7 Quick Takes: First Day(s) of School! annual cookie baking! newest article at Think Christian!

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Just about every year at this time I write a blog post entitled "Feeling Septemberish". I guess each year the nostalgia of back to school feels new again.  I also manage to mention just about every year how the first day of school is the one day annually (out of 365 possiblities) that I most feel like a mom.  I think it's the whole range of emotions:  pride, joy in a new milestone, fear.  The whole rhythm of giving up control over these human beings recycles itself from the moment we release the kid from our womb into this bright, scary world in the first place.

my girls walking to school together

I'm pretty sure I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but this whole gig we have parenting other humans is just plain shocking.  Can I get an amen?

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 Five of our six family members study in four different schools this year.  The girls enter a new high school in Austin.  After our first attempt last fall, we're referring to this year as Austin Independent Schools, take 2:

my junior and freshman

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Alex began classes at Rice University last week.  I don't have a picture from his first day but I do have this cute OAK backpack photo shoot pic he and his girlfriend as back-to-school models. Pretty cute, right?

the model students

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I don't have a back to school photo for Andrew, either.  He starts classes this week at Austin Community College, on track for University of Texas next fall.  I do, however, have a photo of his first class in pub drinking on the night of his 21st birthday last week.  Will that do?

the Murphy family (minus Alex) at Fado Irish Pub, Austin

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It's hard to pin down Brian's first day of classes, since he's a seminary student pretty much year 'round.  Here's what a typical Monday morning (and Saturday morning and Thursday night and Sunday afternoon and...) looks like for him:

theology reading + bowl of granola + mac = Brian's classroom

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Me?  I just keep up the tradition of making cookies one time a year.  The infamous first-day-of-school pumpkin chip cookies:

photo credit

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I guess you could say I've been attending the school of "how the heck do I write for publication?".  Today Think Christian.net. posted another of my articles:  Drought Christians.  (which feels a bit ironic timing since Hurricane Isaac is racing toward the Gulf Coast as I write this.)

                                                                       Source: shibbo.tumblr.com via Tamara on Pinterest

Enjoy a beauty-filled week!

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