Reality Bites.

I am back from vacation with a vengeance! The kids go back to school tomorrow.....Yay! and I have a plan! This school year will go smoothly. It will be organized. Homework will get done when they get home from school. Rooms will be cleaned before they go to bed....ON TIME! Chores will get done after dinner. Backpacks will be packed the night before. Lunches will be made ahead of time and put in the fridge so all I have to do is throw them in their backpacks the next morning.  I will use my days to clean the house, run errands, work out, sew and stock up my Etsy shop with fabulous new reusable sandwich bag sets! I will have a work schedule. And I will stick to it.

At the end of every summer I go through this plan in my head. This year will be different. This year will be MY year! This year I will have everything ready to go ahead of time. No stress. 

I always have good intentions. I am an optimist. 

And I always end up disappointed. Nothing ever goes smoothly. Maybe if I just put THAT plan into place then I won't end up being so stressed out about it all. Maybe I should just plan on it all falling to shit. Then it won't be such a surprise when it does. 

I'll just expect that the kids will come home from school, trash the house, run outside to play with their friends before I can even get a chance to look in their backpacks for their homework.

Then in the winter I'll  feel all guilty about making them stay inside and do their homework right when they get home because they only have an hour of daylight left to play outside. They are kids after all and need to play, so I decide to let the homework wait until after dinner. Then instead of doing their chores and packing their backpacks up and cleaning their rooms before bed time, they are doing homework. Then I am stuck washing the dishes, and doing their chores so I can get them to bed on time. Then lunches don't get made ahead of time and backpacks don't get packed because I am, at this point, exhausted. 

The next morning we are all rushing around trying to get lunches made, pack up backpacks, find the homework that was left on the kitchen table??? the night before. My morning dialogue will sound something like this;

"Where is your other shoe?! Where is your coat?! Why aren't you wearing underwear?! Go put some on! NOW! Your bus will be here in 2 minutes! Did you brush your teeth? No! You are not bringing your action figures to school! What do you mean you forgot to do all your homework? You need a note for what?! What permission slip? You need it today?! Where is my checkbook!? Your bus is coming! I can hear it coming down the road! Get your coat on! Why isn't your coat on?! I told you to put it on 5 minutes ago! Where is your other SHOE?! How do you lose a shoe everyday?! You still haven't put underwear on yet? No time now. Looks like you're going commando!..... and we missed the bus. "

Then I drive them to school. Then my "schedule" is all messed up for the day. And I am stuck cleaning up their messes all day because they didn't get it done the night before. Then I don't get my workout in or get any sewing done. My plans of a productive day have officially gone down the shitter!

Yep! That is pretty much how it's going to go. Every morning. Everyday. No matter how much planning I put into place. No matter how optimistic I am.  

But that is just the way it is. I am used to it. If things actually went as planned I'd probably be bored out of my skull! 

So tomorrow it begins! The first day of the 2011-2012 school year! And I have a plan. This school year will be just like all the past years. I plan on it being unorganized, stressful and full of morning freak outs!