This has been a very intense summer. I've been waiting (and partly dreading) back to school time. Here it is, finally, and I find myself more overwhelmed than ever...

I feel like I've fully become a mom of 5. And I finally understand why sometimes a mom just can't control her kids.

FULL DISCLOSURE TIME:
In years past, way past, like when I only had 1 kid and usually Mac and I were both taking her on outings, together, I used to wonder why some parents brought their kids out of the house, to restaurants, or to the zoo, or to wherever if they *knew they couldn't control their kids.*

Hahahaha, right? If I believed in Karma, this is where I'd say the Karma gods are NOW getting their revenge. This whole summer I have been unable to get the kids to make it through a simple trip to Costco without touching everything and practically getting run over in the parking lot. No amount of threats about taking away the Wii, and no amount of bribes for ice cream could squelch their instinct to get into trouble. They feed off of each other, and they know that I'm mostly distracted by having to take care of the baby, so if Luke runs off in Costco to find paper towel rolls in an opposite direction of Steven running off to find disenfectant wipes, what can I do? Usually in such an instance, I'd have Isabel standing right by me, saying "Mommy, am I being good?" Good times...

So we didn't do too many Costco runs this summer. I tried to leave them at home with Kate babysitting and I'd just take the baby. What we did do this summer was stay super busy.

After swim season ended, we packed up our gear and headed out to Washington state to visit family. We stayed for 3 weeks. My parents have a pool, bikes, a pickleball court (it's sort of like mini-tennis with wiffle balls), and a huge playground set. It's always the best thing ever for my kids to get there. Kate even enjoys herself. She goes off to summer camp for a week, and for the rest of the visit, she spends too much time on the internet. While we were there visiting, bedtime got later, and later. Wake up time, of course, stayed about the same, which would be 6 am since the sun rises much earlier out there! Good times...

So, now I am back home, and trying to catch up on laundry (as if). I will award myself the parenting gold star if I can get my counter top cleaned off by the end of this week. I am in frantic baby-proof mode since Josie is *this close* to walking. In the midst of all this catch-up, I am dealing with a sadness at the end of an era. Luke is in Kindergarten. He's been my baby for so long... and now? No more naptime, no more story before naptime, and no more tickle fights after the story before naptime... My buddy is spending his days with his teacher, a very young brunette with a Jersey accent. I'm sure she's quite capable, but I'm not used to my kids' teachers being younger than I am... By over 10 years, at that.

Sigh.

Anyway, Luke enjoyed his first day, telling me all about the really loud fire alarm (it went "BEEP BEEP" and scared the class, apparently, leaving such an impression on Luke that he went "BEEP BEEP" the entire walk home...". Josie didn't enjoy having all her playmates abandon her here in the boring old house for an entire day. Steven and Isabel are managing along, same old same old. And Kate is queen of the middle school at 8th grade, promising that THIS will be the year when she gets organized and stays on top of her work...

I know most everyone has been back to school for a while. You've already got back in the groove! I may get there in a few weeks also... Right now I'm sort of sulking, though. And lamenting that my baby boy is in school...