It's The MOST WONDERFUL Time of the YEAR!

I just love that Office Depot or Staples commercial with the parents gleefully shopping while dragging their grumpy faced children along collecting school supplies to the Christmas tune "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!" I can SO relate! I wasn't feeling schooly until last week, and then it hit me HARD! I couldn't stand one more rip roaring fight between my girls, one more high pitched scream from the boys or the constant mess of my house! I became very ready for them to go back! I long for the days when I can walk from room to room and view the cleanliness in quiet solitude. I long to sit on the couch and read to my heart's content. I long to make myself a nice, healthy lunch (no more pb&Js) and eat it on the couch in the living room while watching TV without feeling guilty! Oh, the blissful joy! Next Thursday can't come soon enough. And then I remember that I will have 5 kids in FIVE DIFFERENT schools this year!!! That's a lot of running back and forth, and what to do about parent teacher conferences!?!

Here is the rundown; Connor starts pre-school but thankfully not until after Labor Day. Hunter will go to 1st grade in the Elementary School, which was so crowded, that they had to send the 5th graders to a different Elementary School, which of course is Emily's grade. Hannah will go to Middle School, and Alex will go to High School. We are missing the Jr. High, but will catch it next year when Hannah moves up. If I had another child Jr. high age, it could be 6 schools! But we won't even go there.

Since we live in town, the bus situation is a little sketchy. They don't specifically accommodate in-town kids. The kids have to catch the bus at one school, and transfer to another bus at the next school, and then hopefully make it to their own school. It could be tricky the first day of school.

It is so complex, that I made myself a diagram (if I end up typing it, I'll post it here for your entertainment); 5 different start and stop times, bus times, oh, and they get out of school early on Wed. I think the Middle school also gets out early on Thursdays, but I haven't worked that one out yet. All of the times have changed since last year, and I haven't discovered when High School starts yet. Alex was supposed to have orientation tomorrow, but he'll be camping in Yellowstone. So we'll have to make a trip to the HS next week.

I'm sure that my anticipated relaxation will have to wait at least until the second week! We will win Olympic medals if we don't lose anyone on that first day! It makes me tired just thinking of it all!

Good luck out there to all of you parents sending kids off in the next couple of weeks. We'll all need it! Maybe those home schoolers have something going for them after all!!!