End of summer

It's been a rough couple of days, but it's almost settling into the new normal.  Every morning I wake up and immediately call around to get the latest update on how Nicky is doing.  He's making progress, and thank God for that, but it's slow and hard and I wish so much that I could be there at the hospital.  But I can't.  I've got three kids here, sometimes more, and even when Marc gets home, the hospital is so far away.  It's not possible.

But life is still moving along here, and we're winding down to the end of summer and the beginning of school. Jessie is delighted about going back to school, she had such a great year last year.  I went thru her clothes yesterday, and she needs leggings and sneakers.  She's got a lot of tops but her legs have grown so much, and even though we've got a lot of jeans that fit her and look great, she HATES wearing regular jeans, and won't wear denim leggings if they're too dark because it makes her feel "goth."  Which amuses me, but I know her well enough to know that she's no joke when it comes to getting dressed - I'm long past the days when I could just toss a cute outfit her way and expect her to wear it.  That actually never happened, by the time she was old enough to put on her clothes, she was old enough to stop thinking that my opinion of what was cute was in any way shape or form valid.

Sam - I don't know what he needs, because he won't play "let's go to your room and try on pants" with me.  His sneaks are still good, he got them at the beginning of the summer and has been barefoot ever since.  I think he's okay with tops, probably needs socks and I think a pair of jeans or two.  We'll see.

We'll need new backpacks and lunchboxes, and hopefully some new ideas for lunches as well.  Neither of my kids are great at bringing lunches.  Jessie just doesn't eat during the day (unless I send in just junk food), and Sam refuses to take anything other than yogurt.  I really don't like that they starve all day and then come home and start eating at three and don't stop until they go to sleep, but that was pretty much the pattern all last year.  Whatever I packed for Jessie came home, and Sam got so upset when I tried to pack anything other than just a little carton of yogurt for his lunch (their lunch period is so quick, and he was already feeling so pressured at school that the added pressure of having a lot of food to finish made him really anxious).

Sam will be doing boy scouts on Thursdays, and Hebrew on Saturday mornings.  Jessie will have Hebrew or dance on Monday (we still haven't decided), Hebrew on Wednesday, girl scouts every other Thursday, and Hebrew/Dance on Saturdays.

And my little Julianna and I will be alone again.  It's been a pretty good summer.  We really didn't do much, finances just weren't there for elaborate vacations, and I didn't want to drive the van too far with the problems that we were having with it.  But we spent a lot of time at the pool down the street, did a couple of day trips hither and yon, and the kids spent a lot of time just playing outside.  And inside, right now, Sam and Julie have done something in my living room that involved dragging all of their bedding in there, and I think they're building forts to hide from the dreaded Blue Monster.  The Blue Monster being a mythical creature they made up months ago.