Do I get to take a deep breath now?

Woah. Time to put the brakes on here.

You might have noticed that my postings have been a bit...spotty? irregular? the past week or so. Let me explain.

Camp ended for the kids.

School started for me.

Dovi went to Orlando.

Dovi started school.

ESJ start school today.

Holy cow has it been busy in this here house.

Let me tell you, it's mighty hard to go to school four days a week when your kids are home. Correction. It's downright impossible. For the past two weeks, I have had college girls galore in and out of my house for a few hours here and a few hours there so I can dash my tired, overwhelmed self to my biology and chemistry classes.

And oh yeah, in between running to and from class, I'm supposed to be entertaining said children, keeping house, reading said chemistry and biology books, studying for biology and chemistry quizzes, and generally keeping it together.

I do not have it together.

Case(s) in point:

• Laundry is piling up (clean, but not folded).
  
• Coupons are flying through my house (I just spent about three hours organizing the coupon stash. It was getting scary. Downright terrifying).
  
• I have not been to Jewel in five days! (deep breaths. deep cleansing breaths. I'm in catalina and deal withdrawal. Must. get. Jewel. fix. tomorrow. must. get. Jewel. fix. tomorrow).
  
• I have not been to the fruit store in two weeks! (bought on sale items at Jewel).
  
• I just paid $28 in overdue fees to the library (and still owe another $20 on my card. I did not have the desire to pay $48 in overdue fees at one time. So my card is still on restriction. I took out Cecilia Ahern and Jane Green books on Shana's card. hee hee)
• A small animal (one of my children, perhaps?) could eat a meal off the floor of my car.
• I have not had Shabbos guests in two weeks. And I'm not sure I have it in me to cook for MY family this week, let alone someone else's, and my kids are starting a mutiny for guests. ( ok it seems that some people-that means you, Shosh and Benjie, think that I was wrangling for an invite here. Ahem. I was not. I merely meant that I need to get myself in gear and start entertaining again. But I do thank the lovely people who must have heard the desperation in this post and took pity upon my starving family and invited us for lunch. Looking forward to it :) )
  

But all is becoming well in my little home world. The fearsome threesome starts school. My house will remain clean. I will not need to pay a minor fortune to babysitters. I will have time to run errands sans 6 little helping hands (stay at home moms who shop with your kids, I tip my shaitel to you. My kids are 7 and it still gives me the shakes to shop with those little buggers). Routine will return to our home.

If you haven't noticed, I thrive on routine. Order. Normalcy.

Without order, my mental health suffers. I get stressed. Ornery. Crabby.

Here's to hoping that sanity returns.

Anyone who'd like to come over, say, around 4:30pm to help with homework, let me know.