Taking a deep breath

Halloween was so much fun.  The kids are older and just a lot more fun to do stuff with. 

Now it's time for a deep breath.  Ready?  In through the nose.... ssssnnnniiiiiffff, out through the mouth.... phoooooo.

Very nice and refreshing.  Now it's time to put away the Halloween decorations.  I bought a nice big orange tub this year to store our Halloween stuff in.  We've been using the same tub for about a decade and it's never been big enough to store 5 pumpkin buckets plus the few decorations and books we have for the holiday.  An orange bucket.  How great is that?

The kids have today and tomorrow off from school.  Tomorrow is election day.  I can't find my voter's registration card!!!  If I can't find it by tomorrow, I'll go anyway with a photo ID and see if they will still let me vote. 

We are down to two months on our house rental.  We don't know what to do.  The house is really a very nice house.  It's large and has lots of space for our family.  I just can't stand the concrete tiles anymore.  My feet and legs hurt all the time from being in this house.  We have no yard and that's not fair to the kids to not have a space free of rocks to play in.  We don't know what to do, where to look or what. 

My 7th grader is happy at school and that is very good.  But do you know why he is happy?  He doesn't have to do anything while he is there.  I asked him last week to pull out his huge, heavy backpack and show me what it is he lugs around.  I know that he doesn't have textbooks and never brings home homework, so what is in there?  Three free time reading books.  About 7 folders filled with nothing except his drawings.  His music folder for orchestra.  And about 10 broken pencils.  That's it!  Well, that and about 15 pounds of trash and old drawings.  While he is in orchestra class, I know he is doing something good.  The other 6 hours?  I'm really questioning his education.  The boy has never come home with homework, has done zero projects, book reports or research papers, has never studied for a test, has nothing to show for the many hours he spends weekly in school.  I'm quite concerned.  VERY.  This is also weighing on my mind.

I have a paper for school to write today.  It's only a page, but it needs to be thoughtfully done.  That's hard to do with 5 kids in the house today.  It's only a page.  I just need to sit down and do it.  I'll just growl at any kid who tried to interrupt. 

I think I need that deep breath again - sssnnniiiffffff.... phooooooo.  OK.  I'm ready to take it all on!