Busyness Struggle and Cuteness

We've entered the time of year that is kind of hard for me on many levels. It's always really busy at back to school time. Tomorrow is the first day of school for the girls and for David. The girls will be going back to public school for at least one more year - I'm not ready to handle teaching three at home with a cute little baby who runs around and gets into everything. David is continuing his homeschooling career as a big 8th grader now. I may be ready for homeschooling more next year and told the girls that it is an open conversation among us. I want them to have some say in what they do, but also know my own limits. So thankfully, I had only one person to plan out the year for this year. I got that done last week finally. I think part of my annual struggle at the time of year has to do with all that I place upon myself as "the Ideal". No one else puts it upon me. I have a bit of a perfectionistic streak for myself. I don't feel this way about other people, but I feel like I should be able to handle it all by myself. So I feel stressed when the house is suddenly really messy, when my counters are overwhelmed with produce that needs to be dealt with before it rots, when my free time to take care of those things is suddenly cut down to a third as I'm back into the role of teacher first, stay-at-home mom second. It's overwhelming to me and it takes me a couple of weeks to get back into a sort of balance with various demands on my time. I feel like I make tiny strides of progress each year, but I still feel a bit of panic every year as this time approaches. I daily seek God for his peace and refreshment. I am getting wiser to know what I realistically can and can't do and being more at peace with letting go of my "Ideal" and seeking God's LIFE for me. Such a big difference in perspective!

Here are a few cute pictures of Keilah before I sign off so you have something cute to look at. We are to the stage of when things get really quiet, some investigation is deemed necessary. Here she happily found the wipes and took great delight in taking them out one by one. She's also to the stage that when the camera comes out, she stops doing whatever it is that she was doing and crawls very happily over to try to eat the camera.

Helping control the peach population at our house. The end is in sight! I only have my kitchen counter left that is covered in peaches! Yea! I accidentally took a nap yesterday afternoon, so I couldn't fall asleep last night. Therefore, I got up and spent an hour working up some more peaches for the freezer at 12:30 in the morning. It was actually kind of fun and peaceful and got my peach population down a fair amount! 

The preferred method of rest is now on her feet. She does not like sitting when she could be standing. 

If she happens to wake before us, we are greeted by a super cute sight of her little eyeballs poking out above the crib, and crinkled up into a huge happy grin. It's one of the best ways in the world to wake up. 

I think we'll go swimming this afternoon for one last hurrah before school starts tomorrow. The kids are happy about that, but not happy about the cleaning help I am requiring this morning. I feel like it's a fair trade. :)

What are your back-to-school feelings and plans this year?