The End of an Era

In less than 3 weeks, I will have a child in school. No more doing whatever we want, whenever we want.  From now on our schedule will revolve around the public school calendar!

We're trying to live it up the last few weeks, but it is so oppressively hot that everything must revolve around pools, beach or air conditioned spaces! A couple of weeks back, we tried to go to a waterpark in Orlando but it was full to capacity, so we went to Seaworld instead- I just about died, it was so hot and muggy. I nearly cried when we didn't get splashed during the shamu show. We have been bowling, going to the library, the movies and the mall a lot. We get to buy Natalie's school uniform this week- I'm going to just get her 2 pairs and hope that they have a used uniform sale soon, because it's almost $30 for a top and bottom and they have to be purchased through this one supplier because they are embroidered with the school logo. I also tried to order all of Natalie's school supplies through walmart grocery pickup to avoid the crowds, but ended up with a few issues- mostly things not being the correct size because the descriptions of the products aren't always very detailed.

Work has been busy, with recent new staff members and lots of returning customers, which is good! I'm trying to take a step back and work a bit less while I get used to Natalie being in school. Hopefully we'll get to enjoy a couple of Saturdays at the beach or doing some other fun family trips. Not sure how free we'll really be, though- even on the Saturdays when I don't work, we still have kittens to take to petco in the afternoon! We've got 3 little boys right now who we've been 'growing'- should be neutered shortly and then put up for adoption. This one like to tease Sammy.

I've been going crazy lately, bouncing between frenzied eagerness to do things, to stay busy and active and entertain my kids; and hopeless exhaustion, discouragement over the constant messes, the interruptions, the perpetual lack of time or space for private relaxation. Maybe the start of school will ease the tension, maybe not. We're trying to decide what, if any, activities we should let the kids do outside of Kindergarten for Natalie- more swimming lessons, gymnastics, dance, etc. Our evenings would fill up quickly. I'm also concerned with how I'm going to keep Angela entertained- she has always had Natalie to play with, so I'm worried that she will demand my attention even more while Natalie's at school.