Our fluffy, fatty learned to climb and jump and last night he decided to pull an all-nighter. Cats. Dirty little stay-out!!

Back-to-school always brings a new routine with it and, try as we might, it ALWAYS takes a couple of weeks of tweaking and a TON of patience as we all get in to our new groove.  I’m a structured person and change is rarely easy on me, however, God’s grace can carry us through…..if we let it and so far……so far…..a fairly successful week.  We only have a few binders to purchase and some extra loose leaf paper…not bad, not bad…

1.  Oldest son started high school.  New faces, new classes, taking the bus for the first time EVER and so far….so far…..he only got on the wrong bus the first day (coming home).  Aside from that, it appears his transition–especially the waking @ 5:30 a.m. change, has gone pretty well.

2.  Youngest son’s academic brilliance overshines his common sense on occasion and had a little lapse of such during a rainy afternoon resulting in major miscommunication with Dad.  All ended well, its times like these that I have to keep repeating to myself……he’s only 13, he isn’t using his full brain yet…he’s only 13….it’s painful though.

3.  Oldest daughter forgot her backpack one day BUT remembered her lunch.  Dad to the rescue which meant getting snagged in morning school traffic….GRRRRr…..tweak, tweak, tweak….must get in the habit of remembering all that’s to be remembered…

4.  With rain ALL week long the girls FINALLY had practices last night, so we’ve had mostly all family dinners this week!  Which I love.  And which will also be the biggest challenge for me with these evening practices messing up our dinner schedules, but see how good God is??….he eased me into it this week.  How often do YOU have family dinners??

This puppy is on sale now and has some GREAT dinner ideas….a lovely addition for our weeknight dinners…save money….save time…eat well….I like it, I like it!!

5.  Hubby has taken on the coupon challenge and is in the researching phase (and accumulation phase) of coupons and how to work the sales.  He is a detail guy and has infinitely more patience than I in these matters and I look forward to him steering this ship AND saving us some cash!!!  We’ve reigned in our grocery bill for our family of 6 (2 teen boys included) to roughly $600/mo…but I know we can go lower.  What’s your average??

6.  I finally broke down and bought new sneakers.  My work ones are shot, so I’ll swap out my walking ones for work (not my favorites) and use my new ones for walking.  Broke them in on the track at practice last night….3 miles!!  Nice.  Add to that 2 days at the gym (3 today) and I’m feeling pretty good about this week.  Woop woop!!  Definitely helps to manage the stress level!!

My feet liked these….on sale@ Kohl’s…

7.  Having dinner and a night out with one of my oldest girlfriends tonight and several other high school friends. She’s in town from California and it’s going to be a min-high school reunion!  She and I have been friends since 7th grade!!  It will be fun…but with an early game tomorrow morning this Mama will be home early-ish so I’m not so grumpy tomorrow.  That leaves Hubby on practice drop off/pick up, etc, etc….he’s the Bomb and a Blessing.  Balance.  All Balance.  A constant work in motion, isn’t it??  Have  a great weekend!!

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