As a friend recently commented, the start-up of the school year always feels like the real New Year. Here at our house, we're going out of our way to prove this to be true. We've got a tentative weekly schedule mapped out on pink construction paper and filled almost to bursting (with room made, it must be said, for each of the parents to pursue extracurricular interests, aka sanity; Kev's got hockey and soccer; I've got sibs night, girls' night, and an evening class). We've also spent several of Kevin's holiday days rearranging the house. Top photo: the boys' room. Note crib nuzzling bunk bed. The next two photos depict CJ's former bedroom / my office / playroom. It is now excessively, almost disturbingly, clean and empty-feeling. The plan is to expand the purposes of said room over time: it will remain a playroom, and my office (yay! I can now work after the kids go to bed!), and we're also calling it the study, where children seeking quiet can sit and read or work at the disturbingly empty table that currently has no chairs. It's a start. Eventually, I'm envisioning several tall bookshelves and another communal computer. I love imagining our house evolving as our children grow and change. Which child will mine out a room in the basement? Or perhaps the attic? While I reorganized the office, Kevin flipped piles of blueberry pancakes. By the time I'd ventured downstairs, none remained. See that last one? CJ did. He wanted it. He is now sleeping the sleep of the contented blueberry belly.