A particularly new Monday...

It's a new Monday, and it feels more like a new start to a new week than the usual.

Today Briah started at Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy. Just in time for semester 2, and she is going to have to hit the ground running. I do not doubt her capability at all, but we're all in for a few weeks of extra work as we get used to everything.

We put Bri on the waiting list over 2 years ago. Two weeks ago we got the call that they had an opening for her. Her reply to the news was at first a defiant, "I'm not going!" But, she is 13, and though very mature for her age, does not yet fully understand where roads in life can take her.

I pondered deeply over the decision for a few days, and then came to the conclusion that this was a good opportunity, and that I would be doing her a disservice not to make her at least try it. Charter was rated #59 in the top high schools in the nation for 2011 (and that is particularly saying a lot for a tiny school in north Idaho!), and I want to give her every opportunity that is in my power to give, to prepare her for a successful life. She has done awesome in her schoolwork through INSPIRE, and really it is because she has so much potential that I want her to try it.

I discussed it with her in several lengthy conversations over a few days' time, and had a good chance to talk to her over her birthday dinner at Fleur de Sel, and little by little she became nervously excited about giving it a try. She knows nothing is set in stone, and we'll take it one semester at a time. But I believe she can do it, and she is a girl who is up for a challenge, which I admire and respect her for.

So the last week has been spent running all over to get her supplies, her uniforms, showing her around the school, getting her schedule set up. This morning she headed out bright and early and hugged me goodbye with a smile on her face, looking lovely and professional in her uniform. I so hope her first day goes so well. She and Lexxi have fencing class tonight, so at least she can throw some of her jitters and stress into that.

And speaking of, my Lexxi girl is moping about a bit, lonely for her sister. But she is excited that Bri has opened the door for her to also attend Charter, starting next year with 6th grade.

So if Deacon goes to kindergarten next year, it will be down to just Braden and I during the day. Makes my heart throb a bit. I feel like I'm about to become an empty nester or something. But it also gives me deep satisfaction that I am doing my part to help shape their futures in the best ways I know how.
It also opens the road before me to more fully develop that other part of my life, the part that, though of course always intertwined with my role as mother of 6 children, is more about my own personal growth and learning...

Oh this ever-changing thing called life.