First Day of School

Before the first day of school this year I had a terrible case of nerves.  I worried all day. I couldn't sleep that night.  Not because I was nervous about school (though I do remember that feeling all too well).  Not even because I was worried about how the girls would fare.  I was anxious about how I was going to pull off the morning routine on my own.  I do not usually do the morning carpool.  That is left to Shimmy, who drops the girls off on his way to work.  My job is to get everyone up, dressed, fed, bags packed, and waiting by the door for their ride (aka Daddy).  While this is harder than the task of driving them to school, I can do it all in my pajamas with a big mug of coffee in my hand.  After I see them off, I clean up from breakfast, tend to Jude, and get on with my day.  I like the way this works.  Unfortunately, it was brought to my attention on Tuesday afternoon that I would have to do all of my usual morning jobs, plus get Sophie to school at 8:00am and attend Lilah's orientation with her at 9:00am.  And bring Jude along and keep him happy.  That is when the nerves set in.

And, yet, it was fine!  Despite my lack of sleep, the morning played out like a well-orchestrated symphony.  We even had time for our traditional first day of school picture:

I made it to school, with all three kids in tow, on time.  We took Sophie to her classroom, hugged her goodbye, and walked down the hall to the lobby, where we camped out for the next 45 minutes or so.  I fed Jude his breakfast, and then we all read books.  Someone took a picture of us and we made it onto the school's website:

We had a great time at Lilah's orientation doing crafts, having a tea party, and making new friends.  Then it was time to leave!

When we got home, I set Lilah up with a snack, and I put Jude down for his nap.  After surviving the morning I had so fretted over, my initial instinct was to change back into my pajamas and get back into bed.  Which is exactly what I used to do after the first day of school (and any other hard day) right up through graduate school.  I guess coping mechanisms die hard.

A couple of hours later, I changed back into my clothes to greet our old babysitter who is back from her year abroad!  I headed out to run errands I had been unable to run during the past two and a half weeks (no camp, no school, therefore no extended trips to the grocery store).  Then I picked up Sophie, who had a great first day!  Thankfully, I had a great first day too.  Although, the second day, with both girls in school from 8:00am-3:45pm was even better :)

Opposite Sides of the World

For a week this month, our family was divided on opposite sides of the world.  Shimmy and Sophie went to Israel for a week to celebrate our nephew's bar mitzvah.  Lilah, Judah, and I stayed home.  While Shimmy and Sophie were taking in views like these:

View of Jerusalem from the porch

The desert, on the way to the Dead Sea

We were going about our regular activities:

Lilah, joining my workout session

 Our family had never been divided this way before.  It was a little odd.  We missed each other.  We missed out on some of each other's milestones:

Sophie lost her first tooth

Jude turned 10 months

But, it was also nice in some ways.  Lilah began to see Jude as a playmate, which she had not really done before.  They interacted with each other and played nicely.  It was a great bonding experience for them.  My relationship with Lilah benefitted as well.  She was suddenly my oldest, so she became my helper, confidant, and buddy.  We really enjoyed each other's company.  Without the noise (both enthusiastic and argumentative) of the two girls, the house was a lot quieter.  It was peaceful and pleasant.  We had fun playing at home, and also went out on some fun outings.  We missed our other two-fifths a lot over Shabbat.  I had not spent shabbat apart from Shimmy in nearly ten years.  It was reported to me that Sophie had a hard time with the separation as well.  Early Tuesday morning we were all reunited and happy for our family to be in one place again!  We spent the day together catching up.

Reunited and enjoying a picnic in the playroom

People of Walmart

It's that wonderful time of year again- back to school.  While I am excited beyond words that school is resuming, I do not care much for the back to school shopping.  I understand the need for some extra items beyond what is supplied by school (notebooks, pencils, and the like), but I don't really understand why the school (or the state) cannot provide my children with boxes of tissues.  So, because each of my girls has a sizable supply list, and because we are in that horrible camp-is-over-but-school-hasn't-started-yet time period, I decided to take all three kids back to school shopping.  And because I already spend more on tuition for my kindergartener and preschooler than my parents spent on my college tuition (state school- GO TERPS!), I decided to forgo my usual store of choice (Target) and get me some bargains at Walmart.  Except, GOOD GOD, I hate that place.  The school supply aisle was a mob.  Halfway through our lists, we had to abandon our cart for a bathroom trip.  The bathroom was disgusting.  I won't describe it.  However, as a PSA: Please leave your stall the way you would want to find it.  And a friendly reminder: if an automatic flusher does not flush, there is usually a way to flush it manually so that the next person doesn't have to deal with your mess.  Ugh!  Then we resumed our shopping only to have to settle on items that were similar enough to the ones on the list.  These teachers are crazy specific.  I mean, do they even go to the stores first to make sure they sell the items they tell us to buy?  I refuse to go all over town to find a six pack of assorted colored dry erase markers that have low odor.  There was not one pack that met all of that criteria.  I ended up paying more for something like a 14 pack.  And the only 64-crayon box I could find was not Crayola brand (as specified on the supply list), so we bought an (gasp!) off brand.  Once we were making good headway, another bathroom trip was requested.  But this time we got there too late and I had to leave Sophie outside the bathroom with Jude and our cart, while I cleaned up Lilah.  We fought through the masses of people to finish up our shopping.  When we checked out, our cart full of items (school supplies and other things too) totaled less than $100.  That was more satisfying than I thought it would be.  I am fairly certain I would have spent double that at Target.  But it may have been worth it.