her.

She had to wait to start school a week after all the other children.
She was not happy about that.

I still cannot believe that my youngest is in school.  It seems just last year I held her in my arms as a baby.  And now I spend a few hours each weekday with no kids in the home.  A weird feeling.

 

But I have also come to realize a few things in this "new" phase of life that I am in.

• Going to Costco and other stores takes a lot less time and energy when I don't have any kids with me.  But it is also a lot less interesting and more lonely.
• I spend more time at the elementary school now than I ever have before.  At least two, sometimes three days a week volunteering with the reading program in my two youngest kid's classes.
• I have crossed off a lot of the "to-do" items on my list that I have been meaning to get around to, some items have been waiting for years.
• The house is really, really quiet with everyone gone but me.  Sometimes too quiet.

Right now the three youngest are actually off-track, which is nice because it breaks up those long, long school weeks where we are so busy doing school work and extra activities-sports, scouts, dance, etc., that we sometimes don't get the chance to just play.  And for now we can do just that.