A new year begun

A new school year has begun. Mostly with a whimper and not a bang, but still it's a start. The first week was cut short because we attended a CFC Conference. This was planned in advance. I thought a short week would be a good start and I had hoped to be ready for the conference in advance. Alas, as usual, less was done in advance than I had hoped, but as a friend said, 'more was done than would have been.' The conference was great and I hope it will have lasting positive effects on the kids. The second week was a wash as everyone took turns w/ a stomach bug. I sure hope that is getting it out of the way and not a foreshadowing of things to come. The third week limped by as my ds13 couldn't get his schedule together, which interrupted the schedule for the rest of us. I struggled with patience and tenacity; mostly loosing the struggle. I just don't have the energy to deal w/ teenagers! I don't know how I am going to survive this one and then the next 4. Maybe I'll be able to send them to their older siblings' houses! For the duration. . . The fourth week is on hold, because I insisted we get to go to the beach this September. It has been several years, with high schoolers attending tutorials and paying for college, which prevented us from this tradition. This year, finally we don't have those things in the way and we could go in the best month to be here. September is when all the other kids are back in school, yet the weather and water are usually still quite warm. We have had great weather these first 3 days with more expected. We are listening to Harry Potter on CD with plans to read Swallows and Amazons as one cannot spend every waking hour in the sand. Hopefully, after this diversion, which I hope turns out to be more pleasant than not [you know, 4 kids and all] once home, I hope we can get into a good groove and smooth through all my extensive planning. [wink]