Staying at Home Lessons #3 & 4

I haven't run out of lessons to learn yet, so y'all get to see what life 'without' kids is all about just a bit more! And, it's a 'two-fer' today even!

OK, lesson #3:
Just because the kids have a day off does NOT mean that mom does.

I had the house under great control (the laundry was even all done, for the first time that I can remember), dishes were clean, vacuuming done, house looked great. Then...they had to go and give the kids a 3-day weekend! Saturday was just fine. House was still at about 90% of what it had been Friday. Sunday things started to go down hill, and I was foolish enough to believe that I didn't really need to do anything about it as it was Sunday (a day of rest, right?), and I could easily catch on Monday. Oops...we woke up Monday, and the kids were STILL home with me! Don and I worked on projects toward getting our bedroom redecorated and put together (it was Labor Day, what should you do other than 'labor'!?). I left the kids to play some games on the Wii and computer upstairs. We got SO much done on our bedroom, and had to leave a couple of times to get things from Lowe's. I know you'll be surprised by this, but children left to their own devises aren't necessarily going to pick up after themselves (a lesson within a lesson? Nah, I knew this, I just had sort of forgotten in my excitement about my new bedroom area). In 2 days, without mom making meals, they went through 2 loaves of bread and about 1 1/2 gallons of milk just to start with!

Lesson #4

Never schedule grocery shopping for the day after a long weekend or vacation!

On top of learning that I need to keep up with the house and kids on the weekends, I also learned that I should never schedule grocery shopping for the day that the kids finally go back to school! Oh my goodness! We were out of some of my typical packed lunch items, luckily I only had to make one lunch this morning. I had made my lists last night (using the internet to find sales), and I took my list to go to the 5 different stores I planned to get to. Just as I was finishing up with the 1st store (OK, I was looking for items for our 'new and improved' bedroom at Wal Mart, but it was on my list!), I got a phone call from the High School nurse. Apparently the school had the drug sniffing dogs in the school today (this is me rolling my eyes, just in case you didn't rolls yours when you read that). Ariel's had some issues with her sinuses (yeah, I'm just as NOT surprised as you are), so this was sort of the 'straw that broke the camel's back' for her. I went to pick her up, and the nurse gave her Benadryl while I was on my way. Ariel's fine, don't worry (we see the doctor at 3:00). I managed 2 other stores after getting Ariel before realizing that we needed to go home for lunch (on top of which, it was already about 86 degrees at 11:30am, and the A/C in my wonderful van doesn't work again).

I guess, the lesson I'm learning is: keep on top of things, or they're going to fall apart on you. It's going to take me 2 days to get back to where I was Friday afternoon, and then it's nearly time for another weekend! Anyone else out there good with year-round school!? I love my children, I just enjoy doing things with them and for them rather than picking up after them, so I end up letting things slide so that we can enjoy our time together.

Now that school's back in session, we'll be establishing new job lists and activities for the weekends...and I will NOT take it for granted that Mom gets a day off when the kids do!