In the Midst of Craziness

I know that my life isn't that different from other people's. Other people have exhausting, jam-packed schedules, too. And a family. But different from others or not, I am busy. Crazy busy. And scarily, it has only just begun. Seems like a lifetime ago that we were enjoying the lazy days of August--sleeping in 'til 7 a.m. instead of 6 (!!!), playing in the backyard, riding bikes and scooters, and going to the park. Now our days start at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. By 7:15 I'm out the door on my way to work. Dave is left to finish up dressing, toothbrushing, breakfast, and the final push out the door all by himself. At 10:55 I hand off the last of my kindergarteners to their moms, dads, or babysitters. At 11:00 my own kindergartener is delivered to me. I have 15 minutes to clean my classroom, tackle the enormous pile on my desk, read the bazillion emails that I've had to ignore earlier in the day, and put together the stack of everything I don't get to that has to go home with me. Then Grayson and I meet my friend Kim in the school parking lot at 11:15. We trade cars, and I head home with her 2 boys and my own 2 kids. Then it's lunchtime. If you read my earlier post, then you already know that the 3 big kids rarely agree on 1 meal. So I become a short-order cook, and at some point in the midst of the madness, I also manage to feed Baby Aiden his rice cereal, fruit, and vegetable. Next I have to clean up the disaster that is my kitchen. Then tackle diapers. Then herd everybody upstairs to his/her respective room. Then pat the baby 'til he falls asleep. Then I tackle more of the bazillion school emails. Before I know it, rest time is over, and everyone is hungry again. Go figure. So I dole out snacks. Sometime after 4 Kim comes to pick up her boys. After we see them out the door, many days Grayson, Molly, and I head back to Newby so that I can tie up loose ends. Usually Molly poops, and I don't have the diaper bag. Ugh. When we get home, it's time to start on dinner. Thank goodness for Dora, Diego, and Mickey Mouse! At 6:30 we welcome Dave home, dinner goes on the table, and for the first time I sit in peace (I use the word "peace" loosely) and eat my dinner. Then it's off we go again! At least by this time Dave is home to help. So in the next 2 hours we clean up dinner, play, do baths, read books, and tuck our tuckered out kids into bed. Too bad at that point I can't go to bed, too! Nope, it's usually more school stuff for me. Did I mention that I am only paid for half-time employment?!?! Ah, the life of a teacher. Which, that reminds me, I almost forgot why I started writing this post...

This morning after the initial rush to try to get ready, my whole family got to sit down to eat breakfast together. We enjoyed our cereal and oatmeal and talked about our days. My kids were happy. Grayson likes school so much and each day is excited to go. Phew. Molly is happy as long as she knows that she at least gets to "visit" Grayson's school every day to drop off her brother. And it donned on me that this year, so far, I'm really excited to go to school each day, too. Even though it is crazy busy. I've got good kids this year. Sure, they're wild. It is September after all. Some cry daily. A lot. Some even scream, push over chairs, and run out of the classroom. But it's my little class. And I get to make a difference in the lives 0f 20 kids. Thank God that excites me again because I definitely forgot that last year. And even though I'm EXHAUSTED at the end of each day, I'm happy. And it's not even that hard to find the will to want to do it all again tomorrow.