School Daze

I am still trying to figure out what I am doing? There is a strange silence in my house. My head is foggy with memories of "me time" as I am strangely aware that I survived summer with my four children and now three of my children are back in school. This "time" I suddenly have seems overwhelming. Do I start training for my next marathon or do I finish my novel?

Important Note: My computer of a year and a half died this summer because it had a bad motherboard and of course I did not buy the extended warranty...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah! I was pretty depressed at first, but then I reminded myself "my motherboard" wasn't bad and I could write my book "Mark Twain Style" if that was my only option, aside from begging my twelve-year-old to borrow her laptop. This wasn't really something I wanted to do, because she got stingy about letting me use her laptop to check e-mail. In response to her stingy attitude about using her computer to check e-mail, I reminded her that I pay for the Internet which would no longer be available on her computer if I couldn't use it...yada,yada,yada! Well, now that she is back in school for seven hours a day, her laptop is free. Now if I can only find my way out of the fog!

I think I am stuck in the fog partially due to the fact the family schedule is so packed with activities, I am feeling brain overload (not to be confused with a "bad motherboard.") And then there is my husband, who keeps throwing out hints at how I should make on of those "artsy" calendars I usually make with every one's schedule on it, but to be honest with you, I am just trying to get through waking up at 5:45 a.m. and making three lunches on tea.

Another Important Note: I gave up coffee, in part to cut out my excessive spending at coffee establishments, but mainly to cut out my children's addiction to coffee house treats. Forget one coffee. Starbucks became Twentybucks with my brood of four and at Twentybucks a day.... you do the math- 365*20.... CRAZY! Now if only I started a savings account with that money.

As far as the "artsy" calendar my husband keeps telling me to make, I'll get to it when I am used to 5:45. Is that an oxymoron?

One Third and Final Note: If there is one thing my kids were good at this past summer (aside from fighting), that was sleeping in. 5:45 a.m. is coming way too quickly for me. I miss the days of rolling out of bed at 7:15 a.m. and sipping tea in silence waiting for my children to wake up between 8:30-10:00 a.m. Now I am stumbling out of bed, making tea, lunches, breakfast and getting out the door by 7:15. Yuck! But as I say that, I think I must be crazy, because once I have dropped my children off at school, I have what I lacked all summer: TIME. When will the reality finally hit me that after seventy-nine days of summer break, I can do what I want?