It starts

For us, today marks the beginning of the ending of summer and the beginning of the beginning of fall and back to the books, classes, schedules.

Older dd's season with her synchro team begins this morning. I'm hoping/praying for a good skate for her. This team will be significantly more challenging than last year's, but I absolutely know she's up to it, it'll mean hard work though, that's for sure! Another transition for her is that she'll be switching dance coaches. The one she's worked with "from the start" is not coming to our rink anymore... and we don't want to drive 50 mins each way to her when we have a rink & coaches 6 mins away. Hoping all that will work out. I think she will miss E. She continues with coach D who will add primary responsibility for moves and continue freestyle.

Tomorrow (Sunday, I know. It stinks. So I'm not Eric Liddell.) the girls each test. Older dd is testing juvenile moves, a pre-bronze dance, and pre-preliminary freestyle. We're not sure she'll pass the moves, the others should be a piece of cake, especially the freestyle! (She had not been testing freestyle because she didn't want to compete individually, but her coach encouraged her to just go ahead & begin the process just in case... it also helps her gain her skills in a more organized fashion. At least I think that's the idea!) Younger dd has her first moves test, pre-preliminary.

Yesterday younger dd's furniture arrived and we set everything up in her bedroom. It looks fab!! I'm so pleased with how it fits in her room and with how it functions. So nice when things actually work out to be as good or even better than you hoped! The rest of the house is starting to pile up with things that will go in the truck when it comes on Tuesday... Older dd's bed comes then as well. (We'll order the rest of her stuff when we get back from our trip.)

I think I'm pretty much ready for homeschooling to start... have to spend some time getting the first few weeks' schedules down on paper and finalizing some details. I do the bulk of my preparation in the early summer, right after we finish up, so that I can feel more mentally free during July & August. Our first actual day will be on Friday, Sept. 7, when the kids start their weekly homeschool tutorials (something new for us this year!). More on that later, I imagine.