The transition

Right now I'm sitting here sniffling and doing exactly what I didn't want to do - staying in bed way too late, letting the kids watch too many cartoons in their jammies and eat breakfast ridiculously late.  They got up early at least.  I have a lovely summer cold.  ARGH!  So I must give myself a little break and not be so hard on myself but dammit, it doesn't fit with my plan! 

My plan of transition is slowing working.  Slowly.  I'm actually getting the kids to bed at a decent hour.  I'm trying to get myself to bed at a decent hour too.  But this morning I woke up just before 6 and started sneezing and sniffling again and haven't stopped. At least I slept well from 11 - 6! Poor FG. I woke him up too.  He left for the day and I went back to sleep.  I heard one of the kids come in and ask if they could turn on cartoons and I mumbled a stuffy- "Yeth"and went back to sleep.  I know, I know, my body needs the rest and better to let it now and get over this blasted bug while I can and don't HAVE to get up and get the kids out the door to school. 

I'm struggling with my grocery shopping list too.  Ey yi yi!  I have a week of "summer" left and then the first week of packing 2 lunches every. single. day. for two very different kids.  Since I shop every two weeks on payday, today's my day!  I'm scanning the ads, printing coupons, matching up deals at various stores...  and my mind is reeling.  Dinners for the next two weeks.... snacks for the boat and home..... lunches at home..... lunches at school.... will DD need a mid-morning snack of her own or will the class have a group snack like DS did in 1st grade?  will she even have a snack?  will DS need one?  his 3rd grade teacher had us send one every day because they don't get a break in the morning so she implemented one for the class of 10 minutes to eat a healthy snack, stretch their legs, go to the bathroom and transition into the next subject. Should I plan for that this year or is 4th grade getting too old for "snack time"?  Oh yeah, afterschool snacks too and then easier to prepare, quick cleanup dinners since we'll all be getting used to new schedules - me included with working while the kids are in school 3 days a week. That means I won't be able to feel like making anything that takes a whole lot of time or effort those 3 days.  Time to bust out the crock pot! I have to get out of the mindset of finding super-easy stuff for FG to get on the table for the kids and find stuff that I can handle.  (He's a frozen pizza, chicken nugget & canned green beans cook. He's improved but I couldn't throw too much at him.) 

Right now I'm thankful that the sun is setting a bit earlier.  No, I don't want summer to end but if it has to and the kids need to start back to school, it's much easier to get them into bed when it's darker out than in June & July when it is fairly bright at 8:30 pm.  They are anxious and getting excited about the upcoming year too.  I think they are getting tired of each other and missing friends.  Playdates are great but they are together 24/7 and even when there's a break with other friends in the mix, they are still together.  The other night they were bickering and both near tears over little things. I said, "Ok, I think it's bedtime!" and oddly, they both agreed and went up to bed.  I wondered who took my kids and replaced them! 

I'll let you know what sort of deals I get at the store today.  I'm armed with coupons and sale flyers.  I was so excited when I saw that cereal boxes, the regular size ones, were $.48 at one of our stores.  I know it's a typo and will be corrected when we get there.  If for some odd reason they honor it, I'm buying 16 boxes (it's a buy 8 & get them at that price deal).  I would buy more but I don't have that much room to even store 16 boxes! Wish me and my sniffly nose luck today!