Anyone out there?

Anyone still read this blog?
This year has been a funny year, 15 hours a week all my children are in school. For years I've been depressed about this coming. People get confused when I say this, if they are related to me, they say but you don't even enjoy your children when they are young. Yes, but what if I missed too much of it, being frustrated at their small children actions.
Say what?!
No one seems to understand.

So for 15 hours a week, I get a break, and I find myself thinking at the end of my 5 hour break, really already? Can I sign him up for more school?

My 3rd child started kindergarten, he turned 5 two weeks before school started. I have been debating when to put him into kindergarten since he was in utero. Yes, I had read Outliers and seen countless studies about how redshirting is so good for children. But I had also read, that when you adjust for income there really isn't any benefit. Wealthy children are more likely to be held back (what a day to be alive, that WEALTHY children are the ones being held back) and so they are doing better in school no matter what age because they have support systems at home. I was totally waiting until he was 2 weeks after 6. Two of my friends had a baby the same time, and always said I don't think I can make her wait the extra year. I told countless moms, that for me being the oldest in my grade was beneficial. Until we changed our mind. We decided he needed to grow up, my husband found a study to showed children that skip grades aren't actually socially awkward from skipping the grade they were socially awkward before they skipped too. DUH, that made complete sense, have a brilliant child who parents for years have asked me if he is skipping a grade. No, he hasn't skipped a grade I always move to the expensive property tax neighborhood so he can go to a good school with a strong gifted program. He is small for his age anyway, he doesn't need to skip a grade to still be smart, and even smaller compared to the rest of his classmates.

Anyway, I'm off topic, last year we decided my third would start kindergarten at 5, I regretted that decision for months but never changed my mind. My two oldest kind of had crappy kindergarten years, I kind of hate half day kindergarten even though I loved it at the time. We all hated kindergarten then they magically got to full day school and loved it, had fun, and had to time socialize with kids their own ages.

Once again I digress again.
So we put him in full day, and guess what he loves it, and he is nice when he comes home, instead of yelling at me all day. And his teacher has two little boys at home and understands active little boys, and when he does things like embarrassingly tells me he broke his name tag, she says no worries, those things happen, I already fixed it. I love her, and she loves him, and he tolerates her and listens carefully to her. I recently passed her at school and she told me he is just the sweetest boy, and always does what he is suppose to be doing. For example he always walks with his hands behind his back, he NEVER forgets. Thank goodness, for a kindergarten teacher who knows what is up and actually likes my child. This is the first time we've ever had a good experience with a kindergarten teacher.

My oldest's K teacher, would get frustrated if he learned faster than the class. My daughter's K teacher had a been a special ed teacher for the previous 10 years so I was so excited to get her, because my daughter's IEP was being downgraded and so I thought she would help us build a great transition year, but anytime I brought up how my daughter was managing/coping she looked confused about what I was even talking about. I would give her specific example and she would say oh I guess you're right, weird I hadn't even noticed. Really?!

Anyway, I'm quite protective of my little ones much to my husband's exasperation, so I appreciate a kindergarten teacher and a preschool teacher who just love my little ones.

Honestly I have no idea what is happening in 6th grade, and that is probably age appropriate.
And 3rd... I can't tell if its going well, or if the crap is about to hit the fan. Honestly either way, I'm fine, if it goes well, then perfect, I'm more than happy to have a great year. If things start exploding, then 3rd is a transition year, so I'm good changing our status quo to help her with the needs she might have.

Ten years

I wrote on Facebook:
10 years ago this year I earned my college degree. I'm kind of flipping out its been 10 years since 2007. Maybe if I announce this to the world I'll stop being overwhelmed. Ten years from high school seemed like a rite of passage. Ten years from college seems old, like I'm fully ingrained in adulthood, there is no going back now.

What I didn't write on Facebook because I didn't want to sound like I was bragging... I can write on my blog because I don't know who reads it:
The past 10 years are crazy not because I'm looking back like how did I get her I missed so many opportunities.  On the contrary, I'm looking back thinking how did I get her, we (Brent and I) accomplished so much.
In my mind I was listing them off, but publicly that seems like too much. 
How did I get here so quick?
We are planning a family vacation to Belize. Everytime it seems surreal. Then again we rarely put our kids in sports because it's just so expensive. We never go out to eat unless we are traveling.  I was pretty positive I was going to put my youngest in 3 year old preschool next year. I love our preschool community and I don't want to take a year off. But then I talked myself out of it, preschool is such a money drain. Plus he's my last baby.