the first week

sI'm still processing this whole "stay at home mom alone" thing.
On the one hand; peace! and quiet! and I can do whatever it is I want whenever it is I want to! and I can get so. much. accomplished.

But on the other hand; no babies here. :(

The truth is, it's been a long week making the transition back to our school routine. Mostly highs, not too many lows, overall it was actually a great week, but definitely long! And I'm still praying for peace as we settle into our new routines.

Honestly the kids are doing great. Other than being a bit extra tired by the end of the week (throwing in a late night with church small group and another evening of babysitting friends didn't help the tired situation!) both kids have had a fabulous first week of school.
Savannah loves her class and her new teacher and has taken on life as a third grader just fine.
Sawyer is LOVING school, eagerly telling me lots of what they're doing all day... "I did so much fun things today Mom!". He's come home with papers showing he's written a ton more this week than I struggled and battled and bribed him to do the entire summer, copying complete (small) paragraphs and filling in blanks and sounding out/spelling words himself. And happily! (and proudly!) He LOVES the work at school. Which is such a relief to me because he is so not a reading and writing kid at home, no matter how I try and approach it. I'm so happy he's got a great teacher who is excited about this class and clearly already loves these kids and whom Sawyer has easily bonded with. Like instantly. She's very thorough and very communicative and I'm happy our first year of school for this kid is off to a wonderful start with a great teacher.

I also have to add that my kids have been getting along really, really (abnormally?!) well, being very much on the same "team", especially at school, making me a little misty eyed at times. I guess that means at least smidgen of my goals for the summer paid off. They're sharing excitement about each others' days when they're at home and Savannah is wholeheartedly looking out for her little brother and they're both being helpful and mindful of the other throughout the day at school. At least from the stories I hear. Love it!

Me at home on the other hand, I have been all over the place.
I've only actually had one "normal" all by myself day as we had a couple of half school days in there and one day with a roofing crew here and all over our house the entire day.
But one day was nice.
And so it turns out when I am here by myself, I am actually completely ADD.
This is kind of a new revelation for me, as I haven't regularly had time alone in oh, say, twelve years!

Just for fun, here's a short list of possible ADD characteristics:

-Has difficulty keeping attention during tasks or play

-Does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace

-Has difficulty organizing tasks and activities

-Avoids or dislikes tasks that require sustained mental effort (such as schoolwork)

-Often loses toys, assignments, pencils, books, or tools needed for tasks or activities

-Is easily distracted

-Is often forgetful in daily activities

Um, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. That is me exactly this week and the hours I've had to myself.
I'm just overwhelmed with all this "free time" and I have so much I want to do and (seemingly) so much time to do it, I just don't know which way to go.
I start cleaning this but get distracted by wanting to organize that and then get distracted by upcycling this and then get distracted by running out and finding something to go with that and then get off on a tangent of how to create this and decorate that and then get distracted by needing to clean this and oh what about my ideas for that and so on and so on. A million things I want to do and suddenly all this time to do it -in peace! without inturruption!!- but I keep interrupting myself with my (hopefully) temporary ADD.

So I'm definitely hoping to settle into more of a routine next week.
Maybe I'll just spend today making lists. :)

p.s.
I did have a "Mommy's Morning Mimosa" date with some new ladies at church this week. A bit overwhelming for me, as it was a complete house full of people I didn't know and a million little kids running around and the one new friend I did know -the one who invited me- left in the first hour. But I stayed and mingled with the couple dozen women I was just meeting right then for at least another hour on my own... which is big for me! It was fun. Kind of exhausting for the introvert I am, but fun!