Back to Reality

Well life is back to reality.  Our Italian adventure has become a memory,  the alarm  now wakes us and our mornings are no longer filled with  Italian coffee and a lazy breakfast with our only thoughts  being what town we should explore.  Our mornings now consist of getting up, showering, breakfasting and racing out the door by 645 - yes school has returned. Life is back to reality but it is far from normal.  For the last two years there was 4 of us hurrying to get out the door but now there is only 3 - it is this seemingly little thing that is a daily reminder that our lives have changed.  Mikaela is now happily settled back in Australia trying to find her own routine but I am sure that the trials and tribulations she will face, pale to insignificance to our trials and tribulations of life without her - why is it that we endeavour to empower our children with the desire and the courage to step out into the world yet when they do we are so sad?  I guess it's just life.
I have just completed Week 2 of school and I am exhausted.  The first two weeks is always tiring for there are new routines, new arrangements, new teachers,  a new principal with new expectations, new committees, new kids and the list goes on but we are now almost in the rhythm.   Bella and Josh have settled back into school with mixed feelings, our school is so transient both in teachers and students
 that there is always huge changes in the teacher and student body.  This makes the beginning of the school year here even more challenging but as the weeks pass, the new becomes the norm and life settles into the predictable.