Back to the Grind

Today the 5 Selph's are back to the grind. Sigh. Yawn.

Much earlier wake-up calls. Much more to do every night before bed. Back to school. Back to work. Back to making lunches and laying out clothes and doing homework and planning preschool and checking our calendar and making lists and planning meals. In other words, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Our break was glorious. It wasn't perfect but it was soo nice. We slept a little later. We enjoyed lots of down time. We rested. We savored extra time with family. And 3 brothers loved all of their extra  time together and our super laid back routine. Especially this past week. Christmas week was full of busyness and fun. New Year's week was full of resting and playing. Glorious I tell you. Except for the fighting. But I'll take the good with the bad if you offer me a wonderful break any day.

So last night was tough. Our break coming to an end wasn't anybody's favorite. Garrison Cade shed a few tears. He didn't want to leave me. (Break my heart.) He didn't want daddy to have to go to work. He wanted to go back to the day before pajama day so we could prepare to start our break again. Oh my heart. Therefore mama shed a few tears too. (Can't we all just live on a farm and work the land and spend our every waking moment together?? Just kidding. I think.) But we had a good talk about seeing friends we've missed and the things we're looking forward to this month like a long weekend coming up and his birthday party scheduled at the end of the month. We also discussed this being the start of the 2nd half of Kindergarten. (Craziness.) And then we prayed. We prayed for good attitudes and fun days and that we can enjoy this 2nd half to the fullest and that it will be way better than the 1st. (The first half wasn't terrible just a really big adjustment for Garrison mixed with a bit of a let down.)

This morning was kind of tough too, although not as tough as I feared. Thank you Jesus. (The toughest part was waking my sleeping, peaceful, and warm babies so early. The guilt of it all attacked me. I literally almost started crying right there in the big boy room before I woke them up. Waaahhh!)

So my alarm went off earlier. We rushed around getting ready. The kiddos and I all got out in the cold together and walked our biggest boy into school. Daddy prepared for his first full week of work in 2 weeks. We rushed home and fed Layton breakfast. Layton then refused to nap because I was rushing him because Austin was bored and without a playmate and needing my attention. We gave up on Layton's nap and went to Walmart. And so it began. Regularly scheduled programming. Back to the grind.

Even though it's "Blue Monday" and seeing our break come to an end was hard, I've got to get back in the swing of things and find my school schedule groove again fast. Mama must get it together. Thankfully I got a new planner for Christmas to help me out. =)

This week is a normal school week for us and we'll all be home together. So that's a big plus. We may be back to the grind, but we're going to savor this week. Baby A will be here a few days. My big boys will go back to choir. We're cooking and eating at home every night. But that's it. No craziness to our schedule, just normal stuff. Yay. I can handle that.

The big stuff coming up however is pretty big. I'm planning my firstborn's 6th birthday party while also trying to gather ideas for my youngest baby's 1st birthday party. Can you say time consuming with a side of stressful? Plus it's time to get back into the swing of things with school for Austin. Time to plan another thematic unit for my middle and get back on track with my little student. Plus we're gearing up for Terrell to be out of town for 2 weeks this month. (Thankfully it's not 2 weeks in a row!) Plus we are smack dab in the middle of more issues with selling our house. Every time we think we almost have it sold, we don't. Such. A. Bummer. So. Disappointing. So. Ready. To. Sell! Ahhhhh!!!!

Anyway. Despite the disppointment of our home selling issues, we are praying for good attitudes and God's will to be done... and we are determined to keep things in perspective. We can and will survive this. And something could work out tomorrow for us to close on the house. We just don't know God's plan or His timing so at this point we're trying as hard as we can to practice patience. And of course working diligently to get back into the swing of things. I'm almost there. I can feel it. =)

Here's to a happy Monday afternoon and finding my groove!