Other Things (or, The Post in Which I Ignore All Things Negative)

So, we're still here. 

In the midst of other things, I haven't completely forgotten about this blog. It's just that, well, other things take up so much time.

We've been back to school for a while now, with a sixth grader, a fourth grader, and a first grader, plus a four-year-old who loves to color pages and pages and pages and pages and... yes, even more pages. Our home is a sea of paper on the best of days. (On the worst of days, it's a sea of coffee and chocolate milk spills and dog vomit and laundry, but not all weeks are as filled with messiness as this one).

Despite the mess and chaos, we're learning. 

Our oldest is learning independence, responsibility, and diligence as he delves deeper into his studies. He's also joined me in some flash fiction writing exercises, and it's always a delight, though sometimes a little frightening (ahem, Sith backstories), to see what flows from his creative, eloquent mind. Our biggest obstacle is staying on task, as there are so many other things we'd rather learn than, say, grammar... (Scratch that. I love grammar. I mean, things he'd rather learn!) But even in that department, we are progressing. Slowly at times, yes, but Rome wasn't built in a day, though he might be able to tell you how it was built, complete with sketches of ancient architecture - a lesson I don't perfectly recall assigning.

Fourth grade has a different set of challenges and delights, the biggest of which are both found in the need of the child in question to have me nearby. We're spending more time in discussion, with closer supervision and deeper explanations, now that Andrew has moved to Middle School level materials and we have switched to a Math that requires more teacher instruction than our previous program. He, too, is learning so much. He's learning to take deep breaths, to see each task through to completion, to correct his errors. I hope he's also learning how very awesome he is, how he can do anything he sets his mind to do. Because he is and he can, and I am so proud of his growth over the past couple of years. I'm also thankful to him for teaching me the very lessons he's learning himself. We are, as I often tell him, in this together.

Then there's the girl, who in addition being (usually) eager to complete her lessons, has shown steadfast determination to keep up with all the older, more experienced kids on the swim team. Her Wise and Wonderful Aunt could probably tell you the origins of such plucky competitiveness. Even so, it amazes me to see her so at ease among her teammates, so eager to please her coaches, and so enthusiastic about each practice. 

Last but not least, our little Doodlebug is not so little. At four-and-a-half (How on earth did that happen?), he's sweet, funny, smart, creative, and all around incredible. He is also singlehandedly destroying the forests via his insatiable appetite for coloring, drawing, writing... (What does he do with all that paper?) 

So we're busy and we're messy and we're loud. We're navigating through laundry and paper and books and things we aren't sure where they came from or where they're supposed to go. There are weeks when I'm in such a fog I repeatedly run the Keurig without a cup, but when I write it all down, for myself as much as for anyone else, I realize that in the midst of all those other things, we are alive and we are well.