School's Out For The Summer

First of all, today is Addy's last day of preschool, and I am SAD and also a little FRANTIC, because I totally forgot you're supposed to give teachers end of year gifties. I think I'm just going to get them something garden-y, since I need to go get more mulch anyways. That cool, you think? Speaking of mulch, I so should have just ordered a giant truckload of it. I've already used TWENTY THREE BAGS, and I need MORE. I've also stained the upholstery of our van trunk, and about three of my t-shirts, with black mulch dye from accidentally buying the cheap mulch the first time. Live and learn.

But hey-o, look at me, gardening and landscaping up in here, just like I swore I would last year as I lay pregnantly sweating on the couch and staring forlornly out at the untended flower beds. I am actually amazed at what we've gotten done considering the weather (and the three small children,) but it's mainly due to the fact that despite the rain nearly every night for two months straight, including scary thunderstorm/tornadoes that send us fleeing to my mom's basement, it actually IS sometimes sunny, if incredibly damp, during the day.

But anyways, about the preschool thing. I am sad to see it end, even though I'm relieved to no longer be doing the frantic rush to and from four times a week. It was the perfect amount of time (two and a half hours a day) to give Addy a break from her brothers (coughcough and her nagging mother coughcough) and to give me a chance to run errands with only TWO helpers, both of whom can be contained in the cart. It also added some structure to our generally haphazard days, since I am not what you'd call a naturally scheduled person.

Take the kids' baths. I know lots of people have the whole bath-story-bed ritual, but us? Kids get baths whenever it seems they need them, be it every few days or twice in one day. Sometimes it's after breakfast, if they're all sticky from syrup and yogurt. Sometimes it's immediately after a trip to the playground or McDonalds, when I just want to scrub the dirt and germs off ASAP. For Eli, it's often following a didn't-quite-get-to-the-potty-in-time incident. In the summer, when we've been outside in the grass and slathered in sunscreen, they always get showered down before getting into bed, even if they already had a proper soap and shampoo kind of bath earlier.

I did use to have a cleaning schedule- I kept to it religiously for several years and it made me feel so organized. Mondays I would dust, Wednesdays clean the bathroom, that sort of schedule. Since Jameson, though, I just do stuff when I can get to it- it's more on a triage basis, as I remember Marie Green once said re: cleaning. I try to keep the kitchen cleaned daily, keep up on laundry and dishes, emptying trash, keeping things sort of picked up so no one breaks their foot on toys, etc. But there is no more regularly scheduled dusting. Sigh. It's ok though. I don't want to look back and remember that I spent my kids' entire childhood fretting over a never ending, constantly repeating to do list. Not worth it.


Do you see here that Addy has lost a tooth? And the grown up tooth is already halfway in? ZOMG MAH BABY! Stop being so big.


Same goes for you, Jamie James.