Sunday started out not so great. Tatum wasn’t feeling so hot, so Doug headed out to Five Below and came home armed with goodies. Soon the kitchen counter was completely taken over and the two of them were SLIMING. FOR HOURS.
It was such a hit. He knows his girl.
The first full week of school is now officially happening, and I think we are all learning that middle school at Veritas is A LOT.
Not bad. Not wrong. Just…a lot.
Tatum is up at 4:50 in the morning. We are out the door by 7:00. She gets home around 3:45, and then there are usually at least two hours of homework waiting for her. Math is more challenging this year. There is so much reading. So much note-taking. So much sitting and listening and moving from one thing to the next. It is completely different from what she is used to.
She is handling it. But many nights she has to break down. I’m so grateful I can be her person. Dad even pitched in and saved Monday with….
Yes..truly brilliant. He is so good to us.
What she wants more than anything right now is simply time to make friends. And at Veritas, there isn’t much of that built into the day. Classes are classes. The hallways are packed with around 1,000 students from sixth through twelfth grade. Lunch is twenty minutes. Then you are moving again. For a kid entering a brand-new school, that is quite an adjustment.
So our mornings are quite hectic (Oh, and I’m barely hanging on). Before we head out, she curls up in the chair with Coopy beside her and does her Latin on Duolingo. That makes my day.
But…then there was Friday. The shoe situation.
Veritas requires black shoes, and Tatum decided hers needed washing. (on Thursday after school).
As we left on Friday am, she forgot that they were STILL in the washing machine.
They were absolutely sopping wet.
We put them on the dashboard on the drive to school with great hopes that the Arizona sun would perform some kind of miracle.
Nope.
So she eventually had to put those soaking-wet shoes on her feet, which immediately turned into soaking-wet socks, and off she went into school. (after a few tears)
Ugh…this Friday. With tests too.
Meanwhile, Cooper continues to understand his role perfectly. Give the people emotional support stuffed animals. Give Coopy a bone. Then everybody find a couch, watch something together and recover.
Just where we are right now. Dad has his own work stuff. I am in the middle of some tough tough health days….
and WE ARE ALL learning completely new school/ways/routines. Every day, Tatum gets in the car and says she missed me and hugs me. That makes it all kinda worth it (at least for me).
We are all learning how to make the best of all of it.
BUT I see her doing it….getting up. Powering through her homework. Trying hard to keep up. No, it’s NOT perfect and NOT easy. But we have our Jesus. and EACH other.