Monday Mish Mash on a Tuesday?!

One moved, one out the door and one more to go! Whew. First day of school today. And it started with it's usual chaos. And that was just with one. Son is now sitting in his first class of grade 11. Hopefully, he's in the right one! Kay should have started her first day already. I'll be waiting to hear how that went. Tia is still sleeping. She doesn't have to start until noon because being in grade nine, she is now amongst the big wigs of the school and unlike the the unlucky grade 7's and 8's, she gets to sleep in one more day! (Personally, I think the split start is just to drive parents crazier on the first day than they already are trying to juggle a bunch of different schedules.) And this year, throw in a hubby's first day on his new job today too, and can we say a touch of stress in the Living To Tell household this morning?

And just in case the kids were unmotivated to start school because of hot summer weather, can I just tell you that the weather is screaming fall today. It is 3*C as I type. That's 37.4*F, people! There was frost warnings in Southern Alberta last night. Frost warnings. And it snowed in Canmore on Sunday. Granted that's by the mountains, but seriously, did Mr. Weatherman not get the memo that we're barely out of August? Weird weather, I tell ya. But I know in September my fair city will hit some 30*C plus days. That's about 86*F. So Indian summer, here we come!

Well, we settled Kay nicely into her apartment last week. We rented a cargo van and took the back seat out in our van. We managed to get everything into them except the love seat. But the couch made it, so the love seat was the leave behind option. But were we stuffed to the max. We must of looked quite the sight. We managed to get there and unload with only one broken dish! Not too bad, I'd say. Hubby went back the next day due to work. A long couple days for him as the drive is about 6 - 7 hours long. I stayed until the Thursday to help her get settled. We unloaded, put away, went grocery shopping. Which was an interesting experience in itself. I'm used to shopping for a family of five plus a dayhome of six. So to all of a sudden put my brain into groceries for 2 young ladies? Wow, my head was spinning. I buy warehouse packs of meat and case lots, now I had to think in terms of 2 small servings. But we managed to get out without too many incidents. Except for the honking big can of iced tea mix. How that got in the cart, I'll never know. And we forgot the TP. Oh well, you can't win them all.

The Lord provided such a great apartment for Kay and her roommate. It was touch and go there for awhile. She had gone down with her roomie in July to find something. She was there for five days and nothing. It was nerve wracking and a real first test of faith for her. But on the last day, at the last minute-literally- the Lord show them a great place. They decided to drive around the area one more time and lo and behold, the apartment manager was just putting a sign out. And the place was perfect for them. The church and school are right behind across the alley (or around the corner, however you choose to look at it), there is a huge mall with banks, department store, grocery store, pharmacy and Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks! How much better can it get? There are plenty of job opportunities right across the street for them. Praise God!

The apartment itself is huge! HUGE! They could easily have fit the couch and the love seat in there with room to spare had the love seat not met it's leave behind fate. And I had to smile. It is so a typical young college students apartment. Eclectic hand me down furniture, a blanket for a curtain in the living room(because we couldn't find anything big enough at the second hand store, and there was no way they wanted to pay for new curtains to fit the space, although we did find great ones for all the other windows), posters everywhere. There are some really fun things, like the stacking chairs for the kitchen they snagged for $1.99 each. What makes them fun is the colors. One bright blue, two turqoise, and one orange. Now if that does not scream college decorating, I don't know what does. And my girl purchased a cute accessory at Home Sense for herself with gift money she had been given. Wire sculptures of a jazz band. Drummer, violinist and sax player. Too cute and so her. They're in the pic below. Modern meets 60's meets antique! Love it!

But in spite the adventure of it and the cute apartment and things to fill it, it still broke my heart to leave her on the sidewalk as I drove away on Thursday. The hardest thing I have EVER done in my life, even harder than going through the labor it took to get her into this world in the first place! But I've done what I've had to do. Raise her in the nuture of the Lord to the best of my ability. And then released her into the Lord's hands. The trick now is to leave her in the Lord's capable and loving hands and just be there when she needs her mom. Yes, that is the trick.

So here I actually sit in silence. SILENCE. Did I mention no dayhome kids today? Yes, insert a deep, satisfied sigh right here. The only sound is my keyboard. And me slurping back a hot coffee. A HOT coffee! With Chocolate Milano syrup, no less. And I'm reveling in that. At least for a moment before my crazy to do list makes me get up off the couch and hop to it. But for this minute? Sigh!