Busy Day, Quiet Nights

     It's hard to believe that I started the 2019-2020 school year three weeks ago tomorrow. Wow! It's been a busy school year so far, but things are going well. We're still finding random times to go on adventures...not always as often as I'd like but it's what this time of the year brings. I hold tightly to the memories made over the summer and think about the adventures we'll have next summer.
     First, let's talk about some adventures we've had since school started. Three weeks ago tonight, the night before students walked into their first day of school, we made a trip to Saint Joseph to watch the sunset over Lake Michigan. It was a lovely sunset and an evening filled with some sweet memories to officially cap off our summer adventures. Last Wednesday, we went to Notre Dame because we saw they had a lake on campus with a small beach. We were able to find it (it's not at all easy to get to) but couldn't access it. It's only open to students, faculty and alumni. That's ok - the beach looked quite dirty anyway. But we did get a nice view of the Golden Dome and Sacred Heart Basilica over the lake. We ended up at Brothers Bar & Grill for dinner. It was a little more expensive than we would normally spend for a meal but it was fun anyway.
     We've also had some adventures with our grandchildren. We've had lots of play time with our grandsons and I've started picking our oldest grandchild up from school on Tuesdays. It's so much fun to have our 20 minute drive across town together and talk about our day. He's always so excited to share his school day with me. Both granddaughters have celebrated birthdays since school started. Clara turned two on August 23 and Lucille celebrated her first birthday on September 2. Where does time go? We've taken Clara to the train station to watch trains and introduced her to the airport. We weren't able to see any planes as they had all departed for the day and no more were scheduled to arrive for several more hours. But we took her to dinner at Nick's Patio and really enjoyed our meal! We're thankful for every moment we get to spend with these four precious ones God has blessed us with.
   Drew continues to deal with lots of leg and joint pain but plugs away through each day. He's back to cooking on Wednesdays so we're free to spend time together when I get home from school. I appreciate his help but feel bad because he should be resting on his day off. Work tends to be exhausting and stressful for him but he tries to put a smile on his face and make the best of it.
  I teach around 150 kiddos each day. Most of them have started to dive into computer assignments and are working on creative writing projects. My third graders who haven't logged into computers until they came to our building are working hard at learning how to log in. I've also kept busy with repairing older Chromebooks as well as setting up and dispersing 100 new Chromebooks in the building. Four classrooms get to use the latest edition and help compare them to the "older" edition from last year. So far they seem to like them...and I've had fewer repair requests. I love my job though I'm pretty tired at the end of the day.
     Overall, we're keeping very busy but also taking time to relax and enjoy life together in the evenings. I hope your days are good and your nights are relaxing...and you're making time in your life for adventure. Talk to you soon!