Back to School

I haven't been able to do a lot of crafting this last week.  Thanks to Irene, I was able to hang, tag and sort all 200 items for the consignment sale next month.  Whew!  That's always a pain.  Now I just have 8 Rubbermaid containers stacked in my room.  Blech... at least that'll go away soon... hopefully in return, I'll get a nice fat check.

Anyone out there consign their clothes?  If I get freebies from friends and/or Freecycle, those clothes usually head back out Freecycle style.  (Anyone out there Freecycle?  It's wonderful!)  For the rest of the clothes, yard sales just don't bring in the bucks... eBay worked for me for quite awhile, but the hassle of listing and mailing out 200+ items didn't sound appealing.  Not to mention, if something has a tiny little mark that I missed, I won't get negative feedback from a consignment sale.  They picked it off the rack themselves.  (But I'm only talking about things I miss... I am good... not trying to pass off messy clothes at a sale.  Ever go to one of those and think, "What were they thinking trying to sell that?") LOL

Yep, Irene hit, but we're about 2 hours inland, so it was mild.  Just lots of wind and rain.  Despite living in the woods, only one small tree cracked... and I think that one was slated for removal anyway (it's dying).  We have friends and family still without power though. 

What a week... earthquake hit about 2 hours south of us on Tuesday (again, no damage... but what a ride!)  Then the hurricane.  What's next?  

Wait...

don't answer that.

My crew, all ready for the first day of school... first "First Day" in the new house!

This week is the first week of school around here.  It's funny.  I read on Facebook all of these statuses of moms crying and sad as they watch their kids get on the bus.  

Um... maybe I'm a bad mom.

I was REJOICING!!  How does that commercial go?

  "It's the MOST WONDERFUL TIME of the YEAR!"  

This year... ahem... my youngest goes to school ALL DAY LONG!  Yes, all four are gone all day!  Woot woot!  As soon as that last one got on the bus, I headed to Home Goods (oh, how I love that store!) for some Mommy-Alone-Time.

Three off to elementary school.

...okay... I will admit that it's not all fun and games with the start of school.  First of all, that means that I have to go back to work (next week).  So, two days a week, I'll be busy again (but then again, the paychecks will start flowing again.)  Plus this year will be fun... I already know more than half the parents of kids in my class.  I guess that happens when you stick around as a teacher long enough, huh?

Also, the new start of the year means... schedules.  No more waking-when-you-feel-like-it; no more vegging-all-day-at-home-in-my-PJs, no more easy evenings.  Yep, with AWANAS, Soccer, and ESOL, our weeknights are getting busy.  And this body hasn't had to use an alarm clock in a few months (yawn).

Oh well, everything has pros and cons.  But, I know this... these kids NEEDED to get back to a routine, and I'm happy to oblige.  :)

Four monkeys on our last day of summer vacation... just before bed.

My friends on Facebook laughed.  We did a "Parents' First Day" photo:  

Such happy parents.  :)