Back to school

It's day three of 'back to school' and the kids are still getting up on time and making the bus without effort. Thank goodness for light mornings. So far not too many complaints about teachers, homework or classmates, so they might just be willing to return after Labor Day.

The house, sadly, has been lacking its summer routine of Wednesday cleaning for the past fortnight. Last Wednesday we went to Water Country as our last hurrah of the summer and I never quite got finished after that. This week, despite the children's great start to the school year, I have been suffering from insomnia. I had a semi-sleepless night on Saturday, a night completely without sleep on Monday and another difficult night on Tuesday. Fortunately, last night I slept like the proverbial log and feel ready to tackle the house today. I have to go to WW at 10 (although I could go at 12:30 instead) but with the kids gone so early in the day (by 7:30am) I can start earlier and get much of it done before noon.

Last night I spent an hour and a half covering six school text books (why I buy those 'Book Sox' I don't know, because the school won't allow them). They want the books covered in brown paper grocery bags. Since I use my own bags at the store, I never get their bags and I don't feel I can just grab a handful to take with me, so I bought a huge roll of brown 'Kraft paper' and used that for the books. It worked pretty well, too, I must say, and looked a lot neater.

The cat is keeping us entertained with his antics. Lucy spends much of the time either following the cat, trying to reach his food or trying to escape from him. I had to give Jasper a 'time out' yesterday because Lucy was starting to look very tired of having the cat jump on her. She was pleased to see him when he was released though and by the middle of the evening they were both curled up asleep in Lucy's bed. Having a cat has made this a much livelier place during the day while the kids are at school, which is nice.