school starts

Yesterday was the first day of school! Anna and Thomas seem to be enjoying the beginning of the school year, although the chaos of the first day wore Anna out completely. I hope to spend some time there in the next few days to observe Anna's class in particular and see how she is adjusting: after two years in inclusion classes, she is back to a self-contained setting. Her new teacher plans to schedule plenty of inclusion time for the four children in Anna's class. I fear that the movement and change involved in making inclusion happen for her in a self-contained setting will be overwhelming, but we will wait and see. Thomas, on the other hand, seems already to be thriving in the pre-K class. His big hurdle so far: adjusting to the new schedule. Because they come home on the bus (and are the end of the bus route), Thomas, who is exhausted by day's end, has a very long nap on the way. This resulted in a later bedtime and a very rough morning. I expect that he will settle into a new routine within a week or two.

Lewis and I have also moved--into the new building that will house the Candler School of Theology at Emory. This does mean that we'll have two office moves in two years! After the super-shiny newness of the not-yet-completed building at Emory, Lewis expects to find the shift to an old, old building (Abbey House at the University of Durham, the home of the department of Theology and Religious Studies) a welcome change of environs. I suppose it comes from all the work on late ancient theology!

And so we begin the academic year that will culminate in our Big Move. As much as we try to keep in it perspective, it looms. For now, though, we are busy enough getting Anna and Thomas ready and to school, keeping Iain amused in their absence (which he hates!) and preparing to teach in September. That--and those writing projects in which we are both engaged--is certainly enough to remind us daily to let each day's trouble be enough for the day!