Pros and Cons of back to school after the holidays!

Today we had to face life and head back to our normal routine. This included me waking up at 4:00am so I could get a good start to stressing out for the day ahead. Luckily for me the kids agreeably got up and were ready without complaints. Most mornings I am not so lucky. I did get a call from the school nurse mid day, informing me Jake fell off the playground equipment. He will be fine though, even though he will probably have a bruised forehead for a few days. Jake is resilient. We were in the ER with him once as he had split his chin open; while in the waiting room he was hopping around, jumping off the chairs with his chin hanging open. He is a daredevil. There was also the time he jumped backwards, naked out of the bathtub and split above his eye open.

Okay, so I have some pros and cons about back to school:

Pros:

My house is quiet!
I can do an hour workout without feeling guilty.
I can go the store without kids!
I can get my work done without feeling guilty.
I can be on the telephone without being interrupted!

Cons:

My house is quiet... (Okay, this makes both lists)
Making school lunches (This wouldn't be so bad if my kids would eat something different, same lunch, every day. Might sound easy, but very repetitive.)
Trying to get out of the house on time. (Most mornings as we head out the door, Bailey has her shoes & socks in one hand and her hairbrush in the other! By the way, I give this girl an hour and 1/2 to get ready...)
Homework (need I say more)
In the car all afternoon driving to their activities
Bedtime (My kids are night owls! They do not enjoy going to bed early).

All right, well I have to get back to work as I only have 1 1/2 left of quiet!

Cindy's swamp

Okay, so this morning I tried to sleep in... After all, I was up half of the night giving tylenol to Jake, the poor kid. Behind our house is a conservation area; which in Florida that translates to swamp. Down here in Florida they rename things to not make them seem so bad. At the kids school a portable is a "learning cottage" some people try to pass off cockroaches as "palmetto bugs". Thankfully, those are not a concern to us.

For the most part, I like our swamp. We do not have any neighbors behind us and it is pretty to look at. This morning however, some fool bird was squawking his head off and keeping me from sleeping in. We have an unusual assortment of birds, anything from cardinals to eagles. We have these extremely tall white birds that walk around, I imagine those are the ones making the awful racket outside my window.

We do have an assortment of animals back there. There are alligators, wild boars, possums and even wolves. One day I happened to look out the back thru the kitchen window and a wolf was in my back yard. The animal control officer explained the wolf was probably rabid from the way it was behaving. Nice.... No, he didn't catch the wolf, but we didn't see it again. Do we ever go in our backyard, no way. We thought about having it fenced but Jake is allergic to the grass here in Florida so we wouldn't be back there anyway. Don't get me started on the grass here...

Luckily we have a nice sized driveway and we are always out front. The kids are always on their bikes or scooters, hitting balls or playing catch...

I will add a picture of the swamp. In the winter it is not as full and as green as it is during the summer. I think it is much prettier in the summer.

Happy New Year!

I have decided to start the New Year off by setting up a blog. I figured if my sister Lisa can do it, then I can do it too! Her blog is a cooking blog with great recipes, she is the master chef in the family. I get all my recipes from her. You probably won't see any recipes on my blog and I am not sure if my life is interesting enough to warrant having a blog, but we will see...

Today started off with the taking down of all of our Christmas decorations. Everyone slept in until 10:00am but me. We went to my friend Amy's New Years Eve party last night, so the kids were up late. I do enjoy the quiet of the early morning hours. Generally, I am up everyday between 4:00am -5:00am. I am an early bird, I cannot help it! Usually, that is when my best thinking is done for the day! Hmmm, so I wonder why I am creating this blog this time of the evening....

After working in the house all day with the football on in the background, everything is put away and the house is clean and spotless. We even cleaned out the garage. I might as well get as much done while I am motivated. I am sure my family had a more relaxing day in mind. Oh well... Starting on Monday we return to the chaos of normal life, so I at least wanted to the house clean and everything put away. Well, everyone is watching Indiana Jones right now, however, I know if I sit down and start watching a dvd, I will be asleep in an instant.

Today is my Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday New Year Baby!

I am looking forward to 2008. I am hoping for a happy and healthier year for all of those I know.