If only it were always so obvious!

Ah! Stew in the crockpot, rolls in the bread machine, cookies in the oven, rain drizzling outside, two fawns resting in the grass while they wait on mom to finish snacking. Did I mention I love fall?

We've been struggling so much to figure out what to do with Clayton for school. For years we've been looking for the "right" thing. We had some dissappointments this year and weren't able to get him in the school we'd hoped for. We thought home was the best plan b, but it just wan't working. I'm so tired of going back and forth and second guessing ourselves about what the best decisions is or should have been. It's tiring. I have known one of the fifth grade teachers at Dalton since he was a little boy. He is one of four boys - and they've all turned out great. I often wish I could just rub shoulders with their mom a few days a week. But anyway, we felt we could be more comfortable sending him back to that school (where he went in 3rd grade) if we knew Mr. Staples could be his teacher. But when Bill went to ask about the school, they said they were completely full. They gave Bill a registration form and told him we could wait until there was an opening or just put him in a different school that had room. We filled out the form, and Bill took it back on Friday. But school was closed. So finally today, he decided to try again. The secretary told Bill, "TODAY is your lucky day! We had a student drop out YESTERDAY, and we have one opening.....in Mr. Staples fifth grade class! God is so good! I bawled when Bill called to tell me. Such a huge sense of relief and confidence that it was God's direction.

So tonight was a frantic school supply rush. It's not easy to start fifth grade in a public school in an uppity part of town - much less when all of your clothes say "WALMART!" and most are full of holes. We'd been putting off clothes shopping and grateful that he's home most of the time, but God provided some good deals. Kohl's just opened here. We've had a card since Arkansas, but they let me have the promo discount because it was grand opening, and we got coupons in the mail for $10 off. We found backpacks 60% off at K-mart. Some of the supplies we already had.

Random - I get so sick of reaching int the pen holder by the computer to only find pencils with their tips bitten off and never a pen. Yesterday at MOPS, we put last years pens on the giveaway table - silk flowers stuck to the top. I grabbed a couple thinking, "Now I'll have some pens I can always find and my boys are sure to leave alone." Well, today my boys couldn't keep their hands off them. In fact, fighting over who got to use the flower pens. In fact, one of them has been dismantled. I give up!