School Starts, 2009

I admitted to a friend of mine over the phone that Carl does most of the cooking, and she asked what do I do with all my time? I had no quick answer. I have put my business on the back burner, and have done little creative effort over the summer. I got off the phone, feeling a little useless and unproductive.

I reviewed summer in my mind - then remembered - Oh yeah. This is the 5th day of school. I had four children home all summer. I managed them and ran them around all summer, and now I am easing(?) them into the school year. In a different post I hope to review the summer, but this blog post will just outline school starting...

The 1st day of school (Tuesday) was stressful/relaxing/stressful again, as I try to launch the children into a brand new schedule - totally different from the summer schedule and very changed from last year's school schedule. (2 Children are in new schools, and I have 3 school schedules to contend with (Elementary, Middle and High School) - but only for this 2009-2010 school year. For the children: Up early; shower and eat; what to wear; where are your supplies; and the emotional encouragement... I got pictures of 3 of the children waiting for the bus - Tom's ride came at 6:50AM and I missed his photo.

The 2nd Day of school (Wednesday) I had to pull Tom out of school early for a Doctor's pre-operation physical appointment. I also had to start dealing with the children's homework issues. (They want to delay it, they need materials, they need photos, they need PC time, etc.)

The 3rd day of school (Thursday) Tom had dental surgury at Children's Hospital starting at 7:00 AM. I had to get up before 6:00 AM (this was not the summer schedule for me at all - I am a night owl, not a morning person). Carl had to get the children off to school, then miss a day of work as he joined me at the hospital for the 4.5 hour procedure to remove wisdom teeth, do a root canal, put on sealants and take x-rays and mouth impressions, all under general anesthetic.
More homework issues, including the homework is frustrating, needing a working word processor (it's REQUIRED that this assignment be done on a PC, mom...) and needing a working printer.

I have 3 PC's that my children can use. The best one, with the internet connection and printer and Microsoft word got so messed up with viruses (due to the children), that we wiped the hard drive in the last week of August. We lost data, the Word install, and the printer drivers, but the internet now works again. One is a gaming PC that never had it Word installed, and one is a laptop that my husband can use fine but kept locking up for the child doing the homework... We aren't printing out much at home for a while.

The 4th day of school (Friday) Anthony and I left early in the morning for a flight to Washington DC, so Anthony missed a day of school, Carl dealt with the post-op for Tom, who missed a day of school, and Carl missed work to stay at home with Tom. Thank God it's Friday. TGIF.

The 5th day of school (Tuesday after labor day) I got 2 phone calls from 2 schools before noon. One child at the middle school needed two items, one "necessary"; and Tom at the High School needed pain killers for his teeth. I visited the 3rd school to pay lunch money for Miranda, because during registration I ran out of time, checks, and money, and her's was the lunch account I hadn't funded. Oh well. Their college education accounts aren't funded either.

This blog is supposed to be about art and photography, not children, so I hope to get back on topic soon, but I guess today you could say I am blogging about creativity block.