Joyschool, or "Why Do I Need Someone?"

Hurrah! Our Joyschool is officially running, as today was day one of week two and everyone is still on board to do it, and the kids are still happy. Last year I really wanted to do Joyschool with Lily, but could not find enough people to do it (one other mom wanted to do it IF we could find at least one other mom to do it with us, which we couldn't, so we didn't.) I kept thinking that I should just go ahead and do it with Lily anyway, since I had all the curriculum from when I did it with Thomas 4 years earlier. But I didn't. I really LOVE Joyschool, and I knew Lily would LOVE it, but I didn't. And if that surprises you, then you have obviously never been around me or even heard of me before reading this post. I just couldn't make myself pull a lesson together for my darling girl.

So last spring I VOWED that I was doing Joyschool this fall, no matter what, and I talked to and emailed all the mom's in my ward and the surrounding wards looking for anyone who'd like to join. Not one person wanted to do it who lived close enough or had kids the right age. So I was planning on doing it solo with LnE when I came home from California. Then I got an email from someone I didn't know from the ward who shares our building. She wanted to do it with me. We started some plans, then she decided on doing just Monday together (it's supposed to be a 2x/wk program) Either way I was excited because I knew that even just having a "reckoning" on Mondays would help keep me on track and doing the lessons more than having no one but my sweet too-forgiving daughters to be accountable to. At the last minute another mom who'd wanted to do it but was worried she lived too far away decided to do it with us. And now after a LOT of back-and-forth about how and when everything would work we are all up and running. I taught the first 2 weeks, and the kids seemed to really enjoy the lessons and activities and songs and playing together. And I feel like the mom I always meant to be :) I'm just not sure why I always need someone else to get me to that point. But I'm glad I have someone.

Side note about the cookies. Lily said she thought Beth's "gingerbread"man looked like an alien with alien eyes. I quickly said that Beth had done a great job and it looked nice. To stop Lily from protesting and continuing, possibly hurting Beth's feelings I quickly shushed her by whispering in her ear that her's looked so perfect. She smiled big and became very magnanimous toward Beth saying "You made a perfect alien Beth! It's a really perfect alien with eyes like that." Luckily Beth was happy with that and said "Yes! Mine is a Alien!"