suddenly, things are looking more ... promising (random personal musing)

September, September, September.

I've been thinking about September a *lot* this week.

On Thursday May 26, we took the twins to a "pre-kindergarten" event at the 
private Christian school they'll be attending in the fall.  For about 15 
minutes, we watched the kids sit in a circle with one or two of the 
kindergarten teachers, singing Sunday School-type songs (a few of which I 
hadn't heard in *years*, but they brought back memories), and then we 
adults went to the library to meet with the principal for an hour, and to 
get a run-down on various things to be ready for in the fall.

Yeah, we're sending our kids to a Christian school.  I'm a survivor -- er, 
graduate -- of the Christian-school system myself, and I never thought I 
would go back to it, but...  Well, I actually didn't pay it any thought at 
all until we began looking for places that might have decent SEA (Special 
Education Assistant) programs for autistic kids like T.  And then, as we 
toured various schools, I just began to feel comfortable -- or comfortable 
*ish* -- with this one school in particular.  (The fact that the principal 
has a copy of Saint Paul Returns to the Movies: Triumph over Shame on his 
bookshelf didn't hurt my impression of the place.)

The other Christian schools in the area are Pentecostal, but we gave them 
a look anyway.  As it turned out, they both frown upon Harry Potter -- 
something that the first school mentioned out of the blue in our interview 
with them (and I say "out of the blue" because the Harry Potter "issue" 
has been settled in my mind, and in my social circles, for so so long that 
it never even occurred to me to ask if the school had a position on the 
issue) -- and I wouldn't say that the Harry Potter thing was a 
make-or-break issue for us, but, I dunno, I just didn't want my kids or 
anyone else in my family to walk on eggshells with this stuff.  (As for 
the fact that we are Orthodox... the principal at the first Pentecostal 
school was okay with that, partly because they've already got an Orthodox 
person on staff somewhere -- not necessarily as a teacher, but somewhere 
there -- and also because, as he put it, the Orthodox are okay with 
"family values"!  As for the second Pentecostal school -- which happens to 
be the school I graduated from back in 1987 -- I don't think I ever 
bothered mentioning it.  Our Orthodoxy, that is.  As it is, that school 
makes a point of prioritizing kids who come from homes that practice 
speaking in tongues, etc., etc., so we'd be way down their list.)

We also checked out the local public school, and I found myself looking 
very closely at some of the students' displays for any clues as to how 
they might be discussing religion over there.  But the thing that stuck 
with me, to my semi-surprise, was the way the acting principal who gave us 
the tour said that her school wanted to teach "the whole person ... 
physically, intellectually," and maybe one or two other adverbs.  And it 
occurred to me that I had never heard anybody say that before without 
using the word "spiritually".  And it occurred to me that the absence of 
that word kind of got to me.  (Though of course, if a secular school 
principal *had* said that she would teach my kids "spiritually", that 
might have bothered me for a whole *other* set of reasons!)

So, yeah, we're sending the twins to a Christian school.  But we made that 
decision months ago -- that's not the reason I've been obsessing over 
September this week.  I just mention all that as background.

No, the reason I've been obsessing over September this week is because I 
discovered, on Wednesday, that the preschool the kids go to right now will 
be extending the classtime so that instead of going from 9am to 11:30am, 
it will now go from 9am to 12noon ... and, what's more, there will even be 
an optional hour-long lunch program *after* that.

In other words, while the twins are at kindergarten, N, our youngest, who 
is currently 3 years old and turns 4 in January (gah, I can't imagine him 
as a 4-year-old), could very easily spend *four hours* at preschool.

*Four hours*.

It's only for three days a week, but still ... *four hours*.

Suddenly I'm thinking it might be possible to do some paying work again. 
Two hours was never long enough to get into that groove (especially when I 
was late getting the kids to preschool or held up by parents or teachers 
who wanted to talk, etc., etc.).  But *four* hours ... oooh.

What *sort* of paying work, I don't know.  The preschool is about an 
hour's drive from the theatres in Vancouver where press screenings tend to 
be held, so *maybe* I could make it to some of those if the roads, tunnel 
and bridges are relatively unclogged, and the preview starts at 10am 
rather than 10:30am, and/or the movie is only 90-120 minutes.

And then there's always the question of who I would write these reviews 
(or any other articles) for; the community newspaper that sustained me for 
roughly 20 years did shut down earlier this year.

So maybe I'd have to find something else to write.  Or edit.  Or 
something.  I dunno.  But I'm sure something ought to be *possible*.

Oh, and it's not just the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays that have opened 
up for me.  On Tuesdays, my mother will be taking N to music lessons in 
Langley, which is far enough away that, if she were simply taking him 
there and back, he'd be gone for nearly three hours.  But she has talked 
about making Tuesday her "grandkids' day", so who knows, she might hold on 
to him even longer.  Oh, and the kindergarten that the twins will be going 
to is roughly halfway between my home and my parents' home.

So.  To make a long story short, it looks like there will be four days a 
week, starting in September, when I will have at least four hours to 
myself.  The twins will be in kindergarten, the three-year-old will be in 
preschool or music school, and I will be on my own.

Just think of the possibilities ...

Oh, and Thursday?  The day when the three-year-old will be stuck with me 
all day while his older siblings are in kindergarten?  I'm already looking 
forward to making that "grocery day", among other things.  For the last 
few years, the wife or I have tended to go grocery shopping late at night, 
after the kids have gone to bed, because it's very difficult for one of us 
to keep all three of these kids under control if we take them to the 
grocery store during the day.  But when the twins are in kindergarten, and 
it's just me and the three-year-old looking for ways to pass the time... 
well, if we take care of the shopping during the day, then that just frees 
up the evening (for me and the wife, that is) just that much more.

I know that summer technically hasn't started yet, but man, I kinda can't 
wait for it to be over right now.

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