We made donuts on the first day of school!!

What? Don’t they look delicious? They’re donut holes. OK, they're a little burnt. You’re NOT planning on coming over anytime soon to eat our homemade donuts? :)

Let me tell you about our tradition that started last year. On the first day of real “school” in our town, we celebrate at home by doing something we would never be able to do if we were rushing around, packing lunches and getting first-day-of-school snazzy and flying out the door to fight school traffic.

Just so you understand, I think the first-day-of-public-school excitement is wonderful. It’s a mixture of flutters, a crisp new outfit, that new backpack and pencils smell, promise and excitement for what the year will bring, new friends to meet, a cool new lunch box full of goodies. And to be honest, my kids miss out on all this. So to compensate and have something of our own to celebrate on this day, we celebrate along with our town, at home, doing something we could never do if we didn’t homeschool.

Last year we did this in the early morning on the first day of school:

We had a huge rainstorm while everyone in the neighborhood was rushing off towards town, and we sat back and enjoyed it…
And learned about precipitation and evaporation…

How God made this freshwater cycle and how it’s perfect and good…

And I learned that getting to stay home with my 3 small children and teach them intentionally is not only a blessing to me, but a flat-out luxury.

Now that doesn’t mean that being a stay at home, homeschooling mother of 3 (almost 4) is just a bunch of sitting around basking in luxury…

Case in point, the burnt donut holes.

We decided this year we’d do something we’ve never done on the morning of the first day of school, and make donuts from scratch. We were so excited. I had my camera in my hand.

My kids were so disappointed when this is what they got.

This is what came out of the fryer, no matter what I did. I even turned the oil on several different heat settings. They would always burn and be 100% raw on the inside. The baby was fussy and clinging to my legs, my kitchen was covered in flour and that greasy-deep-fry smell. The kids were sad. I was exhausted from just having to stand up for that long.

We grumpily refrigerated the dough and planned on trying it again in a few hours after lunch with a much lower heat setting on the oil.

And they ended up being pretty…yummy. (Donut shop donuts are still way better).

We enjoyed the making of them this time, and the eating of them, too.

And we were able to celebrate the first day of school with the eating of our donuts, and go on to learn a few things and do a few school activities that day.

And that afternoon with my belly full of donuts (hey, I'm pregnant and I can eat as many donuts as I want, right?) I was secretly able to feel the luxury of having my children home, soaking them in, teaching them how to make donuts from scratch, teaching them so many other things.

Oh, and I also reminded my self several times about my not having to wait for 30 minutes in a line full of running, hot cars waiting to pick up my kids after school.

So the first-day-of-school tradition serves many purposes. The main purpose just might be for this Mom as she realizes that she's able to relax and make donuts from scratch with her children and remind herself of these moments of luxury when things get downright messy and hard around here.

And being humbled that even the moments of luxury, like this one, are never perfect.