God and Coffee

 "God and Coffee" are the two words that sum up my first week of the school year.

I was pretty nervous about handling things, what with the four children and all. But I did at least two things right each day this week.

#1 - I prayed. A lot.

#2 - I drank. A lot. Coffee, silly!

I am the sort of person that messes up a lot, but all the same I am able to realize how much I depend on God to help me muddle through. So that was my strategy this week. We started each day off with a "Pleeeeaaaase, God, HELP ME!!!!!", as well as taking time to express our gratitude for the blessings we have already been bestowed with. We read about the saint of the day, and then we did the Mass readings. While we prayed I was guzzling copious amounts of black gold, natch.

And by the time we were done, I actually felt a little bit normal. I could almost see us getting through the day and being ok! So then, feeling ready to face the day, I put on some music and we all danced together! Wooohoooo! Let's get our groove on!

I read about study that found that kids were nicer to people they had danced with. I figured that I really needed them to be nice to me during school hours. But lo and behold, I actually found that I myself was also being nicer to them! Hoist by my own petard. But totally in a good way. Like, if my petard were actually made of something neat (instead of explosives), let's say..... red velvet cupcakes.....then being hoist by that would be BRILLIANT. I'd be covered in ooey gooey red velvet deliciousness. That is basically how it went down with the dancing.

The rest of our days this week were very busy, but a lot of advance planning with our daily schedule helped us stay on track and be realistic about what we could accomplish. And any time I felt myself tempted to whimper and wave the white flag, I would bolster myself with another cup of java, another internal prayer for Divine Assistance, and forge ahead with the day.

One of the other things that helped us stay on track was a game that we made up for the girls. It is called "The Great Yeti Escape" and it basically consists of a Yeti that chases the girls up a mountain. The only way for them to move their game pieces is to finish all their assigned tasks for the day. The Yeti moves once a week based on the roll of a die. It's actually more involved that that and includes things like snow shoes, Yeti bait, and Yeti dollars, but this post is starting to get too lengthy to get into all that.

See their game pieces at the bottom? There's the Yeti, poised to enter the game this Sunday (they got a head start this week).

So that, in a nutshell was our week. I expect more God and Coffee next week. Lots of both. I am also feeling very hopeful about the rest of the year. As long as I keep our priorities straight I kinda think we might not only get through it, but actually enjoy it!