Last Day of School

I took this picture the morning of our first day of preschool last month. Kate adamantly insisted on carrying her backpack out of the house each morning - once I was confident she wouldn't fall over backwards, I let her since I had my own huge prekindergarten teacher bag to carry. Maybe the mismatch in the size of her huge backpack on her tiny body should have been a clue to me that school wasn't going to be a good fit for us this year, but I was so busy getting us out the door each day I didn't take the time to think about it.

After a few weeks of trying to adjust to our new fall schedule, Cody and I started seeing definite changes in Kate's behavior, emotions, and word choices we weren't too excited about. She never seemed to be getting enough rest at naptime or overnight, and I wasn't able to invest near enough time with her to maintain the crucial consistency necessary for successful potty training, discipline, and such that our precious two year old requires. And I've also been struggling personally to feel like I'm able to keep my head above the surface as far as patience in my parenting, housework, Bible study, and quality time with Cody.

So though we love our church's preschool program and the people involved, we decided the best choice for our family would be for me to resign my teaching position. This will allow me to spend more one on one time with my sweet girl at home, lay a more solid foundation with her before we launch her into the world again sometime in the future, and give me more time and energy to handle my responsibilities as a wife, mom, and friend.

Resigning was an easy choice as far as having confidence it was the best thing for my family, yet it was very difficult to leave my pre-k kids, co-teacher, and other staff members behind -- but this week the Lord provided an awesome new pre-k teacher for my class! If I can't be there I'm so glad she will be -- she immediately fit right in with the kids and my co-teacher, she's got great ideas, and seemed to enjoy being in the class with us this week.

So on that thankfully PEACE-FULL note, Kate and I enjoyed our last day of preschool today. We'll miss our friends there very much, but we're looking forward to the "simple" life and hoping to rebuild the peace in our lives!