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The day began with a broken dryer. It would happily use electricity to tumble clothes for extended periods of time, but they stayed wet because there was no heat to dry them. Today is laundry day, so the lack of a dryer was inconvenient. So I called a repair service. Howard said while the guy was here, he could fix the fridge too.

Then the next iteration of the schlock book showed up. I spent the next 10 hours immersed in making layout decisions and scanning images. The kids had fast food for lunch and pizza for dinner. But the Tayler Corporation will foot the bill because I was completely occupied with business things.

I ended the day with a working dryer, a working fridge, and plans for every single white space that remains in the Schlock book. Now I am tired.

In our house Sundays are special, set apart from the rest of the week. It is a day for our family to be together and for us to take a break from the hectic pace of the rest of the week. Much of the reason for this is religious. We believe in God and that he deserves a day of reverence to him. We believe he blesses us for giving him that day. Indeed a big part of Sunday is attendance at church. But over the years I have found that this weekly break is like the eye of the storm. It is a place of respite. On Sunday I am allowed to sit and contemplate the clutter of my house without feeling like I should get up and fix it right that minute. There are some maintenance chores that I do, like dishes, but for the most part I am excused from work. I find that Monday morning I am much more ready to tackle the chores of the week for having a day of rest.

During my day of rest I have time to contemplate where I am and how I want to steer the rest of the week. It is a time for course corrections. Because it is calm, I am much better able to see where I am in relation to where I want to be. The kids aren’t nearly so contemplative as I am, but they also benefit from the day of rest. They know that Sunday is a family day and so they are content to play with each other rather than running off with friends. Many Sunday afternoons have been spent with all four kids watching a movie or playing a game together. We are all turned inward toward each other rather than setting off on our different paths toward our different goals.

Sundays are not always peace and calm. We have our share of fights and squabbles. People are grumpy just as often on Sundays as on other days. Sometimes the kids complain about the restrictions from friends and from other vigorous activites. But kids frequently complain about things that are good for them and about things that are necessary to running a family. The kids are never happy about housework, but it has to get done. Sometimes the kids are grouchy about our Sunday rules, but our family is better for having them and keeping them.

Apparently in Gleek’s world “Come to the flagpole as fast as you can when school gets out” means “Stop every third step and take a minute to use your toe to erase the scuff marks on the tile floor.”

I showed her a shorter route to the flagpole that doesn’t have her crossing acres of scuffed tiles. I called it “the sneaky way” to give it more appeal. We’ll see if that helps her arrive in a more timely manner tomorrow.

In high school I spent a year running long races for the Cross Country team and shorter races for the Track team. There is a world of difference between a short race and a long race. Short races are called sprinting. Sprinting is pushing your body as hard and as fast as you possibly can. If you have time to think how much it will hurt later, then you aren’t pushing hard enough. You use up every last ounce of energy as fast as you can until you run out. This is called “hitting the wall.” It is when all the biological consequences of pushing so hard catch up to you. If you train right, you won’t hit the wall until after the race is over, but sometimes it happens before then. When you hit the wall, it is all you can do to keep moving. Long races are all about endurance rather than speed. You try to find a pace that you can maintain througout the run. Endurance racers don’t go fast, but they keep going. As the body learns and adapts the pace can pick up. That’s called hitting your stride.

On Monday morning the starter gun for this school year went off and I began running. I was moving fast, getting things done. Every moment with my kids I was analyzing how they were adapting to the new schedule and making plans for how to further smooth the transition. Oh and I was blogging just about every small incident that occurred. It was all going really well. Then last night I hit the wall. Howard came home grumpy and I was completely unable to do anything to help him work through it. I wanted to, but there was nothing there, nothing left to give. It was only then that I realized I’ve spent these last three days at a sprinter’s pace. Perhaps it was necessary for the beginning of school, but now I need to slow way down. I need to settle in and find a stride that will carry me through until school gets out next spring.

Kiki came home from school bright-eyed and enthusiastic. She’d been worried about navigating through the crowded halls, but found that the experience was actually fun. As she described it like a moving maze and a flowing river I realized that she was viewing the challenge of getting from class to class like a video game where the goal was not to run into other people. She is also full of praises for all her teachers. She thinks that they are all amazingly cool and is glad that the only homework she had tonight was a word search. I’m glad to see the disclosure documents and to realize that these classes are set up exactly to encourage the kind of educational discipline which Kiki needs. I don’t think she is going to be challenged academically this year, but I’d love for her to have the chance to get straight A’s and feel really competant.

I walked Link and Gleek home from school today. I’ve been hoping that I could eventually let them walk home together without me. It is going to be awhile before I’ll let that happen. Gleek needs to learn some good walking home habits before I’ll try to put Link in charge of her otherwise she’ll run him right over with one of her whims and he won’t know what to do about it. Honestly I don’t think they’ll be walking home for awhile either. Gleek is trying so hard to be perfectly behaved during school. First grade is so much longer than Kindergarten, she is worn out by the end of the day. It took her a full 15 minutes to make her way from her classroom to the meeting place. Then I had to threaten Time-Out to get her to climb down from the meeting place tree. Then there were several refuse-to-go-a-step-further moments on the walk home. Only the promise of chocolate chips at the end got her to her feet again. In a few weeks when life is more settled we’ll try walking home again. I’ll happily drive her home from school every day if I get announcements like today’s “I didn’t get sent to time out at all!”

Kiki is going to the doctor on Saturday. She has been sleepy and foggy for weeks. It used to be that she could not fall asleep during the day unless she was sick. Lately she has been sleeping for several hours each day, going to bed early, and getting up late. I know that she’s growing and maturing, but 15 hours of sleep per day seems excessive for that. I hope that she’ll test positive for Mono on Saturday. Having Mono would stink, but I like that diagnosis much more than some of the alternatives I’ve been able to think up.

The new schedule has me blogging a lot more. I’m not sure if that is a result of the large quiet spaces in my days or if it is merely me trying to process how the new schedule affects everything. I think it is a little of both.

You know you’re a blogger when you drop your child off for her first day of First Grade and realize you didn’t bring the camera, but you’re already composing sentences in your head.

Yeah. Gleek will only get a picture of her first day of First Grade because my neighbor took one. But she gets a blog entry. That counts for something right?

Last night began The School Schedule. I had to make sure that dinner was on the table at 6pm because after dinner is homework time and bedtime. Of course we didn’t have any homework last night, but that’s okay because dinner didn’t happen until 6:30 anyway. I’m out of practice. Instead of homework I had all the kids participate in fixing their lunches. We’ll be doing home-packed lunches this year because Gleek is mildly lactose intolerant and I want to have more control over what she is fed. Also Link and Kiki are both really tired of school lunches, so they’re glad to do a litle extra work in the evening. Last night everyone was glad to fix lunches. I doubt that enthusiasm will last through the year.

The bedtime schedule was also a little rusty. I was worn out before we were halfway through with it. It is a very intensive time of day for me because I have to pay full attention to keep all the kids on track. If I wander away for a minute or two, then the kids get sidetracked and I have to work hard to get us all back on course. Practice will make it easier.

This morning I hauled all the kids out of bed at 6:55. It is supposed to be 6:45, but I was running 10 minutes behind schedule. We had scripture reading and prayers (about 10 minutes) then they all sat down to breakfast. This morning they were all wide eyed and enthusiastic about the coming day. We’d been to open house the night before so the kids had seen their classrooms and met their teachers. Link was extremely pleased that his teacher is young as well as male. I’m already pleased with the teacher because he walked right up to Link and started interacting with him. I can tell already that this will be Link’s favorite teacher ever. Gleek isn’t as focused on the teacher, but her classroom has desks! and cubbies! and carpeted steps! She spent the open house jumping around on these steps. I took a moment to sidle up to the teacher and mention oh so casually that Gleek is something of a high energy person. The teacher responded with a twinkle in her eye that she could tell, but that it was developmentally typical for first graders and that she’s glad to see it. I think I’m going to be able to work with this teacher.

It is always tricky to know how much to tell a teacher before the school year begins. Part of me wants to corner the teacher and explain exactly how wonderful and special my child is. I want to explain where problem spots are likely to be and how we handle them at home. But pinning a teacher down that way isn’t a good idea. They’ve got 27 other sets of parents who want to do the same thing. The teacher isn’t likely to remember anything of a long list of instructions, but she just might remember a single tip if it is given at the right moment. So that is what I try to do. This time I mentioned that Gleek sometimes has to push at boundaries before she’ll accept them, but once she accepts them she’s very good at staying inside. The teacher again nodded and said it was common. In a week or so, when she’s had a chance to deal with Gleek more, I’ll have another conversation with her. At that point the teacher may have already experienced frustrating behavior and will be looking for solutions. Then she’ll be glad to hear how I handle things at home.

I drove Link and Gleek to school this morning and listened to their chatter. Link was very pleased about his new backpack which has a cellphone pocket on the strap and a little ipod pocket on the inside with a little hole for headphones to string through. These things are very cool even though he owns neither a cellphone nor an ipod. He has decided to keep this backpack forever so that when he does get these cool electronic devices, he will be prepared. I’m glad that he likes his new bag because he really needed to not carry a Hamtaro backpack into fourth grade. Gleek’s chatter was mostly her trying to wrap her head around being a big kid. She commented that she’ll be going to school and coming home at the same time as Link. She talked about things she’d seen in her classroom. She talked about getting to have lunch at school. She and Link did some teacher comparisons.

When we arrived both Link and Gleek shot off to their classrooms without a backward glance. Parents were invited for a 10 minute story in Gleek’s class, so I followed along at my own pace. In the classroom Gleek was perfect. No jumping off of steps today. This was the first day of First Grade and careful attention must be paid. She sat ramrod straight, hands in her lap, her whole attention on the story. I watched her there, so tiny. She’s small even in comparison with her peers. She was wearing new clothes and her hair carefully brushed and barretted. Even though she sat perfectly still, there was something intense about her. She wasn’t just listening. She was Listening with her whole self. The bouncing off the walls will come later I’m sure.

And then I walked away and came home to my quiet, empty house. Kiki is home today because her first day was yesterday. She’ll go back again tomorrow. Patches is still here. And yet the house and the day feel spacious. I’m going to have long stretches of time to accomplish things. I’ll have to give some thought about how to make good use of the time rather than squandering it.

It is so quiet with the kids at school.