Week 1 down, 40 more to go

And I’m not nearly as concerned about the remaining 40 as I would have been this time last year. Win!

My wonderful bride is an educator. She, in my humble opinion, is an angel here on earth for what she does week in and week out. Don’t get me wrong. I love my children deeply. I’m cool with my friend’s kids, relatives, kids at church. But my ideal job is not 40+ hours a week in a small concrete room with 20+ elementary age students. However on the parent side of that equation, I am so very, very glad there are people on Earth who are called to do that.

Last year, my wife’s calling proved to be taxing, to say the least. There were a lot of things that factored in to that, none of which I will explore in any kind of detail. But suffice to say the kind of year she had last year will make one take a step or two back and evaluate where they are, what their goals are, and how those two things are lining up. Lisa loves what she does, feels it is more than a job but also a ministry she is called to. But like with any profession, that doesn’t make it easy.

And that left a lot of questions waiting for answers at the start of the year. I am glad to say things have started out as well as I could have hoped. Of course, there is more to last week than just Lis’ new school year. All three of our kids went back to school or daycare – Seth starting kindergarten this year. Last week we also said goodbye to Lis’ youngest sister as she took flight to college in New England. It was a full “school” week, not to mention the “family” lists and the “church” lists and all the other lists”. But for having come into last week with so many questions and honestly a good deal of trepidation, little if any of that was present at the start of this week.

Lis had a drive and a focus going into this school year I didn’t fully appreciate until the year actually started. I did as well, but I was waiting to see how things would go for Lis before kind of taking any specific avenue. I wanted to see where the attention would need to be in terms of support and different things. And really, things are fine. Now don’t get me wrong. We still have a schedule – consistent bed time, consistent wake up time. She and I both have “adult homework” time at night in terms of catching up from the day, work around the house, and so on. But this general air that was with us last year is just nowhere to be found. There isn’t one reason to why, and I’m okay with that. We both came in to this year better prepared, we are more in sync than we have ever been, things really are in a good pattern in terms of the kids. It is really pretty cool. And my prayer is that the different adversity faced last year, and how we have come out on the other side, will serve as a new starting place for new adversity that I know will come.