Back To School 2015

Yesterday was a glorious day!  The first day of the 2015-16 school year!  And this is the first school year ever (in the history of our family) that all of my children will be in school.  While Elijah is at his preschool class, I will have two entirely kid-free mornings a week!  Whatever will I do with myself?

All ready for the 1st day of school!

Everyone in my house was excited for school to begin.  Everyone was up and ready to go with time to spare.  I have a feeling that as the school year continues, that may get more and more rare.  But for now, I'll enjoy their excitement and having them be ready to be out the door in the morning!

Walking to school

A partial view of the Secondary Campus

This is our first time ever with a child at the Secondary Campus (7th-12th grades).  So we've got lots of new things to learn.  Kaitlyn has had to figure out lockers and where her classrooms are and what each different teacher expects from her.

Kaitlyn at the Middle School lockers.  They are all painted with the flag colors of various countries.

Outside the 6th grade classroom-- notice the bare feet:  kids remove their shoes before entering the classroom here

 Nathan is in 6th grade this year.  Due to staffing shortages, he actually has 3 different teachers teaching him this year.  As a 6th grader, he has the priviledge of getting to use the 6th grade hauswin (umm, English...gazebo, maybe?  Sort of, but not quite the right word)  Anyway, no kids except for 6th graders are allowed to use it.  He'll be starting to play trumpet in the beginning band, and singing in the choir.

Justin is starting grade 3.  2nd grade was easy peasy for him, so we'll see how 3rd grade goes!  Thankfully he won't have too much homework yet, so he'll have plenty of time to play with Legos and play Minecraft on the computer. :)

Julianne is kind of starting primary school for the first time.  She attended Preschool here in Ukarumpa, but since we were on furlough her Kindergarten year, she didn't really have a 'big kid school experience' yet.  So she'll get to have music and library and art and the sorts of things she didn't experience as a preschooler.  Her class is a 1st and 2nd grade combined class this year (again, due to teacher shortages).  But of all my kids, she is probably the most suited for a class like that... even MORE kids to befriend!

Elijah, with some of the playground in the background

Elijah will be in the Pukpuk class (Pukpuk is Tok Pisin for 'crocodile').  He'll be going 2 mornings a week.  Yesterday wasn't an official class day for him, but there was an open house where we were able to go hang out in the class and check it out.

Checking out some new toys in the preschool room

All the kids came home happy and excited about their first day back!  What a great way to start the school year.

Of course, there is always the random 'only in PNG' aspect to the first week of school:  Today (Thursday) was declared a national holiday, so, after starting new routines and getting all psyched up to start school yesterday, today is a public holiday, so, NO School!  Friday they'll have classes again and then the weekend.  I guess, for a kid, that's not a bad first week of school. :)

Breaking the Blog Silence....

I know, I know, it's been ages!  The business of life just caught up with me.  In between homeschooling 4 kiddos, the daily chores in keeping up with 9 people, travels, and my computer being monopolized by my kids, well blogging just didn't happen these past few months!

BUT, something so wonderful and exciting happened today that I just couldn't resist sharing!

My new oven got set up!

After 2 days of having it hanging out in my living room, it was finally set up in my kitchen!  Because it came from the U.S., Matt had to do a gas conversion kit so that it would run properly here.  That involved borrowing tools from friends (as we either didn't have them, or they were stolen in our break-in a few months ago), hiking down to the construction department a couple times while attempting to find the right fitting, and lugging the 200+ pound stove up our front staircase.  Simple set up.... or not!

What a beauty!

My new oven is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!  Fan forced, 5 burner, shiny and new, and, get this:  All I have to do to light it is turn the knob!  Fantastic invention!  No more cheapo match heads flying off and burning me as I attempt to light my stove! No more sticking my arm gingerly between hot oven racks because my gas bottle ran out, and I had to switch to a new one and re-light the oven!  All I have to do is turn a knob!  I love it!

Definitely not much to look at, but it served us well :)

 I will always have a soft spot in my heart for my dear old oven.  That ancient beast has served us well for the past decade.  And countless people for decades before that.  No one else can boast an oven whose door was held shut with a rigged clotheshanger contraption.  Or whose burners were so ancient that they literally disentigrated into metalic dust when bumped.  No, I will always remember this oven, and it makes me so very thankful for the new one!

Today was also a wonderfully exciting day for another reason:  The First Day of School!  But that will have to be a blog post all of it's own. :)