I Can Feel My Sanity Returning...

Generic Fruit Loops...the breakfast of champions

Brice's first day of Kindergarten! And who did that to my towels???

Drew getting ready to walk to the bus stop...with his number one fan at his side for the pic

The older kids ready for school



The little kids on our way out the door...




....Because school has started! Seven of my lovely little lads and one little ladybug are in school at least half day. Drew is in his sophomore year of high school. Gosh, I feel old thinking about it. Emanuel is an 8th grader, Brandon has moved up to 5th, Jackson to 3rd, Brice has started Kindergarten and the twins are in Pre-K, although at separate schools due to Isaiah's IEP and his needs for speech and occupational therapies. The twins pre-K programs are half days and Isaiah attends the morning session while Alex attends the afternoon. Initially, I wasn't thrilled about that prospect, though the more I contemplated it, the more it seemed like a good thing.
The morning started of CRAZY!!! But you wouldn't expect anything less from us, would you? Getting Daddy out the door to work and 6 boys out the door to school is NOT an easy task! I had everything laid out the night before...down to socks, underwear and shoes, complete with book bags packed the night before and STILL chaos reigned supreme. Jackson couldn't or wouldn't find his toothbrush, which begs the question...when exactly was the last time he'd had it in his possession, or in simple terms-used it? Very concerning. Brice was bouncing off the walls with excitement and eagerness, which is totally HIM, but nonetheless a bit irritating at 6:30 a.m. Brandon, who had the same teacher as Brice when HE was in Kindergarten, spent the morning attempting to scare Brice by making up lots of tales about how mean the teacher is..which is totally NOT the case. Brice, in fact, got the exact teacher we were hoping for- the one who is PERFECT for Brice's personality. Just as she was PERFECT for Brandon's personality a few years back. Fortunately, no amount of fear tactics could slow Brice's roll on the first day of Kindergarten.
After the older boys were at the bus stop, I had to pack up Brice, Isaiah and all the girls and head to the elementary school...the first elementary school that is (we had two of them on our to do list that morning). Kindergarten and Pre-K require a parent to attend with their child on the first day. It's just a meet and greet and lasts only an hour, sort of as a way to help the children get accustomed to the room and the teacher before spending an entire day there. The issue was, it was scheduled from 8:30-9:30. Three kids, two schools, one me. The math wasn't adding up. We pulled up at the school, and my good friend Ora grabbed Sydney and Bree and took them to her house to play with her little girl, Sara (whom our girls are crazy about!) Then we rushed to Brice's class first, stayed a while, met the teacher, doffed off school supplies in the designated spot, filled out some paperwork, played a bit, then jetted to the other end of the building to Alexandria's class room. There, we repeated the process and then darted out to Isaiah's school just outside of town. We arrived at 9:40. Ten minutes after it was over. But...the silver lining was that the crowd was gone and it was just us and the teachers. Which was nice. It meant lots of attention for Isaiah and less chaos for me. One of the aides in Isaiah's classroom is actually the lady who runs the town swimming pool our kids visit so often in the summer. See, that small town thing again.
To say I was dead tired when we got home was an understatement! The kids on the other hand, were still giddy with first-day-of-school excitement. Yikes.
Though I really will miss having them home, I'm glad for school being back in session. I feel like I can regain some sanity and get things back in order. Heck, maybe I'll even be able to reduce my dosage of Zoloft. Nope, prolly not.