A New Beginning?

The start of the school year is a lot like New Year's Day, isn't it?

Don't you find that when your children go back to school you set yourself on a mission to make this "the" year that you will become more organized?  Perhaps you will mentally arrange in your head a new schedule for yourself to fit in some exercise, or time to volunteer, or simply stay on top of that laundry pile.

I had all these thoughts last Monday on the first day of school.  However, the week consisted of unpacking from vacation, laundry galore, school supply shopping, and endless paperwork to fill out for the schools.  Then, when the kids came home from school I spent a lot of time being a referee.  Literally.  Everything was a problem. There was a lot of:

"I don't want to sit next to a girl."
"Why does she get two?"
"It's the boys turn to go first."
"He always gets what he wants."
"Do I have to eat this?"
"I'm still hungry."
"I need a cell phone."
"Why does Billy get his own room?"

This list could go on and on. 

I must be doing something wrong. 

Or maybe I'm not.  I have no idea. 

Little kids, little problems.  Big kids, big problems.  I think I'm somewhere in between.

I do know this.  I need to get out of my head that there will ever be any kind of new schedule design that goes exactly according my plan.

Matthew will start preschool next week.  Here's a list of everything I'm going to accomplish while he's there.

Repaint the upstairs hallway.
Renovate (on a budget and on my own) the powder room.
Run.
Volunteer.
Mulch.
Clean out garage and have a yard sale.
Take a class.
Paint and redecorate the basement.

Funny, right?  Who am I kidding?  All I really want to do is go to Panera and have breakfast and read a good book for two hours.

I guess it's all about discipline and flexibility.  But at the rate I'm going, I'm not sure how I'm going to fit two more things in the schedule.