Again

Today's drink: Eight O'clock Coffee, with a little almond milk. Served in my new Starbucks to-go cup, given to me by my fav blonde 19 year old friend.

This morning is the first day of the new semester of LDA. Our homeschool starts back up today.
This is the fifth year I have been at this gig.
The first year, I'd have gone over plans for hours yesterday, checking and double checking my syllabi.
This year? This semester?
I'm on the couch, dog sprawled across my ankles, coffee at my side, kids upstairs, cats hunting each other, cold sunshine pouring through the windows.
We'll do our first day back 'on the go'.
I've got someone I need to visit this morning, and grocery shopping this afternoon.
The kids will use clip boards, sharpened pencils, and a few stand-by workbooks to ease back into school brains.
One will sit in the basket of the cart while I shop the Aldi, doing multiplication while surrounded by multiple foodstuffs. The other will squeeze her growing-too-long-for-it long legs into the seat compartment, circling answers to vowel/spelling questions.
I'll shop for the week, muttering under my breath about egg prices, and encouraging the boy to 'think it through' when asked for help.
We're not planning any 'grand return' to learning.
Not that Grand Returns aren't awesome.
I am a big fan of them.
If you know me IRL, you know I *love* to be crafty, making plans to delight my kids with fun experiences, cool hands-on learning.
Today, that is just not in the cards.
The me of years past would have fussed over that issue, the scheduling conflict, and felt guilty that they kids wouldn't have a 'big, over the top' new semester party day.
The me of NOW, realizes this: They'll be fed, clothed, warm, learning, and present with me.
That is enough.
Simplicity has it's time and place, and that time is today.
That year is the here and now.
The joy of being together, of being there when they figure out a concept that has been stumping them, of having been present for both of their first-read words, that is *enough*.
2016, you are a busy year.
But you don't have to be a stressful one.
This mama recognizes that the firsts, the beginnings again, they are *enough* when we are *together* and experiencing life as a family.


****Not that there won't be SOME extremely cool, over-the-top learning days..... after all, those are more for ME than for the kids. LOL!! ;) ****