Blessings

Victoria started early morning seminary this year, along with high school. For the past few years, I have felt very anxious about her starting seminary because it starts at 5:50 am and I wasn't sure how I was going to get enough sleep to thrive as a mother, nor how she would get enough sleep to get through the school day and her dances classes.

I was anxious the past year about her starting high school here because it's the second largest high school in the nation, at over 6,000 students! It's basically a small college campus, with three high schools sharing the campus that would allow students to take classes at any of the schools, thereby giving them more variety and greater options. Everyone is assigned randomly to each high school, but siblings may go to the same school, unless they choose to be placed in the "pool" for another random assignment. Victoria goes to Salem, so that 's where all my kids will go, but our next door neighbor goes to Canton. Basically, Victoria's locker is in Salem (no one uses their lockers because they don't have time to if they have classes in other buildings), if she were to be on the cheer squad, for example, or any other sport, it would be at Salem, and her diploma will say Salem on it. Orchestra, choir, band, and clubs are joint between all schools (they call all of them together The Park) and anyone can eat at lunch at any of the schools' cafeterias and can have a class at any school. They can also go to any dance, but I believe they buy tickets through their own schools. You can imagine how big and daunting The Park is, especially if it's your first child, or your first time attending there!

 The biggest worry I had was that she was going to get "lost". Not physically, but just be alone, which is kind of humorous now, maybe even before, because she is so social. The concern was that she dances at a private dance studio off campus (which better than the one on campus, or so I heard from many reliable sources) and doesn't have time for any clubs or sports at the Park, which EVERYONE said she needed to do. They all said if "she doesn't get involved in a club or sport at the Park, she won't have any friends there. Orchestra doesn't count.  No one has classes with any of their friends because it is so big and everyone's classes are at each school, never all at one location". I worried about her having friends to eat lunch with, about walking around and feeling like she belonged, and seeing any familiar faces.

On the other hand, I kept having thoughts like: she is so social, she has been involved in choir, orchestra, dance, church activities, and school here since kindergarten. Surely she will know someone somewhere!

When she got her schedule, imagine our surprise when we discovered that she had all of her classes in Salem, except for orchestra, which we already knew would be in Canton, and most of them on the second floor! The other surprise, which now I am calling blessings, is that her best friend is in two of her classes, plus she has other friends/acquaintances in the other classes! She has lunch with a good friend from church and they have brought together other people they know who eat during C lunch to become one big group!

Their mascot is a Rock!

The final blessing, that was on my mind the longest, was seminary. Not only is it a blessing because she is studying the New Testament more intensely through seminary, which will bless anyone's life and their parent's who get them there, but the week before it started, we learned of a new change. Our Stake is one a many that is trying a new schedule. T,W,Th the students meet at the church for the usual 5:50 am class. M and F they are doing an online study at home. She doesn't have to wake up quite as early, it takes about 30 minutes to do, and I believe that she does get more out of it because she has to read, watch some videos, and write short answers to questions that are thought provoking and enlightening. She would rather meet every day with her friends at seminary, but I think she'll appreciate this way in the long run. They have the option to do Friday's on Saturday, which she does before dance so she can get even more sleep on Thursday night, and her siblings enjoy listening/watching the short videos she watches as part of the lesson.

New hard cover scriptures for seminary!

My personal blessing is that I haven't felt this good in a long time! I'm only getting about 7 hours of sleep per night, which normally doesn't go far for me, but I hardly feel tired and I definitely feel more positive. The hours I spend in the car each night driving kids around hasn't bothered me as much and my body is finally back to normal after a few months of aches and pains after my fever.

I am counting my blessings!!

I frosted her hair at the end of the summer. It was painful for both of us!

But worth it!

Then I trimmed it while she did her face mask the day before school started.