what??? are you kidding me?

I found out last night that school starts tomorrow. I thought all along that it started on Wednesday. Not this year. Ooops. That schedule I wanted to start the kids on? I started it last night. The younger ones anyways. They were all tucked in by 8:30, and asleep by nine or so. The older kids...ha.

So tomorrow nine kids get on the bus. Sam needs a pair of jeans and a belt. Since we lost their lists, some of them have gotten them online, others contacted friends, so we have a basic idea of what they need.(most of it is obvious) We already filled backpacks ..I just need to get more filler paper and some scientific calculators.....I don't even want to get into what happened to the ones they had last year...maybe they will surprise me.

Yesterday, while Paul took a little nap, I took the kids for a walk down the road to pick wildflowers, or weeds, while the chicken roasted. I made stuffing and peas and broccoli, too. Anyways, I was taking his clothes out of the dryer and folding them...and thinking about how he has always done his own laundry. I am just not as busy now as I was for years and years. So the thoughts come of things like going to nursing school.....or getting a job. But yesterday I decided that at least for the time being, I am going to do what I have always wanted to do....make the house homey and nice for the family. I don't mind doing that, but for years it was doing all of my work in little spurts between nursing sessions, being interrupted by toddler diaper changes and cleaning up entire boxes of cheerios they dumped while I switched loads over. If I had to pick, I would leave the housework to someone else, and just take care of kids. Go on adventures, and play and have nice snack times.....

But now that I have a little extra time, I may as well enjoy doing what I have been doing for years, now at a bit more of a leisurely pace. I still have that rushed feeling, like I have to hurry up and finish shoving the groceries in the cupboard before someone needs me. And when I go into the bathroom, it is still a magnet for all the little things they want me to sort out. I usually say over and over again, "I am IN the bathroom. I will talk to you in a minute." Over and over again. But some of them do not give up, and continue to state their request, and sometimes I find myself sitting in there solving fights or giving permission to have a freezepop.....rrr.

So just for the record, I don't have LOTS of extra time. Compared to five years ago I do, compared to ten years ago...tons. Ten years ago Emily Anne was 15, Abigail 13, Benjamin 11, Mirielle 10, Joseph 9, Aaron 7, Mali 6, Sam 5, Margaret 3 and a half, Kathryn 2, and Evelyn one. I was pregnant for Suzanne. Probably very exhausted and throwing up and queasy. So comparatively, I have some free time now....

It is very very nice to have Paul home again. I missed him so much. I picked him up at the airport all by myself, so we could talk the whole way home. Yes, it is nice to have him here.

Tomorrow at this time the bus will be here, and the little kids are all still sleeping except for Suzanne. The bigger kids will have gone an hour ago, and they are all still in bed, too. It is going to be a rough week. But hey, our summer was fun right up to the end. We didn't want to ruin it too soon, planning for school. Our kids have deemed "school" a bad word, that we are not allowed to say or refer to during the summer.