Back to School, Back to Insanity

Don't get me wrong, I really do appreciate the few hours during the day without the majority of my children at home when school starts. (This year I'll only have 1 at home!) But back to school also means back to the insanity of our busy lives.

Life is like a coin. There are always at least two sides. Summer is great because of the long lazy days without much to do. But then again the kids always seem to be on top of each other and running simple errands can be like launching a space shuttle. Back to school is great because the kids are with their friends again and I have a few hours to actually finish tasks with only minor interruptions. But when September starts I'm also dealing with homework and teachers and the return of schedule insanity due to sports, scouts, and after school activities.

As they say, "you can't win for losing."

Since I will only have one child at home during school hours (and she's almost 5 years old, not as demanding as an infant or toddler) I'm going to attempt to use that time to work on as many mundane but necessary household tasks as possible. That way the evening hours as we rush from homework through dinner to hockey practice (insert "soccer" or "scouts" depending on the week night) I won't be worrying about clean clothes or if the bills are paid.

We have one full week left of summer vacation. Honestly this has been one of our busiest summers ever. I've barely gotten used to the idea of not having to be home at 3:30pm for the school bus to arrive. And this school year promises to be our busiest so far. I think a little preplanning will keep it from turning into an over stressed messy disaster. I just hope 7 hours of school day is enough time...



Katie Fleck is a stay at home mom of five, Zach (10 years), Emily and Ally (8 1/2 year old identical twins), Kyle (5 1/2 years), and Kelly (4 1/2 years old). On a quest for a self cleaning house and 27 hour days, she writes at Ramblings of a SAHM