Yesterday was a flurry of activity. I started the morning off with my usual run, then we jumped right into school work. I had grocery shopping to do, then Brian came home to join us for lunch. William and John had a scout meeting where they received some awards, and there was a collecting of gifts to take to the Helping Hands Home for Children. We contributed a couple of Lego sets. The boys den meets at the baptist church school that my childhood BFF's mom has taught second grade for a million years, and she came down to visit us for a few minutes. What a sweetie Nancy is!

Margaret had packed us a dinner of sandwiches, so we munched on those on the way to our next activity: johns basketball practice at the downtown YMCA. He and Tommy are playing on the same team. This is the first sport we've had John signed up for in about two years. He's hated competition so we haven't pushed him. But Thomas called a few weeks ago and asked if John would play basketball with Tommy. We had to get special permission to get John moved down to the 6/7 year old bracket to be with tommy, but we assured the folks at the Y that John was not going to be out there pushing the younger kids around. Well, Samuel must've given John a pep talk before practice, because john was on fire. When the team split up to scrimmage, John's team won and John made every single basket for the team. He was so excited! Hopefully the Y won't change their mind about letting him play with the younger kids. Can't wait to see how things go at the game on Saturday.

I don't know if I have said anything about this, but Thomas and Meredith have separated. Yesterday was the first time I've seen her in nearly four months. We hugged and cried. My heart breaks for both of them. Blog readers, please join me in praying for this family. Foremost I ask you to pray for their salvation.

After we left the Y, we went to a meeting at the middle school that Margaret and and Samuel will be attending after the break. Brian and I both came away from it with a good feeling. It's the best middle school in Austin, but also an older, urban school, just like Maplewood was. I think Margaret and Samuel will feel more at home in this school than they woulda in a more suburban school. We got to visit with the principal a bit, and he game the impression that he is on top of things and takes his job very serious.

It makes me sad that our homeschooling kind of got shipwrecked after such a positive start, but I believe it's for the best. Brian made the decision to put some of the kids back in school, so I can rest knowing that it wasn't me doing it. He felt that to keep them at home was doing them a disservice because neither of us were able to give them the attention they need. They are both very excited, especially now that they've seen the school and walked the hallways. William and John can't wait to start middle school either when their time comes. William is sure he's going to play football. :) No matter that he's a young fifth grader and small for his age. We have said that when we put W and J back in school that we'll hold them back a year, but W is so eager to start middle school next fall that we
may have a real challenge with that plan.

Well, I had better get out for my run before the morning is too far spent. Ok, yeah, it's only 6:30 right now, but this household gets moving early.