First Day of School- 2011-2012

It happened.  I willed it not to happen.  I declared a day of mourning.  I voiced my opinion about the ultimate wrongness, but still it happened.  With me  unwilling to take the leap to homeschooling, my children had to go back to school today.
 There are some nice things about having them gone.  Audrey has a completely different personality when she is the oldest kid home. She is calm and sweet and agreeable.  When the rest are here, she can be defiant and wild at times. Go figure! Anyway, that part is nice.  I'm also looking forward to some things I have planned, like a co-op preschool for Audrey ( if we can find enough people!), computer school for her, a sewing class for me, and of course the beauty of the fall and the wonderful holidays that come along for the ride.  And my mother in law keeping her mondays free for tending means I can volunteer in the schools for the first time! I'm so excited about that!

And there are stressful things about school starting.  HOMEWORK! and homework and homework and homework.  Soccer season is starting up again, so are voice lessons, and the children's choir.  We'll also have scouts for the boys, activity days for Amy, and dance for the 3 older girls.  Timothy is starting the violin and wants private lessons.  Reuben is continuing with the trumpet and should get private lessons.  Has anyone seen a money tree anywhere lately? :)  But, these stressful things will bless my children, increase their skills, and maginify their talents.  It's time to buckle down and work.  These look like kids who want to work, right?

We got all ready yesterday.  I succesfully convinced Clara not to wear a leopard skirt with a striped melon sweater.  I also convinced Reuben not to wear silky shorts the first day.  I packed a sack lunch for Clara, who declared that chicken sandwiches from school are gross, even though they don't know the menu today.  She is easy to make lunch for though, with her love of almost all fruits and veggies, she was thrilled to have peppers and cucumbers in her lunch bag.  We tucked the 5 oldest children into bed and finally settled down for a little rest around 9 p.m. when Judd started to yell,"Emmeline, Oh no!" I ran in the room, wondering what she could have done since I last saw her 10 seconds before, in time to witness her throwing up all over the carpet, and again, and again, and again.  Poor baby.  This is her first bout with the stomach flu, and she is miserable.  One of the most heartbreaking pleas is a sick baby begging for a drink  that has to be denied.  The only positive thing about her being sick is that it gave me the extra ammo to decide to cancel my dentist appt. to have a cavity filled.  My teeth still hurt so much from the 12 spacers I had put in on Thursday that I cannot even brush my teeth without pain.  I cannot chew anything at all.  So, I'm going to wait on getting that cavity filled until I can tolerate some pressure.  And I'm going to hold my sick baby and clean my house instead of going under the drill.
Anyway, I just can't believe that it's here.  I really dropped the ball on getting the kids ready for school this year.  I barely managed to buy new sneakers for the boys.  Amy had a new t-shirt. Her shoes was okay and Clara is wearing some pretty trashy looking shoes.  Hopefully, her sparkling personality will overwhelm people and they won't notice her year old tennis shoes.  I did buy my kids new clothes, but they were ordered online and haven't even shipped yet. At least everyone is starting the year with a backpack that works.  So, I might deserve a small loser award, but I'm not going to beat myself up.  I've had a hard year.  I had a busy week last week. I threw three parties at my house.  Two of them had more than 50 people in attendance. There is no law that says children must wear brand new clothes the first day of school. 
Here are some photos of this morning.  They were happy little children!