The next stage

I'm sitting alone at the computer at home. Quietly. With a clean house. I have never, as a mother, uttered those three sentences together.

We are in the second full week of school, and things are going well around here. We're settling back into the school routine well, and all the kids are enjoying school. Nate was excited to get back to see his teacher (same teacher as last year) and was excited about some of the special things about 3rd grade. This is the first year they do an overnight field trip (camping--in May). Lucy is loving 1st grade, as I knew she would: all the things she wanted to do last year she now gets to do (knitting/hand work, Spanish, more painting and art, etc.). She also is excited to read. Levi is adjusting well to school, though I can tell he's tired. He came home on the first day and said, proudly, "Mom: I didn't punch ANYone."

As for me, I'm enjoying the quiet. Last week was a busy week with not much time at home, so today is the first day I've actually had more than an hour or two here. Now that I've done all that was on my list (it was a pretty long list!--but work gets done quickly when you're by yourself) and am waiting for the last load of laundry to finish drying, I'm kind of in between thinking about a) starting some sort of sewing project or b) just letting the clean house stay clean.