Sunday, September 15, 2013

I Survived.....The First Week of School

My last blog post drew a wild and crazy picture of how much zig-zagging will be happening in the Williams house, just to get everyone where they need to go.  I'm happy to say, God provided a fabulous car, perfect for our family, which met all of our requirements including budget!  And on the first day of car shopping!  Bryan calls it his "company car" as a bonus from his boss. (wink!)  I, on the other hand, now have to drive myself to work, which means no more handsome chauffeur with curbside service straight to the front door. (Insert pitiful violin music....)


oops--this car came with an extra kid in the back!

So now that that's off the checklist, the first week of school should be smooth sailing, right?  Um, I think our sailboat has some kind of hole in the sail.....

Chaos of Conflicting Schedules day one:  Bryan-Graeson go to football practice, Kaela-Maezie stay home until I get off work.  Bryan had dinner in the oven, which Kaela successfully took out, but for some reason it didn't occur to her nor Maezie to EAT dinner.  I ended up working late, so by the time I got home, dinner was cold, we all ate late, and went to bed late too.

Chaos of Conflicting Schedules day two:  taekwondo-gymnastics-play practice ALL at the same time, followed by Mom-Graeson-Maezie then head to elementary open house, Dad picks up Kaela from play practice but they don't make it to open house.  We all eat late (leftovers it is!), we all go to bed late.  (Future blog:  pondering whether open house is worth it and pondering not going next year....)

Chaos of Conflicting Schedules day three:  Kaela goes to play practice, which means Maezie goes with Bryan-Graeson to football practice.  I get off work and pick Maezie up (while football practice continues) then to the theater to pick Kaela up.  But...Bryan forgot that was part of the plan and when practice was over and she was GONE, he panicked.  I didn't answer my phone in another room across the house (panic increases), he finally reached Kaela on her phone to find out we were all safely at home.  Oops--mom and dad will learn to communicate better which-kid-is-where.

Chaos of Conflicting Schedules day four:  Kaela leaves for school at 7:20am, gets home at 7:20pm...dinner is sandwich in the car between play practice and middle school open house, homework late, shower late (um, has anyone in this house showered at all this week??), an entire hour late for bed.  More pondering as to whether open house serves any purpose....

Chaos of Conflicting Schedules day five:  Graeson wakes up on the WRONG side of the bed, Maezie is freaking out because we haven't been able to get her required reading minutes in, and Kaela is coming down with a head cold and cough.  Mom and Dad have a weekly date at Starbucks (trust me, it's necessary for marriage survival!) and this mama is going to need a triple shot to make it through the day.  Only one kid has to be at after-school activity, so Friday Family Night is movies at home with popcorn in pajamas.

WEEKEND!!!!