Oh, wow. I’ve been posting regularly for quite a while now… yet I don’t think I’ve posted a normal update in months. How did that happen?!

Well, here’s the short version. The girls are back in school. And I, lady of leisure that I now am, have yet to have ONE DAY where I don’t have something on the calendar! Again, I say, how did that happen?!

We’ve been adjusting back to our school schedules, which has been a challenge. Wes and Ana wake up in the morning practically dancing the can-can in anticipation of the day ahead, but Emma and I both require the jaws of life to drag us out of bed. My reluctance to leave my cozy cocoon has been helped immensely by my Hello Mornings group. Who knew that just knowing there were people out there waiting to see if you’d get your backside out of bed and into God’s Word would inspire you to ACTUALLY DO IT?! It hasn’t been smooth sailing the entire time, but more often than not, I’ve gotten up and gotten my time in Scripture before the sun has even come up. It’s been amazing! And now that our short runs are seven and eight miles during the week days, it’s been a real blessing because I even have time to squeeze that in before the rest of the day gets rolling. So thankful for that!

Perhaps Emma needs her own Hello Mornings group because she’s been having a really, really rough time of it. When she wakes up so exhausted (even with going to bed at 7pm), she’s extra clingy. This has made for some sad conversations and quivering lips at the school zone and escalated into a full blown screaming and crying fit one day last week when I took her to school. The teacher on duty finally just had to take Emma into the building while she screamed her head off. (Emma was the one screaming — not the teacher. Although the teacher probably felt like doing that after dealing with Emma.) It wasn’t a good day for either of us, as I spent the rest of the morning feeling horrible about leaving her and wondering if she was still melting down. (Ana assured me later that Emma was just fine by the time she got to her classroom. And her teachers have assured me that she never cries in class. So clearly, I’M the problem. Way to go, Mommy!)

I’m not sure what to do about all of this except to remain strong, to stay consistent, and just pray it through. I know she’s looking for any indication that I’m sad, too, and that she would use it to her advantage if I showed any. I’m hoping that this is a quick phase and that she’s not still moping around four years from now. Can you imagine?

Ana, on the other hand, comes home every day telling me how much she loves school. She did get a conduct point taken away at school the other day because she was talking when she wasn’t supposed to be, though. She told me about it and burst into tears when she got in the car after school. (Reminds me of Emma’s Oklahoma Pre-K days when she got in trouble and told me, with a smile on her face, “Well, it was because I run-ded through the class screamin’.” One is a people pleaser, and one just does as she pleases.) That aside, though, I’ve heard nothing but good things from Ana about how much she’s enjoying it all. She comes home singing songs in Spanish, which is unbelievable to us. Even more unbelievable is Emma’s teacher’s comment that Emma answers her questions in Spanish, not English. I’d give anything to be a fly on the wall for one of those classes and actually see them soaking the Spanish up… but that would probably start the crying and screaming up all over again, wouldn’t it?

I do hope there won’t be any screaming or crying when I begin to volunteer at the school. I’m not sure how often I’ll be up there or what it’ll look like, but I’ve made myself available for the afternoons, so we’ll see what happens. My biggest contribution so far has been volunteering Wes to serve as the school’s Santa in December. I do what I can, y’all! We’re looking forward to being more involved with the school this year, now that both girls are there all day.

And we’re still on schedule with our marathon training, doing our long runs on Fridays when Wes has the day off and the girls are in school. This past weekend was especially brutal with the humidity and the heat. It was so brutal, in fact, that a Pasadena Fire and Rescue vehicle actually stopped and asked us if we needed assistance around mile thirteen. (Oh, I couldn’t even make this up if I tried. It REALLY happened, y’all. We looked that bad out there!) The good thing about the aches and pains this time around is that there’s no sense of unspoken dread lingering in our minds about NOT being able to finish a marathon. We’ve already done that once before, so we’re left free to just wallow in the pain and know that it’s all going to be worth it in the end. Right?

Hope your week is off to a great start!