Happy New Year!

Yes, I know it's August 23rd ... but today was the first day of school for Aaron and Norah and for me that's a start of a whole new year!  I love shopping for new school supplies (and then organizing them and labeling them) ... I always have - just ask my mom!  I love new clothes for the first day.  My Nana made some of our "First Day of School" clothes and I'm having a memory from when I was a kid... my sissy and I in our matching jumpers (she's in blue and I'm in maroon) and our bags - she had Miss Piggy and I had Kermit.

Just a side note that I just spent 10 minutes trying to locate said picture in my photo album to make sure I had my facts right and I was unsuccessful ... I found lots of other hilarious/frightening/curious photos that I might share later ... but no Kermit bag.  Maybe Mom could get right on that! :)


Anyway... this time of year is full of that wonderful sense of newness.  There is wonderful excitement in the unknown of a fresh school year.  Norah was over-heard saying numerous times today, "I'm so nervous!"  But when I asked her is she was scared, she replied, "No, just excited-nervous!"  I think she could be "excited-nervous" because she new that today is a good day, full of good unknowns and promises of good things to come.


I am also excited-nervous about this new school year because it blows a breath of fresh good air into our family life.  Yes, we will be looking at some crazy schedules between gymnastics and baseball.  Yes, the kids will be zapped when they get home from school for the next several weeks ... absolutely worn-out by their full-steam-ahead school routine.  Yes, I will miss having my big-babies gone all day ~ especially during lunch/check-in time.  But ... we need to shake things up or we are destined to get in a rut.  And that's not good.  I am looking forward to time with my little-babies and being able to invest a bit more of me into them.  I am looking forward to new relationships through my kids' new class-mates and their parents and teachers.  I am looking forward to seeing Aaron and Norah's horizons broadened academically (and mine in the process). I am looking forward to more of a me-routine, too ... making my morning walks more consistent, taking advantage of nap-times to write and read, devoting more time to my friendships and learning some new things, too.   I am looking forward to seeing how much we all grow this year.  

So as you can see, it is "Happy New Year!"  It's like a mid-year refresher course.  A second chance to spruce up your day-to-day.  A fresh start to do something you have only talked about.  And in some cases, a do-over ... and we could all use a couple of those.  In all these things we know it is good because God is good and He's in all these things!

I have included a mini-devotional (and I mean MINI) at the bottom of this blog.  And coincidentally ... it's about a promise of newness ... a promise of good.  Funny how God does that!

I would be re-miss if I didn't include some "First Day of School" snapshots ... are they so cute?!?

The Kellum 4 ~ looking so sharp!

Aaron and Norah ... and Big Bertha our pumpkin