First Day of School

This morning Petra awakened fully three hours earlier than she had for the last two and a half months in order to do the following: to sit down with me to a breakfast of scrambled eggs and coffee, to dress in her carefully chosen (and newly purchased) Gap t-shirt, tank top and boy-cut jeans, to hoist her bulging supply-and-flute-filled backpack onto her shoulders, and to be driven to her first day of the 8th grade. She was jumping-up-and-down excited, a level of excitement I haven't seen since our trip to Disney World five years ago. Last night she kept quizzing me with questions along the lines of, "And do you know what else I get to do this year that I have never done before?"

Last night I spoke to Larry-O after his first day of classes at Big City U, and the excitement was the same. He is in a highly structured and challenging acting program, and he actually uttered words I have never before heard come from his mouth: "I can't talk long; I have lots of homework." This said with enthusiasm, with gusto, with pride and the phone equivalent of jumping up and down.

In the spirit of my offspring and their back-to-school delirium, I am going to attempt something I will no doubt regret posting to a blog that can be read by millions (or at least dozens): I'm going to commit to something. I'm going to commit to Daily Prayer using the Presbyterian Church (USA) Book of Common Worship, and I'm going to commit to blogging a reading. Every day. Yikes. I regret this already.