new routines = busy = crazy

The girls started at their new school this past week and it meant that we all had to get used to a whole new routine. The girls go to school everyday from 8:20 to 3pm. Sometimes hubby drives them, and I stay and walk Big M to the bus stop, and sometimes we switch. Daddy cherishes the alone time he gets with Big M at the bus stop; they get to chitchat without any interruption and just be silly. I, on the other hand, make use of the time I take the girls to school and go buy groceries on the way home.

The girls love their school and their new friends! They also love the fact that they get to bring their own lunch. However, preparing lunches for 3 kids take as much as an hour even with hubby's help. I hate that piece of chore, because it eats into my "me" time after everyone has gone to bed.

Big M also started soccer practice. We found out that the team is co-ed, unlike his team in Texas. We all went to the soccer practice which proved to be a big no-no. It was quite a trek to get to the soccer field, and with kids who have been in school all day, it is too much. Everyone was cranky. Daddy will have to take over the soccer practice while the other kids and I stay home. That's the plan anyway, and we better stick to it for our own sanity's sake.

While everything is busy, I am craving "me" time more and more. I've been watching TV after the kids have gone to bed, and now that's just boring. So I've dug up my craft things and made space. So at night, while watching TV, I've been sewing. I finally finished Big M's PJ that he picked the fabric for last fall. Of course, if I make one for one child, I feel I have to make one for the others. Besides, K and J need a new PJ too. Everything they own are now midriff shirts because they have gotten so tall. So now I have the sewing bug. I've also been bit by the embroidery bug, so I have plans for that. Last but not least, I've started to go into bottle cap crafts. This one the kids have been enjoying with me as well.

Not to be forgotten, Daddy is starting to pick up his wood carving. I guess he sees me sewing away and wants to join in a very rewarding "me" time. He has other unfinished project from last year, but right now he is being driven by the desire to do something for Big M. Big M's anxiety is slightly up again and it is manifesting itself in the middle of the night. He wakes up and he can't sleep. He said he is afraid of monsters/ghosts, but if experience has taught us anything, we need to dig deeper into the cause (if we can find the cause at all). Daddy wants to make him a magic totem that would keep him safe at night, so he is designing that.

Little M is continuing to grow physically, mentally and his attitude. Big M's toddler shoes that I dug up for him in January are now getting small. The boy is eating us out of house and home in spurts. If there is food he didn't get to finish at lunch time, he eats them as soon as he wakes up from his nap. He is proving to be much like his older siblings - big! His sisters started out swearing their size clothes, and jumped up at age 2 1/2. Little M seems to be doing the same thing.