I keep thinking that I must be fooled –that summer really isn’t gone after all and that this whole September back to school, cold weather is coming shenanigans is really just a hoax. It has to be, right? I mean, we were just enjoying the carefree do-what-we-please days, and then we hit a brick wall. It’s mid-september and apparently I’m still in denial about the whole thing. I drop off Brayden and Carter every morning and watch with both astonishment and a gut-wrenching sadness as Carter hops out of the van and happily walks into school like he already owns the place. He’s known as “Brayden’s little brother” and he already knows kids in third grade, and jokes around with them like they are pals. Apparently transition isn’t an issue for my two oldest. And I guess it never was either. They are pretty flexible kids, and I need to remember not to take that for granted.

We live in constant messes, but I’m slowly getting things organized from the destruction of the summer months. Everyone home all the time means utter disaster everywhere. Now there’s limited time in the day for disasters. . .and while they do hit hard and fast, they aren’t anything like fourteen hour days of five people home all at once.

I try to do what I have dubbed the “shakedown” everyday before James and the boys get home. I run around the house like a madwoman and pick up as many things as possible in a ten minute time period. Sometimes if I’m overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, I just tell myself that I’m going to pick up 35 things and put them away. So I grab the closest out of place item and and handful of other things, and before I know it, I’ve picked up 35 things and I’m feeling a lot better about myself. Give it a try sometime 🙂