Transitions

These past few weeks have been filled with transitions. I officially am a stay-at-home mom (I wasn't really counting the summer since I would have been off anyway). And my oldest son began school. One of these new changes would have been huge but together it seems like we are recovering from a tidal wave of changes.

I wish I could say everything went smoothly and I was like June Cleaver with my house beautifully taken care of, dinner cooking in the oven, me wearing a dress with not a hair out of place, and of course not speaking above a whisper. And I also wish I could say my oldest was like Timmy from Lassie respectful, helpful, and of course resourseful. But unfortunately it was more like I was Jekyll and Hyde (in sweatpants) and my son was Frankenstein (but shorter).

It began the day after Labor Day. My son had an orientation at school in the afternoon so that he could see his classroom and meet his teacher. I decided to make it a special date and take him to ice cream after. He was a trooper behaving like Timmy the whole afternoon, which was great considering it was the first time in about 4 years that he didn't take an afternoon nap (I have been really lucky with him still taking 3-4 hour naps up until this point). But then the darkness descended and the beast awoke or maybe beasts awoke. Needless to say by the time my husband returned from work I was having little slivers of doubt about staying home. Then when I thought it couldn't get worse, my son stubbed and scraped his toe. I believe the entire neighborhood heard what probably sounded like we were torturing someone for hours that night.

And then after a restless night it was the first day of school. By the time the bus came to pick my son up, I knew that if I cried it wasn't going to be of sadness but of joy and relief, which pretty much sums up the first week of school. Fortunately, the second week progressed a little easier...I learned that my son needs to lay down for a rest after school and I learned that as long as we could get out of the house for at least an hour or two each morning, my children remained human and so did I.

Now, beginning the third week I am starting to anticipate the fun side of staying home. Fall is my favorite season so I am planning on enlisting my kids in helping me decorate our house for the coming season and holidays. This morning we collected our first bag of acorns from a local park so that later this week we can make some acorn decorations.

In addition, I am finally completing some of the random painting around my kitchen and I will soon be ready for decorating. I still am not like June Cleaver...I wear sweatpants all day and my house is forever a mess and I don't always have dinner ready, but hey I figure I have plenty of time to clean and cook and I can always find dressy sweatpants if needed.