Boys are Off to School!

Here they are dressed at 6am and ready to go!

And, if I have to answer one more, "what did you do all day?" question, my standard answer is going to be... "Did you know Bon Bons have a new caramel flavor? They go great with all those soap opera shows in the afternoon!"

Are you kidding? I've had kids at home 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week for 14 straight years. There is SO much I'd like to do that I haven't been able to do. But, for now, I'll have to settle for getting organized. We have so much homeschool curriculum to sell, a school room to convert back to an office/study, and new responsibilities. Seriously though, you have no idea how many times I've heard that question in the last 2 days. I can't even count anymore. I wonder if they think I don't have a life, or if they think they would be so bored they couldn't think up anything.

The boys' carpool left at 6:15 am! Yes, the neighbors have a tradition they go out for breakfast the first day of school. Our boys tagged along and then were off to school, 16 miles away. It was a LONG day... they didn't get home until 5:40pm. The girl that drives has volleyball practice on M,W,F for the first 2 months of school. I was instructed to put MORE FOOD in the lunch box to tide them over that long.

Josh came home and was excited about his day. I think he liked just about everything about his school. He is taking Algebra, choir, art appreciation, grammar/comp, Bible, Physical Science, and Spanish.

Zach was awake when I came in to get him. I think he was more excited to start the day than Josh. Zach's class has 20 kids, and they only switch for history/science and 1 elective class. He likes his elective class, it's Read to Succeed. Funny, considering he doesn't like to read. Then, I found out it is a class offered to all the 6,7,8th graders so he has our neighbor in that class, plus 3 friends from Church. I had asked if they would switch that class to math tutoring, so now I'll have to decide whether or not it would be beneficial or not.

He wishes he were a 7th grader instead of 6th and is convinced he could handle it. So, I've given him an incentive. If he makes all A's the first quarter and doesn't struggle to do it, I'll go in and speak with the principal and tell her I made a mistake in classifying his grade. He was happy with that, so we'll see what he does.

So, while the boys were at school ALL day, I kept myself busy. I've never even tried a Bon Bon, but maybe it shall be something I will explore in the near future. In the mean time, I planned out the rest of the week for lunches and dinners. Got out the recipes, and made a shopping list. Packing lunches is no easy task these days. Especially when they come home and say, "no one eats sandwiches, Mom." Ok, what do they eat? Pizza, and such. Hmmm... more creativity required. I think Dave and I spent 3 hrs. shopping at Costco and Winco for lunch and dinner menu stuff this afternoon.

If that wasn't enough to do, The kitchen is now clean, I went to the gym for 1.5hrs, I baked 18 banana muffins for boy snacks, cooked dinner and had it ready when they got home, washed, dried, folded and put away 2 very large loads of laundry, and then took a 45 minute nap before the boys came home. See, no time for soaps or retired living. I think I've got at least a month of stuff planned where I will hardly have time to sit down during the day. But DONT ASK ME, "what do you do all day?" You'll get the Bon Bon answer. I'm sure you can come up with a better question :)