All the kids have worked hard trying to adjust to the school routine. It’s up at 5am for five of them, then 7am for the rest of them. We are only into the first week and already the elementary kids have homework. (I hate homework. I hated it when I had it, I hate when they have it because I have to help them with it. Homework is awful.)

Summer months meant nobody getting up at 5am and late night popcorn and movies. Summer meant no homework. Summer was kids in the pool, eating dinner whenever, video games, and the beach. I loved summer!
The end of summer brings a new schedule, and a lot more work for everybody, but at least I will no longer hear my name called four thousand two hundred and seventeen times a day, and I will not have to make someone something to eat around the clock and I won’t have non stop bickering about whose turn it is to use the remote remote.

(That is not a typo. A remote remote is wireless and, apparently, coveted by anyone under the age of 15.) I will also not have to go room to room turning off every light in the house continually through the day and picking up random articles of clothing off the floor and off the chairs and behind the furniture giving them the sniff test to see if they are dirty or not. I will turn off all the lights in the morning that they left on, and they will stay off until they get home. Yay for saving electricity!!!

I have now become the homework monitor, the chauffeur, the lunch lady, and the shoe finder. Actually, I take that back, I am “the finder of all things”.

Literally, somehow, somewhere, it was genetically determined in each of these children that instead of looking for an item themselves, it is absolutely mandatory that they loudly call my name 24 times and stand there in desperation (doing absolutely nothing and not looking for anything) while I tear the house apart because they waited until the very last second to let me know it was missing and now I don’t have time for the “you should have put it where it belongs” lecture or we will ALL be late.
I will then drive rapidly to our destinations while I tell the other children to remind me to punish “so and so” after school so I don’t forget.

(In the same notebook where I write down the funny things they say and the things that come out of my mouth, I now have a naughty page where I write down who I need to remember to punish. Sadly, I never remember to visit the naughty page until three days later and by then the moment has passed.)

They all have new backpacks loaded with supplies thanks to all of you, their own water bottles with their names on them in permanent marker, and lots of “new to them” clothes and shoes that were donated! WE THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Now that we are moving into fall there will be new adventures, new exciting things for them to experience, and we will keep you all posted along the way!