"Jesse is missing"

If there is one thing I hope to never experience again as a parent, it is to have my child missing. For some time tonight, that is what I went through. Of course there were many times in the past when I couldn’t find either of my kids, but they always were found at some point and it was not long that they were gone. This time, it was different.

Earlier this evening, Jesse asked if he could go play at a friend’s house. This friend lives down the street. I said that he could and he took off on his bike for her house. Then he came back a little bit later saying that nobody was home. Since he had had an unpleasant experience while playing with another neighborhood kid, who was currently playing with our neighbor’s son, I told him he was not allowed to go play with them this time. He had not behaved very well and we were still trying to resolve what had happened. So I told him to just ride his bike outside. I had gone over the rules with him – no bothering the neighbors, no riding his bike on a stranger’s driveway, watch out for cars, stay on the street, STAY WHERE I CAN SEE HIM and no going up to peoples’ houses and knocking on their doors. Once that was clear, I told him he was free to go ride his bike. I kept tabs on him while he was out there and at one point we chatted briefly about school stuff. He was upset about some school news I had just received on my phone and I suggested to him that he think about a solution while he was riding his bike. I watched him ride off then ran into the house to grab the hamper, hoping I could throw in a load of laundry before it got to be too late. My plan was to go into the garage, where the washer and dryer are, and open the garage door to check on Jesse and also to watch him while I was taking care of laundry.

But when I was back in the kitchen with the hamper, I looked out the window and saw two neighborhood kids on my front lawn. They were the kids who had been playing outside at my neighbor’s house.

I went outside to ask them what was up and they asked about Jesse and I explained why he was not able to play with them right now. I also said, “He’s out riding his bike around.” As they trudged off, I looked up to see down the street. I didn’t see Jesse. So I looked the other way. And Jesse wasn’t there, either.

Apparently, he WASN’T “out riding his bike around" in this neighborhood! But just to be sure, I ran to the corner and checked up and down the cross street. No sign of him.

Hm, I didn’t like this.

I ran back to my house and grabbed my phone. I already had my keys in my pocket. I locked my front door on my way out and walked down the street to the little girl’s house, just in case Jesse had gone back there to see if anybody was home, and for me to see if he was there if anybody WAS home, but he wasn’t there. His bike wasn’t there. No one was there. I turned around and walked all the way to the park down the other street, asking the neighborhood boy if he had seen Jesse. He shook his head. When I got to the park, I looked around – for Jesse, for his bike, even his coat. Just, anything of his. Nothing. He wasn’t there, either.

Now I was starting to worry.

I kept looking up and down streets as I walked back home then I went into the house and looked everywhere for Jesse, calling out his name. I know I had left the door locked, but Jen was there and she might’ve let him in. Or, he might’ve already been there before I left and I hadn’t noticed. But he wasn’t in the house! Shit!

Now I was REALLY worried!

I went back outside, grabbing my jacket on the way, and started checking the cross streets. A girl we know was outside spray-painting her Halloween costume and I asked her if she’d seen Jesse. She said she did, down the street the OTHER way. I confirmed with her the direction then thanked her and headed off. But I didn’t find Jesse that way, either.

I did some more looking around before I decided it was time to look for him by car. I went back in the house, telling Jen that Jesse was missing and that we’d have to leave to go looking for him. “Let’s go!” she said. She grabbed her phone and we left. As we were leaving, I saw our neighbors outside, looking around.

We drove around the neighborhood looking for Jesse. We couldn’t find him anywhere. Jen texted her dad and told him what was going on. She also texted her BFF about the situation and they said they were on their way to help.

The more we drove around with no sign of Jesse, the more worried I started to get. I started crying and praying he would be found. I started to mentally apologize to Jesse for every single bad thing that had happened in his life, every rough moment we had been through, all the times I had to tell him bad news and all the times I had punished him for one thing or another. I started feeling guilty for that, too. I started feeling horrible that he might miss the party with his friends tomorrow. That he might not be with us for Thanksgiving dinner. That he might not be able to open the Christmas presents he’d have waiting for him under the Christmas tree in December. It was just making me feel miserable. I was so scared that he might be hurt or afraid or…worse. That he was all alone or that he was terrified of some stranger who had snatched him. I started muttering “I can’t lose him” as I drove and I just hoped to God that he was okay.

We never found him on our drive. When we got back to the house, there were a bunch of people near the driveway. Jennifer stuck out of the window and asked if anyone had seen Jesse and they all said no.

By this time, over an hour had passed since I’d last seen him.

Jennifer looked at me and said we needed to call the police. I told her to go ahead and do that and she was on the phone with the Eugene Police Department as I parked the van. I got out and talked to the newcomers. They were neighbors who had joined the search for Jesse. One person suggested that Jesse might have gone to a nearby bike path where there is a bridge and that is currently under construction so we decided to check there. Some others held back to keep searching other areas. Jen went with me on the way to the bike path, still on the phone with the police. I noticed the father of the little girl living down the street climb out of his car in front of his house and I asked him if he’d seen Jesse. He had not. He also said he’d just got home. I explained that Jesse had been there earlier hoping to play with his daughter and he said nobody had been there. He also said he’d let me know if he saw Jesse. At this point, Jennifer wanted to go back to the house for something and I gave her the keys.

At the bike path, we didn’t find Jesse there either. I talked with the two women who had been there looking for him and went over the details of what Jesse looked like and what he was wearing. I checked down another street on my way back and asked a neighborhood girl if she’d seen him and she said no. She started looking for him, too. When I got out to my street, I looked up to see a police car at my house. It was parked near the corner with headlights on. (My house is on a corner.) I ran up to it thinking I should talk to the police officer but as I got closer, I saw someone sitting on his bike. It was JESSE!! I ran faster and as I got nearer to him, one of the neighbors, who had been there with Jesse, turned to smile at me and say there he is. There’s Jesse. I hugged Jesse, thanking God that I was able to hug my little boy again, and then turned to see the police officer standing there. I talked with him and thanked him for helping us. The situation was explained to him and then he talked to Jesse. This was when Jennifer came back out to us and she was relieved to see Jesse.

The police officer spoke briefly with Jesse. He told Jesse that he should tell his parents or his big sister where he is going before he goes there. Otherwise, people would get scared and start looking for him. (That’s what Jen later told me he said.) Then he said to me that he was glad that Jesse had been found. When I was done talking to him, I turned and all I could do was hug my little boy again. I just hugged him so tight and then I started crying. I don’t know why I cried – HE WAS HOME SAFE! But I couldn’t help it. I guess because I had been so scared or because I was just so thankful he was home.

Then I asked Jesse where he had been. He had been at a neighbor’s house the whole time – INSIDE the house! We didn’t know these people and Jesse does not usually go there. I reminded him he’s not allowed to go into the houses of people we don’t know. I could tell my kids safety rules a million bazillion times and they’d STILL do something that was against the rules! That’s why I usually go over the rules before he takes off on his bike. But I guess he forgot this one.

My daughter’s BFF and her dad arrived and we stood together hugging and talking. (They are like family to us.) The dad talked with Jesse a bit. They were glad that he was safely back home, too.

I am so glad that my son was safe and that he’s back home. I am so very grateful he is back with us and unharmed! I definitely gave him extra hugs tonight and kept telling him that I loved him. I don’t know what I would do if I lost him. I am so glad that we didn’t lose him and that he is okay.

I am also grateful to our friends and neighbors and the Eugene Police Department for their help! A missing child is a very scary experience to go through. I know there are many cases where a child is not found and my heart goes out to the parents who never end up having their child safely at home again. I am glad that this time, mine was back at home where he belonged.

If Wednesday

School starts in 3 weeks and we have been spending some time trying to get back onto the “school schedule.” Gone are the nights without a bedtime, the days we can just do whatever around the house, sleeping in on weekdays and enjoying a schedule-free week. During the school year, we have to LIVE by a schedule Monday through Friday because it is the best way for me to make sure my kids get enough sleep, that they get to school on time (that doesn’t always work, though, because things happen), and everybody is on the same page with what needs to be done when. Having a routine is so important; it’s good for the kids because they feel more secure in knowing what to expect and it keeps things running smoothly. So I create a schedule to let everybody know just what kind of routine we need to follow.

That said, I had to put together a new “school year schedule” this time, mainly because my daughter is going to a new school with new hours. I actually created two schedules: My own personal schedule as well as a schedule for the kids. In their schedule, they see when they have to wake up, have breakfast, leave for school, when I leave to pick them up, when they’ll have dinner, what time they shower, and when their bedtime is.

One thing that stood out on both schedules were two words in bold letters: “If Wednesday.”

Apparently, my Wednesdays are about to get a little crazy.

During the last school year, Jesse got out of school early on Wednesdays. That is continuing with this new school year. But now Wednesdays will be different for Jennifer, too. Last year, there were days she got out of school early on Fridays. The school start time was the same; she just got out early (and usually at 12:10). Now, with her new school, she’ll be getting out of school early on Wednesdays.

But she’ll also be starting school at a different time on Wednesdays, as well.

Did I mention my Wednesdays were gonna get crazy?? Looks like I’ll be jumping in and out of the car a little more often for this school year.

I am just glad I was able to figure out a schedule to make sure both kids are at their respective schools when they need to be, and when I need to leave to pick them up from school on certain days. It actually took me several drafts of the schedule before I was finally able to get it right and get everything in there that had to be in there, but I got it done. And I got the kids’ schedule done, too – which I plan to put up in their rooms as well as on the fridge so they can see it. Of course, any changes to the schedule – like snow days or early release days, or even no school days – will be put on the family calendar that I hang up in the kitchen, but as for every other normal day with the normal hours FOR THAT DAY, we’ll have a new routine and new schedule to follow.

Now if only I can get everybody used to the new bedtimes and wake-up times – including myself! That’s still a work in progress and we’ve had a couple of off days, but we’re getting there.

A week full of errands

I have had busy weeks and I have had VERY busy weeks (like a week full of sports events, music lessons, classes and doctor appointments). But this particular week has been an interesting one, because it was full of errands I had to run – for every day of the week!

No, I am not being dramatic. I literally had to run errands for every day of this week. I had stuff to do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday that had me jumping in and out of the van, going from one place to another, or mailing one thing or another.

It was pretty much a crazy-busy week. And, yes, I have had those. Sure. But this time, it was crazy-busy in that I had lots of errands to run!

We are in the process of getting ready for “back to school.” That means organizing closets, dressers and cabinets, as well as getting the kids everything they need! They go back to school the first week of September and we want them to be ready.

But we are also taking care of things we couldn’t get around to before. Like mailing packages, sending out pictures and stuff like that. We are also buying things we need that we could not get before – like a new dishwasher! (We have been struggling with a broken dishwasher for some time.) So we’re taking care of that business, too. (After the school year starts, we won't have any extra money for stuff anymore, because all our money goes to the schools and the kids' school needs!!)

But why am I even blogging about this?

Because it’s the first time I have had “errands” to run for every day of the week! I usually have to run errands two or three times a week. Not five times! But that’s how it was this week. And that kept me pretty busy, too. I didn’t have a chance to do things that I wanted to do or needed to do because I was away running errands.

But I did take care of SOME things. With some help! My husband was the one to finally ship a couple of boxes I had sitting in the garage for months. I was finally able to place an order with the Books N Bears store for a book I wanted (many thanks, again, to the lady I spoke with for her patience!), and I did finally donate some old children’s books to the Little Free Library.

So there is that.

I am glad I got so much done this week but, wow, it sure kept me busy! I thought I was gonna try to slow down and relax this summer?? Well, I certainly hope that’s what I will be able to do this weekend. Then tackle a whole ‘nother busy week when the next Monday comes around! I might as well start getting used to having a busy week, because summer vacay is almost over.

Scheduled power outage

Earlier this week, we got a note on our door from the electric company. They had to do some maintenance work and that meant shutting down power for my neck of the woods. We started preparing for the power outage.

The first thing I did was encourage everybody to eat as much of the food that was already in our fridge and freezer. I did this, too. I also made notes on what items would need to be replaced afterward.

The second thing I did was decide what we would NEED to save in an ice chest and what we could afford to throw out. Some things had very little left, like the milk, so we’d let that go and just get milk after the power was back on.

The next thing I did was remind hubby that we needed an ice chest for the things we would need to save.

After all that was settled, I prepared the kids. I reminded them that they would need to get done everything they had to do that required electronics – computer, TV, etc. – and to make sure phones were on chargers for the day of before the scheduled time of outage. I made a note of when the power outage would happen and I also worked on getting things done, too. (Like finishing up my short story for this week!)

Next, I made sure we’d have everything we’d need for when the power was out: Flashlights with extra batteries, candles and lighters for the candles, and extra bottled water.

I have to admit, I was a little worried about this happening at night. Of course, I was glad it was not during the day when we’d need the fans on in the house, but I was just uneasy about it happening at night. That’s when the crazies would take advantage of the situation! So I had to mentally prepare for that kinda thing. Still, I had a bad dream about something happening when the power was out.

But fortunately, we got through the night okay. We’re still alive!

And thankfully, it was not hot outside, so we managed okay without the fans.

Another concern I had was Jesse getting scared when the power went out. I was sure to explain to him why this was happening and I also made sure it was a fun time for him. No, we didn’t make shadow puppets on the walls, but we did hang out together and I also played a game of chess with him. We played chess by candlelight! That was awesome. (I also played chess with Jen after I played with Jesse.) Jesse got to learn how to light candles. He had trouble learning how to use a lighter but after some practice, he was able to strike the lighter for a flame. I told him sometimes it helps to turn candles sideways to get to the wick and light them. He also used a Q-Tip to light the wicks that were too low.

Jen wanted to camp out on the couch and Jesse camped out in the living room, too, using a sleeping pad, blankets, pillows and his sleeping bag to make up a bed for himself on the floor. It was like a camping event for them!

I did get the “food to save” stuff into the ice chest okay and kept my knife with me in case anyone tried to break in. But that was not what we had to worry about. Actually, the only thing we did have to worry about when there was no power was spiders! I had to squash two big black spiders running across the kitchen then the living room. (The second one was a big one!)

It actually turned out to be a pleasant evening. I had hoped Jesse would have fallen asleep before the power went out at 11, but I think he was too excited about it. I was sure to entertain him and hang out with him and he got through the night okay and not scared. I also used my phone to post pictures from this time on Facebook and there was actually someone online to see the pictures and comment on some of them. Additionally, I occasionally walked around the house to make sure the candles were still burning okay, nothing had caught on fire, there weren't any other spiders running around, and that the house was secure.

This morning I spent some time returning saved foods to the fridge and also throwing out the things that were no good anymore (like the milk, lunch meat and ice cream – there wasn’t much left of them, anyway). I took note of what would need to be replaced and put it all on today’s grocery list.

I am glad we got an early heads-up about the power outage but I guess we should be ready in case any unexpected power outages occur. Jesse knew what was going on and understood why our power was going to be out for 5-6 hours so he wouldn’t have suddenly freaked out when the power went out. But maybe I should prepare him for when we don’t expect it to go out. (There was one time a fuse blew and our power went out, but that was during the daytime. It’s a different situation at night and all of a sudden there’s nothing but darkness everywhere!) So maybe I should prepare him for if an unexpected power outage happens at night. One thing I told him yesterday was to keep a mental picture of the room you are in in your head and just follow it as you walk through the room. I guess I could share with him other ways to be prepared. I am just glad I have a lot of candles everywhere in the house!

Field Trip Day

Today was Field Trip Day in our house! That’s because both kids were going on field trips today. However, Jesse’s field trip is just for today. Jennifer will not return from her field trip until Friday.

For some time now, we have been preparing for today. We have been in communication with Jennifer’s school about the fee, supplies needed, days and times, as well as what the rules are. With Jesse, it was a matter of making sure he had the right clothes to wear, his allergy medicines on hand and the decision made about his lunch. (At first, he was going to get a lunch from school, then he told me that he wanted to take a lunch.)

Both field trips required us to pay a fee. The more expensive one was Jennifer’s. I am glad we were able to make the payment for her trip in two installments, but I had to keep in touch with her school about the deadlines for making the payments.

Another hurdle we had to get through for today was the list of supplies needed for Jen’s trip. We have had some financial problems lately, but we managed to get what we could for her supplies.  Here again, we bought what she needed when the money was available, and we had to cut back on some things so that we could buy her the other stuff she needed. We also had to buy things when we could and not just in one shopping trip. We were able to get her everything she needed in the end and I’m glad we were able to get that taken care of.

Jennifer started getting ready for her trip earlier in the week. She started packing early and I also made sure she left me instructions on how to care for her animals while she is gone. (I went over the instructions before she left in case I had questions.)

Finally, I had to figure out how we were going to get both kids to school at the times they needed to be there. Jennifer had to be at her school an hour and 45 minutes earlier than normal. The problem is, my two kids go to two different schools. I’m usually the one who gets up in the morning, gets the kids up, feeds them, gets them dressed and drives them both to school at the different times they need to leave. But with the time change, I was going to have to call in reinforcements. That’s where my husband came in. Halfway through Jesse’s morning routine, he took over, because I had to leave with Jennifer. (Jesse had to eat his breakfast, brush teeth, take medicine, get his stuff together, etc., while I was gone.) At first I was nervous something might happen and it wouldn’t work out or that we would not get certain things done in time, but we pulled it off. It went over well and both of the kids were on time at the schools that they needed to be there.

After Jesse came home from his field trip, he said he had fun. He said he had liked it. I hope to get the same report from Jennifer when she returns on Friday. It’ll be hard she’ll be so far away for two and a half days, but I’m glad we can stay in touch via text messaging and I know this will be a great experience for her. I know that she really needs to do this thing with her friends. It’s a good chance for her to share such an amazing time of togetherness with her friends and it’ll be memories that will last them long after they all graduate next month.

Back on schedule...and...The Dr. Seuss Extravaganza

Back in January, Jesse hurt his hand and had to go to Urgent Care. It turned out he had a broken bone in his hand and a fracture in one of his fingers. He had to wear a cast for a while. It was a real challenge for him to do most things with one hand and learning to be more careful with his injured casted hand. And, for a while there, this interrupted a couple of things he had going on up until then: Gymnastics class and piano lessons. Both of those things were put on hold while his hand recovered. Recently, he had the cast removed, but he had to wait another week before he could go back to those things. (We did consider that he might continue piano lessons with one hand but Jesse didn’t like that idea.)

Finally, he was able to go back to gymnastics class and resume piano lessons. He did both of those things for the first time in over a month this week. So it looks like we’re back to the schedule that we were on before: Jesse with gymnastics class on one day then piano lessons on another day, and Jennifer still having her violin lesson each week but now also waiting patiently for her brother to finish his music lesson so that she could have hers. (We are trying to get Jennifer set up with a second activity – because I want my kids to be taking a music lesson as well as a physical activity – but haven’t got that set up just yet. She has definitely lost interest in sports.)

Jesse is glad to be back at his normal routines. I’ll have to get used to resuming that weekly schedule but I am also glad things are back to normal.

This week, Jesse’s school has been celebrating Dr. Seuss, with a themed day for every day of the week. Today was Silly Hat Day but also the Dr. Seuss Extravaganza. They have this “Dr. Seuss Week” every year during the week of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. I took Jesse to the Extravaganza this evening and here are the pictures I took from that event.

He had a lot of fun and it was nice to run into familiar faces. I was glad to be able to visit the Book Fair they were having at the event. We had a good time and glad we were there for such a fun event.

Giving another chance

First, let me say that I am definitely the kinda person who believes in second chances. And depending on the person, I may even give a third chance. But something happened recently that made me start to wonder about this whole “chance-giving” thing.

Today, my son asked me if he could take a toy with him to school. I couldn’t give him an answer right away. Yesterday, he’d taken this same toy with him to school and, unfortunately, he forgot it. (Well, he’s 8, so naturally he’ll forget his stuff sometimes.) I was upset, however, because the toy was a gift for his birthday last weekend, and I didn’t want it to be lost. Not cool! I had told him he can’t take his toys to school with him anymore, even though we went back to his school and it was found. Still, as a person who gives second chances, I was not prepared to say “no” right away.

But I couldn’t say “yes,” either.

Just yesterday, I was grumbling over how I’ve come across so many people who have a problem with giving people – mainly, me – a second chance after screwing up in some way or another. I know I am not perfect. I know I make mistakes. My friends – my REAL friends – know that I make mistakes. I get clumsy. I’ll have my head in the clouds. I walk right past them without recognizing them or seeing them. I say awkward shit. And, oh yeah, I SWEAR! LOL They know ALL that about me, and they have forgiven these goofs when they have come up. And we're still friends!

But, lately, I posted something on Facebook that apparently offended somebody and he unfriended me. Let me say that I know this guy in real life. I don’t know him TOO well, but we’ve been friends a long time. Well, I THOUGHT we were friends. I guess I only had to screw up one time to lose his friendship. Upon realizing this, I got angry and was all like, “Fuck him! I don’t have room in my life for fake friends, anyway!” No, I want REAL friends. And my real friends know that I screw up every once in a while. It happens! Nobody’s perfect. The important thing is, they forgive and forget. This person didn’t.

I was grumbling about that yesterday, because it reminded me that that dude was just ONE more of the many people I have met in my life who decide they want to walk out of it if I screw up once. Just! Once! One mistake, and they’re gone!

I wanted to know why these people don’t believe in giving second chances. Or even third chances.

But I know that everybody is different. Just because I believe in giving a person another chance (and I’ll only go so far with that!), I know it doesn’t mean everybody else does that, too. I have been lucky to have friends who give chances. I give them chances, too. But I know other people just don’t do that. For them, if someone makes one mistake, even if it was by accident or unintentional or because they were having a “blond moment” or they were drunk or something, they walk out of that person’s life for good. They won’t talk to them or answer their emails or anything.

There are just people like that.

And when I was fuming over it yesterday, I started to wonder. Should I start being like that, too? I mean, I am sick of all the bullshit I have had to deal with from PEOPLE. That is one reason why I am not social. Too many people in this world are jerks and they just suck. So maybe that was actually something I should start doing.

Or, so I thought. Getting back to the situation with my son, I started to ask myself why I was allowing jerks to influence me like that. Just because someone is that way, it doesn’t mean I should be that way, too.

No, I had to keep on being me. Keep doing what I’m doing. Just do my own thing.

And my own thing includes giving second chances. Especially where my children are concerned.

Besides, I reasoned, how was my son going to learn how to be responsible for his stuff if he isn’t given the chance to do so? If I told him no, I would be telling him two things: That you can’t give someone a second chance to make things right, and that he can’t learn how to be responsible for his things when he’s away from home because he can’t take his things with him.

Those were not very good messages I wanted to teach him.

So, I said “yes” – but on one condition. He had to be responsible for his toy. He had to take care of it and keep it with him or in his backpack or in his cubby. I stressed to him that he was lucky to get the toy back yesterday, but that might not happen again today. If he lost it again today, it might be lost forever. He said he was willing to take that chance. So I let him take his toy with him to school. And when I dropped him off, I reminded him about it.

Well, after I picked him up this afternoon, he had his toy with him. I gave him a high five and told him I was proud of him for being responsible with his things. I told him he’d done a good job and that I was glad he didn’t lose his toy. Yeah, he was glad, too.

And I’m glad this happened, because it only reinforced my decision. Yeah, I’m gonna keep on giving people second chances. Or even third chances. I’m gonna just keep doing what I’m doing, even if it’s not what everybody else is doing. That’s their thing, and this is mine.

Bento box lunches?

This morning, while I was drinking my first cup of coffee, I was going through my email accounts and I came across an article written by a mom who started giving her kids Bento box lunches. I have heard of the Bento box lunches but never really got into them. But after reading this article, I decided to look into that further. In fact, I’d been thinking of creating a board on Pinterest about school lunches so I decided to “just do it” today and created the board, but in this case pinning stuff about Bento box lunches. And I gotta say, wow! This is a really big thing! There were tons of images and articles on Bento box lunch ideas. It really grabbed my interest in using them all the more!

So when Jesse finished getting dressed for school, I asked him if he was interested in me packing him some Bento box lunches for school. I showed him a picture of a Bento box lunch in another article and he scowled. “That’s for babies,” he said. I assured him that kids of all ages were using Bento boxes for their school lunches and there were even adults packing their work lunch into Bento boxes. I also showed him the many different types of Bento box lunches I had pinned on my board.

Still, he wasn’t very interested in them. He thought the cool shapes were neat but he just wasn’t interested.

I guess some school years will be different with his lunches. One year, he only wanted Lunchables for his lunch. At one point during that time, however, one of the lunch volunteers took me aside when I was visiting one day and told me that Jesse was not eating the meat in his Lunchables. She also told me she had been sitting with him to encourage him to eat the lunch meat in his meals. Even though I was irritated that she was forcing my son to eat something he doesn’t like, I thanked her for the info. (My son is not a big meat-eater. He likes hot dogs and chicken nuggets, and every once in a while he eats bacon or a corn dog, but he’s just not into eating that much meat.)

This year, however, any time he wants to take a lunch to school, Jesse always requests the same thing:

Juice box
Peanut butter sandwich, without crust and cut into 4 triangles
Crackers (either Ritz, Cheez-It, Goldfish or Wheat Thins)
Raisins
Treat (either a cookie, fruit snack, Twinkie, cupcake or some other sweet item)

And so far, he hasn’t asked for anything different! I did consider asking him if he’d like those foods in a Bento box, but not sure if that will catch on for him.

Later, I told my daughter about the Bento box lunches too. I told her it was like a Lunchables but with more variety and you don’t always get the same thing. She was curious about it and said that she might want to start taking a Bento box lunch to school. I made a mental note to look for them at the store. I know that some parents are even creating their own Bento-style-boxes with used containers and muffin cups. It’s something else to think about too. I’m just glad I have some lunch ideas now!

I think the Bento box lunches are cool. At first, I thought maybe it would be bad in case it’s lost at the school or maybe they’ll end up in the trash can instead of being brought back home, but it might work out okay. I am totally for trying new foods and trying new things and if this is something that the kids want to use, or even one of my kids, then I think it might be a nice change from what they normally eat for lunch.

A bit of overscheduling

I knew that today was going to be a busy one. I knew about what today involved. All the running around it would require. And how much it would have me jumping in and out of my car.

I knew this. I expected this. I braced myself for it.

The unexpected came when I realized we had a scheduling conflict today. And I didn’t think I would freak out about it. But I did.

Today was the day Jesse was supposed to meet his new teacher for 2nd grade. Today was also the day that Jen had her orientation for 8th grade. Also today was the day that Jesse started gymnastics class. And, finally, we had set up a time for Jennifer to pick up her newest pet: A Water Dragon.

The conflict arose when I realized something: Jen’s orientation kinda-sorta overlapped with the beginning of Jesse’s class. Yikes!

At first, I tried to convince myself that the orientation would not last THAT long. That we would be in and out of there. No sweat. But, ya know, my life is SO unpredictable. I have a spat of bad luck this year. And NOTHING – I meant NOTHING – goes according to plan in my life. For reals!

So, yeah. I kinda freaked. I kinda panicked. I even started having trouble breathing over this.

But I had to get a really GOOD grip of myself and remind myself to do one thing: BREATHE. Just. Breathe. Take it one step at a time.

I often ask, “Why can’t there be two of me?” I was asking that a lot today. But there isn’t. There is only one of me. Like I so often remind my dear offspring. There’s only one of me! And that one of me had to figure out how to get my two kids to each of their two different destinations today!

So, I talked to Jennifer. I explained to her the situation. I suggested that we try not to take too long when we are at her orientation. Just do what we had to do. Not socialize or chit-chat with people. And just to get through it as quickly as we could. And I just HOPED that would ensure Jesse got to his class on time!

That done, I felt that there was not much else I could do about the situation. It was what it was. I had to accept that.

In the long run, Jesse was five minutes late for his class, but everything still worked out okay. And Jen’s second thing was rescheduled for tomorrow. I was just glad I didn’t have to go out YET AGAIN. So, tomorrow, she’s getting her pet lizard.

We got through today okay. I was tired, worn out, hungry and barely got much housework done. But the important stuff got taken care of and I’m glad today was not as bad as I thought it might have been.

Back to (the) school schedule

Last week, I started the kids on their “school schedule.” This meant they now had a bedtime and they now had a wake-up time, too. And even though they didn’t really have to go anywhere, I made sure they were dressed at certain times, fed at certain times and “ready to go” by certain times. That first week was pretty bumpy and of course not without complaint (we all kind of enjoyed NOT having a bedtime during summer vacation). But we got through it with not too shady of a result. It was also hard for me because I was SO used to sleeping in (many times during the summer, I wasn’t in bed until 3 a.m. Yeah, we’re a bunch of night owls!). And even one time, I gave the alarm clock the finger because I DID NOT want to get up so early.

But Week 1 went over okay. And now we’re in Week 2, in which it’s the real deal because school starts this week. Jesse goes back to school on one day and Jennifer goes back the next.

I also have a change in my everyday routines. In order to get the most out of my day while the kids are in school, I prioritized my tasks and made a “schedule” for things to do at certain times. As of today, I got most of the things done during designated times. But as with all schedules, “times are approximate.”

This week is gonna be busy in the next few days with meetings, orientation and getting everything set up and squared away. But I’m actually looking forward to getting back on track with the routine and getting things done. The kids aren’t happy about going back to school and I’ll miss not having a bedtime myself, but we got as much fun and “lazy days” out of our summer while it was summer and now it’s time to get busy again. Now it’s time to get ready for textbooks, homework, assignments, lunch boxes and school activities. Today has gone by well and I hope the kids have a better adjustment by the time their First Day gets here.