And AWAY They GO!!

It's days like today when all I need is John Ritter and Suzanne Summers to burst through my door to convince me that I'm living inside of Three's Company, where there's a calamity a minute and no one knows who's on first.

I thought I was pretty well prepared for the first day of school.  School supplies were in order, lunches, snacks and water were all pre-packed and chilled waiting to be loaded into backpacks, clothes were laid out, everyone got to bed at a reasonable time.  Therefore, the morning should TOTALLY have run smoothly, right?  Well, not according to Murphy's Law, which seems to govern this place!

Jack inadvertently drank caffeine in a large root beer float he had with dinnner last night.  A noise woke him up at 3am and that was it - he never got back to sleep all. night. long.  I think he watched 713 episodes of his favorite Star Wars cartoon in his own personal insomnia marathon.  

Maeve, sensing a disturbance in the force, was also up half the night, screaming like a loon, forcing Molly into MY bed and me, by default, into hers.  It was the only way Maeve would stop shrieking.

Still, Jack managed to get out the door on time this morning and with a full breakfast of hash browns, fried eggs and bacon in his belly (I know, I really patted myself on the back for that one...too soon though, I should have known better!).  Once he was out the door we had 45 minutes to get dressed and out the door for first day donuts at a neighbor's house.  45 minutes?  No PROBLEM!  I can even manage a quick shower in that time frame!

Two minutes into my shower, Ben comes strolling into the bathroom and hollers "Jack's home!"

Wait, WHAT?????  Cue Mr. Roper.  Apparently the school bus DID come by, but because it was going in a direction the children didn't expect, they assumed he had the wrong stop and told him to keep going, they'd wait for their REAL bus....only to find out afterward that it WAS their real bus!  At this point Jack realized he'd left all his school supplies at home, wop wop. (Mind you, he had to MOVE them to get to his backpack, but he managed to not grab them on the way out the door) so he came running back while all the other kids scrambled for rides to school.

This led off a rapidfire collapse in the morning's plan and due to the ripple effect we

- Had to drive Jack to school LATE with my soaking wet head wrapped in a TOWEL and granola bars thrown at the heads of the other children in lieu of breakfast

- Were late for donuts with the neighbors and rushed out the door, though I managed to get the towel off my head and my hair dried and presentable.

- Because I never went back into the kitchen I forgot (FORGOT??!!!) to put Molly and Ben's waters, snacks and lunches in their backpacks (what the what?)

- Walked the kids to school and then on the way home the skies opened up and Maeve and I looked like we'd gone swimming by the time we got home

- Had to then get in the car and drive BACK to school to deliver everything I forgot.

And now Maeve is down for a nap and I can process the zany adventures of the morning.  A lot of good things DID happen despite the calamities.  

- Thankfully because I'd prepped well, we could navigate a few bumps in the road without completely derailing and ruining the day.

- We did manage to get the obligatory front door back to school photos of everyone

- Everyone got a donut, score!

- Got my exercise in what with all that running in the rain to get home.

And for the first time in a long time, I can actually BLOG ABOUT THIS WHEN IT HAPPENED instead of seven months later.  It's the little victories, you know?

Back to School Prep

In getting the kids ready for school, I also need to get me ready for school! Since Maeve was born I have found that my old way of keeping things organized on my desk is no longer working.  The problem is that I never get out of the kitchen and laundry room long enough to visit my desk, so I it ends up a dumping ground and I continually steal my calendar away to the kitchen and never quite get caught up properly.

So this year, I racked my brain to find a spot for a command center in the desk-less kitchen with no wall space (where on earth do you hang a calendar in that situation, eh?  Just more evidence that a man designed my kitchen!)

I finally found a spot on the side of my oven, but it was too small for my current calendar.  In order to maximize the space, and solve a few other problems at the same time , I decided to make my own.  It's a 16x20" calendar modeled on some designs I saw and liked online.  I'll frame in an old frame I already have and use as a dry erase perpetual calendar.  I think it's super cute - I just hope it's functional as well!

In case you have a need for one of your own, you can download it by clicking on the link below!

16X20" JOY IN THE JOURNEY PERPETUAL CALENDAR

The Summer of 2014, a Recap.

It's the last weekend of summer break for this ragtag crew of sun-bronzed, schedule-averse Malletts.  There hasn't been much blogging around here this summer because there was an Olympic amount of 

THIS

scandalous quantities of THIS 

days and days of THIS

 and a sprinkling of THIS.

We traveled wicked FAH to enjoy THIS

drove another 2000 miles for THIS

even farther for THIS

and with help from two sets of grandparents, Mom and Dad managed to sneak away for THIS

  

Along the way, we dealt with a ridiculous amount of THIS

and more of THIS than seems humanly possible

but in the end, it was one humdinger of a summer.