An Update on the Family

School has been in session for over a week now, and we are settling into the routines for the school year. Here is an update on each of us:

 Peter just started third grade. He loves playing with LEGOs, and this morning, he showed me a town he had drawn, with all the LEGO characters inhabiting it.

Peter's LEGO world

Peter has had difficulty adjusting to an earlier wake-up time, and has frequently needed to take naps in the afternoons after school. He is enjoying being a cub scout, and he was awarded his Bobcat patch at our pack meeting on Tuesday. He found a leaf bug in his room yesterday, and caught it and put it in a jar.

The leaf bug

Joshua began 5th grade. He loves the erector set he received for his birthday, and spends a lot of time playing with it. He is also into Ninjas these days. This has meant practice fighting, as well as using his erector set pieces to build Ninja tools.

Josh being a ninja this morning

John is in 7th grade. His classes include Science, Honors Math, Social Studies, Language Arts, and Art. He seems to be enjoying his art class at school.

A tree John created in his art class.

 While he still spends a lot of time playing with Legos, one of his other interests most recently has been chess. He has been reading books about strategies, and playing the game with anyone he can get to play with him.

Hannah just started high school and seminary. She seems to be enjoying both so far. Her school classes are math, physics, English, Study Skills, French, orchestra and US Government. When she isn't at school, she is usually reading or baking something. She learned how to make fudge recently, and that has become a favorite of hers.

The seminary thing has been a struggle for our family, as we have had to adjust our schedule to get to bed earlier so we can all get up early enough to read scriptures as a family before she has to leave at about 5:40am. The boys have often gone back to sleep after Hannah leaves, and I have to wake them up around 7am so they can leave for their school by 7:50. Steven trades off driving with another family, taking the teens to seminary, and then to school afterwards. On days when he isn't driving, he leaves for work at 6am, thus bypassing a lot of the traffic on his way across town to work.

Steven is still working at Merrick. While he likes the company a lot, and they treat him well, he is already a bit bored. For the last month, he has been doing expense reports. He was hoping (and I think it was suggested to him) that he would be able to move around and learn how different things were done throughout the accounting department, and that experience has been slow in coming, and it has frustrated him.

And then there is me. I'm enjoying my quiet time at home during the day, although I haven't gotten as much done these first few days of school as I think I did in years past. One problem is the heat that we've had the last couple weeks: by 9am it is too hot for me to feel like doing anything. Luckily I can do some things in the early mornings, between 6am and 7am, before I need to focus on getting the boys ready and to school. I've been trying to get more exercise lately and so after walking the half mile to the boys' school, I've been walking an additional mile and a half in the morning. (...and getting home hot and sweaty and tired. Is that why I haven't felt like doing anything else?) Then I walk to the school again in the afternoon to pick them up, another mile round trip. While I haven't done much as far as cleaning or organizing the house, I have done a lot of reading lately. I'm still working my way through the "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan, and I'm currently in the eighth book of the series. Maybe when I finish the series I'll be able to get more done around the house.