First Day of School

The boys headed back to school this past Wednesday.  They were all excited and some were a little nervous. For the first time in 3 years I only have two children at Meriweather Lewis Elementary school.  Liam has moved on to Henley Middle school to join Caleb for one year before Caleb moves on to Western Albemarle High School.  Middle school for Liam this year and High School for Caleb next year!  Sheesh!  I've been having some latent worry about whether we're doing all we need to do to prepare them for life on their own as the precious time with them seems to be rushing by, and even when I try my best and they still end up in tears, I wonder.  After Liam's 5 sessions of tears yesterday alone and Jonah's sobs when he didn't play Twinkle-Twinkle on his violin "perfectly" for the video I was shooting of him, I told Jared I was throwing in the towel for the day.   He simply reminded me that this is what it is like every year and especially for Liam who was in entirely new surroundings.  The first few weeks are an adjustment, I know, I do remember!  I had already thought this through at tear fest #2, but it was nice to have the confirmation from Jared that I was still a capable mother.

This year Jared and I decided to hold the first annual "Harris Retreat" in order make a bigger deal out of our family theme for the year: Unity as well as to talk about some of our goals and expectations, for Jared to give them their annual Father's Blessing and to just play and be together.  We decided to head up to Sugar Hollow past our favorite swimming hole "snake hole".  We found a nice rock outcropping that was perfect!  This year we were making some big schedule changes - - namely, getting Caleb and Liam up earlier to do homework and/or music and to have family scripture study.  The evenings this year are complicated with people filtering in at different times up until 8:30 or later, making attempts to read scriptures consistently at night impossible.  The other big change is that Caleb and Liam are both in their own rooms for the first time in their lives.  When we lived in MN, all three boys were in one room: Caleb and Liam slept in a full bed and Gavin was in a crib (Jonah was in a crib in the living room!).  When we moved into this house we have had two rooms that all four boys shared. Each year we try to mix up who is sharing a room with who in order to help them build different relationships, which for the most part, has worked out pretty well.  Here is a letter from Jonah written in June at the end of the school year:

"This is a card for Liam from J-Rawl to L.J.. Happy End of School year!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been loving being your room budea (buddy) this year. I hope you have a good time in mid school whith Caleb and I will mis you in merry wether.  Love J-Rawl"

But this year because of their "priorities" of wanting a desk (C. L. and G.) or sleeping in the top bunk (J.) moving some of them to separate rooms was the only option.  So Caleb and Liam are on their own and Gavin and Jonah are sharing the bunk bed with Jonah on top and Gavin setting up shop in the built-in desk in their room. Although I strongly suspect that on the weekends Caleb and Liam will end up having sleep-overs simply because Caleb loves the company.

 Gavin, Jonah and Liam were trying to repeat the fish spearing experience from the last time we were up here.

Then Gavin fell in the water!

We were a little short on time towards the end of the retreat because of Caleb's soccer practice, so they were given one shot to jump off the rock into "snake hole"! (Caleb opted out because of soccer). These bad photos are my fault:  I didn't have the time to check the ISO as they jumped in rapid succession, but my spear fishing ones redeem my decent skills :)

Here's to the first day of school 2013: