Getting Our Ducks in a Row for a New School Year

Well, we survived the first week of Back to School. I'd forgotten how quiet my house can be, and also how my blood pressure sky rockets at school drop off and pick up. But I believe I mentioned recently that I'd like to lead a more active lifestyle, so here's my chance. I'm going to try to slow down and resign myself to parking far, far away. Which will work when we have nowhere else to be. I'd like to commit to walking everyday (about a mile each way), but I really just can't see waking Lucy up any earlier. She already goes to bed at 7:30, we have too much going on to put her to bed earlier than that. And girlfriend needs her beauty sleep in a bad way. But after school...I'm thinking this out as I type so bear with me...although we are usually rushing straight from the elementary school to the middle school to pick up Bethany, Bethany will have cross country practice after school every day for the next couple months. So I can walk to pick up Connor and Lucy. And they will be SO thrilled. But it will be good for them. And this is really easy to say on a Saturday morning when I have nowhere to be for several hours. So we'll see. It's a good plan though.

The first couple weeks of Back to School is always a time of information overload. There is so much to remember. So much money to be thrown at schools. So much to be added to my calendar. So much getting up early. I am beat. Exhausted. Can't stay awake at night. I have so much work to do here on MichiGal, and also on my new site, MichiGal Travels, not to mention around my house and yard. I'm doing minute by minute prioritizing. Load dishwasher or start reading the book I'm reviewing? Order school pictures online or try to figure out what on earth to do with the SEO plugin I just installed? Cook dinner or write a new post? Jump on the trampoline with Mathilda or work on transferring posts over to the new blog?

The blog stuff is losing.

This month we will be adjusting. We will all be tired as we try to feel our way around a new school year. My challenges will be to:

1. Make sure my kids are fed and well rested every day, driven every place they need to be, and meeting their school responsibilities as well as doing their chores around the house. In other words, micro managing my children. 
2. Make sure we consistently have healthy foods in the house, clean dishes in the cupboards, clean clothes to wear to school, and some pieces of furniture to sit on that are not covered in backpacks, last night's pajamas, doll clothes, and coloring books.
3. Make sure we don't miss anything on the calendar. My phone is pinging constantly with alerts and reminders. I just recently started using the calendar on my phone. I'm loving it and hoping it helps me stay organized this year!
4. Make sure I stay on top of my volunteer responsibilities, while keeping in mind that, while very important, it is, well...volunteer work. And sometimes other stuff has to come first. See 1-3.
5. Take care of blogging stuff.

Not shown above would be things like hitting the gym at least a few times a week, spending time with family and friends, errands, and organizational jobs around the house. It will all come together. I fully expect a few monkey wrenches to be thrown our way, but it's going to be a good year. 

This week we start preschool, dance, and cross country. We will celebrate Lucy's birthday. And we have something super fun planned for Friday the 13th. Also did I mention Chris has been traveling a lot for work? I won't lie, I don't feel quite ready. But ready or not, school is back with all the accompanying madness. 

How is back to school going for your family?

My 3 big kids: 7th, 5th and 2nd grades.