back to the...new and improved...

The routine has started back up again. We are moving along, chugging through the daily routine that the end of summer brings. Back to schedules and alarm clocks. Back to watching a clock and making time fly. Back to homework and paperwork; commuting and packing a lunch. We're BACK. Only our vantage points have change a bit...we have each discovered new ways of taking on the old routines. The kids walk to and from school. I hop public transportation ( a bus and two trains) or -if I want to make the effort - I make the drive down LAKE SHORE DRIVE. The "drive" is the best part of the commute. There are days where the traffic backs up and it take twenty minutes to go two blocks, and there are the days where it is wide open and the lakefront is mine to enjoy...

But more often, I take the route where my brain doesn't HAVE to focus. The train ride equals out pretty equivalent to the time that it takes to drive from the southwest side to the North side of the city: about an hour fifteen at most. On the train (for fear of strangers reactions, I haven't snapped pics) I've enjoyed the cityscape minus the underground tunnel that takes about twenty minutes to pass through. I pull out paperwork and study plans for the day ahead. Both offer TONS of excitement.

Brandan's junior high attitude has aligned pretty quickly.

He loves the switching of classes and having a cool locker in the hall.
Not until we had the chance to attend Open house the other night did we realize that B's locker number matches his birthday - how cool!

Back at my school, we are working on character education activities and identifying what makes us unique. Yesterday, we built posters of the people who make up our families (Thanks, Nichole!) and live with us.

Right now, I am thankful for the weekend - so I can spend some precious time with my family and see what this beautiful weekend will bring us!