First full week of school

for all the kids, and so far it’s kicking my ass.

Yesterday I hadn’t gotten to bed till 1am (drill weekend, Hubster didn’t get home till almost midnight.) and the alarm unmercifully went off at 6. I wanted to throw it across the room.

I got kid 1 and Hubster off, then an hour later took Kids 2 and 3 to school, and drove straight over to my step-mom’s. She’s moving into a much larger unfurnished house, from a furnished condo. She needs all new furniture, so we hit every furniture store in town trying to determine what was available and what would look good in the space. We got through with that in time for me to rush back and pick up kids 2 and 3 from school, Mondays are early release days.

We came home, got homework done and snacks and it was time to drive across town and get Kid 1, again to return home for an hour before driving back to town to take her to softball practice. Thankfully Hubster was able to meet me and take the younger two for the evening so they could eat and be ready to bathe when we got home, so they could go to bed and we could start over this morning.

Today, of course, we started again. For the next three days I’ll pick up kids 2 and 3, then immediately go pick up kid 1. Friday kid 1 has no school, so that makes that easier, however we have softball practice 6 days this week.

I’m sure I’ll survive, but I’m not sure how.

The first day

With all three kids in school. We were all up earlier than planned. Hubster was up before his alarm, and surprisingly enough, I didn’t hear him, at least it didn’t wake me enough to reset the alarm for myself. Instead I got up at 6 when his alarm went off (or rather just after, I have a hard time hopping out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off, I prefer a few minutes to lay there and wake up for a few minutes.)  I had heard the oldest child in the shower before I got up, but again, it registered but didn’t wake me enough to really think. When I got up and started into the main part of the house, I saw the smallest monkey already up and digging through his dresser for the perfect first day of school outfit. And shortly thereafter my middle child, and the one who’s a worse sleepyhead than me, crawled out of bed and joined the land of the living.

They packed their lunches (oldest two are old enough to pack their own, this way I can hold them responsible for eating what they pack, and oldest child made a deal with youngest child that she would pack his lunch in exchange for him letting her get him up early enough every day so that she could see him before she left for school,) and ate their breakfasts, ran around brushing hair and finding shoes. At the same time Hubster was working on getting himself dressed for work, and I made his lunch, (How can a man who weighs 160lbs soaking wet eat 4 sandwiches for lunch a day, every day, then come home and eat like the pig he does here, and stay 160lbs soaking wet?)

I’ve gotten them all off to where they’re supposed to be, now to see how my first day without them goes.

One more day of craziness

and then all three kids will be in school and whole different kind of craziness ensues.

Kid one has really liked her new school in the first two days. She loves that it keeps her engaged, never letting her get bored, or have nothing to do.

The remaining two are excited to start tomorrow. We met their teachers and found their classrooms yesterday. Both backpacks are already packed with the supplies for their first day of school and lunch money paid to the cafeteria.

I’m ready to get up and get them off to class, then come home for a date with my treadmill and a bit of housework before I sit down at the keyboard. I’m hoping to establish a habit of exercising, picking up around here and making pages.

My Last Baby!

Is now enrolled in school… He starts kindergarten in two weeks (all day kindergarten too!) it’s so bittersweet. Bitter because he’s my last, my baby, and he’s going off to school already… Sweet because I’ll have time to get to the things I haven’t had the time to do for the last at least 5 years… And uninterrupted time to write… this one item is what’s keeping me looking forward to school starting. Writing is a slow process when you can’t concentrate because when you put your headphones on to work, you can’t get a single song played without at least 3 interruptions.

So while I’m sad to see my baby leave for school (I must admit, he’s excited, he’s been ready to go for a year,) I’m glad for the opportunity to get some things done.

 

Side note, I’m still working on the final scene in my short story, I know where it’s going it’s the having uninterrupted time to get it out that’s the hard part today. I made 3 pages.

Writing Music: Bryan Adams, Theory of a Deadman, Nickelback

Swim lessons over

and only 2 weeks left till school starts.

I’m glad I have two weeks break from getting up and getting the kids ready to head out every morning. Though it wasn’t really the getting up and getting the kids ready to head out that I hated about swimming lessons, it was the sitting in the heat for an hour waiting for them. The pools here have shade over the seating but one would think that in this heat they would have a mister system, but no… we just sit in the heat and wait. Since I’m sensitive to the heat anyway it’s been miserable. But now it’s over for the summer.

Next big thing is schools starting.. then sports. I think I’ll invest in a spray bottle for sports practices and games… better than relying on the city for misters to keep it a livable degree of cool.

Count down till school starts…

I have one starting school on Aug 8, and the other two on the 10th. Starting the 10th I’ll have some previously unheard of time to get things done…

• Time to get on the treadmill without worrying about small children sticking their fingers in it while I have my music cranked up…
• Time to clean things around the house and have it last more than 12.3 seconds.
• Time to work on my writing, uninterrupted. I have no clue what it’s like to be able to concentrate on what I’m doing without being poked or prodded every 2 minutes for something like “Can I have a drink?” or “Can I go to the bathroom?” cause I make the child ask permission to use the bathroom /sarcasm. 

I’m excited. I’ve never had any kind of time like that. I worked until after both the girls were born and when the boy was born the younger girl was in part time preschool a couple hours three days a week, and she had just started it.

First day of school…

went well, mostly.

There was a small snag in that my kids were over 30 mins late getting home. Why? Because they were held back at school for that long. I called the school to complain about the delay, and the principal called me back himself (with our last school it took an act of congress to speak to the principal, and then she lied and spoke down to you, as if you were an idiot.)  He was very nice, he explained that partly, the busses were late (shouldn’t effect my kids, they walk) and that they were trying to make sure that every child was accounted for, and got where they needed to go, and that there would probably be a delay today as well, but not as long… And then, shocker of all shockers, he gave me his personal cell phone number! To me, that is going out of your way to help your students and their families. I am once again glad we moved out of the old district, I am really liking this particular school.

Back to school…

Things have been a bit of a mad house around here the last few weeks. With all of the back to school shopping and prep, getting bedrooms all cleaned up, and trying to figure out how 2 kids will haul an entire Wal-Mart school supply aisle to school in the first week. Convincing the 4 year old that he is not going to school this year, that means no, we don’t go meet his teacher yet, and no, we don’t go find his class room… I did buy him snacks, special ones that he gets to eat while his sisters are at school.

Working on getting things ready for the Hubster to start school too, he only takes a couple of classes a semester, but with a full time job, that is often, at least these days, more than full time, and the Guard, it makes for a bit more than a full schedule.

A New Look.

I was in a mood today, so I decided that I needed to change things up.

School is starting (and my wallet sure knows it after supplying half the school with paper!) soon, and all our supplies are bought, I still need to find a few pairs of pants for my munchkins, but all else is done. My dining room table is covered with supplies to be hauled to class during the first week. My 4 year old is both excited to see his sisters go to school, and sad to see them go. He will miss being able to play with them and harass them all day long, but he will enjoy the time to himself too.. He will get to pick what he watches, what he plays, what toys he uses, and not have to share with his sisters. He will also enjoy spending his time with Mom, and not having to share my attention with the girls.

One major change though, when school let out, Hubster was working a swing shift, and now he is working days, so he won’t have Mom AND Dad to himself in the mornings. But I think he will manage. I am looking forward to fewer fights, less bickering, and way way less “Moooommmm, can we _____“ oh, and dragging all 3 to do what ever shopping I need to get done, where they always find 500 more things that we just HAVE to have. Plus, and this is a big one, if they are not here all day long, they are not making messes for me to clean up all day long.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks…

First, with school, we had a 3 day weekend because of MLK day and only a 4 day school week, then we only had 2 full days and 2 half days because we had a rain storm hit town last Thursday, it dropped a good bit of rain, and they called school at 1/2 a day… later that evening we got a call cancelling school for the next day… which dawned sunny and beautiful.

Though I enjoy being able to sleep later, and not getting up at the ass-crack of dawn to get the girls off to school, I do enjoy that  bit of relative peace that  happens around here when 2/3 of the demolition team is not present.  And I admit, I get more done when I get up earlier, because once it becomes 12:00 and the power rates skyrocket, I do very little that I don’t absolutely need to do.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow. Maybe I will be able to get a little bit of knitting and reading done in amongst all the other stuff that has to get done. We shall see.