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Well Played...

This week starts with losing an hour to the time change, has a full moon in it, and ends with Friday the 13th. It's also the week my three littles start "real" preschool for the very first time in their life. Not one of them has spent a minute in a school setting before but they'll need to be full time by Friday. Hah!

P.S. I got a job. I resigned from teaching a year ago to be home with the girls and now it's time to go back. I found an online teaching job that, let's be honest, isn't real education in the truest sense, but it does give me the flexibility in scheduling that our family needs. So, the littles go to real preschool now, not my little homeschool version. On the week with a time change and a full moon. Oh lordy.

Because I know how hard it is to add a new kid to the class, let alone THREE at once, I have already prepared gifts for the classroom teacher and the secretary and we are planning to make a nice, fat donation to the school. At one time in my life I wouldn't have thought this necessary. Now I deeply understand how crucial it is to show gratitude to the professionals who will be taking care of your children.

Here's what else I've done in three days, after we got the confirmation that there was space for all 3 on Thursday night.
  • bought uniforms online
  • comparison shopped and bought non-logo uniform pieces at other sites
  • sorted through all their clothing they already have to find items in solid navy that they can wear until the uniform pieces arrive by mail (to show respect and gratitude for our late admittance)
  • purchased three backpacks and three Bento boxes, in coordinating colors for each child
  • found three baby quilts in the house and assigned one to each kid as a nap blanket
  • packed a tub with an extra change of clothing and extra snacks for accidents and emergencies
  • labeled all of the above with each kid's name
  • shopped at the Farmer's Market to find handmade gifts for the teacher and secretary
  • packaged the gifts in nice gift bags with Thank You notes "signed" by the kids inside
  • gotten all 3 kids haircuts (this was already planned for Fri, thankfully)
  • given baths, trimmed fingernails (30 nails, you know, and usually a few toenails, too)
  • shopped for foods that can easily go into their cold lunches
  • shopped for foods that Gus can use to start making the family dinner as that's now his chore
  • purchased three storybooks so each kid can "gift" a book to the class on their first day
  • made a clipart-laden chart the littles can read showing their new daily routine 
  • made a countdown calendar so they can see what's happening each day as they phase in to preschool during this week, then start full time next Monday.
  • written a three page letter to the teacher describing each child's learning and emotional needs as well as strategies we use when things go bad
  • met with the teacher to discuss all my last questions (yes, nuts allowed in lunches, no, nuts not allowed for snacktime in the classroom; there's a $7 per child per day fee for late pick-up)
  • got the whole family to the Catholic church associated with this school for 11:00 mass this morning so the priest could meet our whole family and we could thank him for admitting our three littles
I think that's it. And here's the thing--it didn't even seem like I was all that busy till I sat down to make this list. None of this seems like an extraordinary thing to do.

But also, it helps me have a bit of respect for why the job of SAHM is tiring. There's a lot of work that goes into moving your family through the transitions of life. And, in my middle age I finally believe this work is important. When I was young I would've scoffed at a mom doing so much to make it easy on the adults who'd take care of her kids because, let's be honest, I was actually still a child myself who believed that adults just took care of things because that's what adults did. Like it wasn't any extra effort for them to pick up the slack for me--they had special talents because they were so old and adulty.

 Nope. Nobody really wants to pick up anyone else's slack. Adults would prefer everyone else adult along with them. So there's me packing a change of clothes and labeling lunch boxes because when my child pees her pants or can't find his lunchbox I know that the adult helping will have a moment of gratitude that I already provided the change of pants and a clearly labeled lunchbox.

And that's how the world goes round.


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