Success is surviving the PTA Family Fun Festival with only one angry call to police for disturbing the peace (we weren't), only one folding table lost, only running out of chips for the nachos and only requiring two days for my legs to stop throbbing for being on them for many many hours. And it didn't rain (it threatened).
Success is returning M to this--post meltdown:
after she didn't get a ride in this (it broke down after Bam's ride):
at the parking lot pumpkin patch.
Success is gathering this motley crew:
(she's a vampire girl and she struggled with her wig all night)
(he's Harry Potter wearing CW's glasses)
(his "muscles" kept denting in throughout the night)
(he got sweaty, since he was inside padded fleece)
(she is M, need I say more?)to attend out ward trunk or treat, especially when Z said no to Halloween at the last minute (he conceded to the outfit for picture taking purposes only). My sister Tiff was in town and was a vampire slayer. She helped with the kidlet wrangling. But I didn't get a picture of her. Success at the event was measured by our stellar guesstimation of treat purchases. We ended up with only a gallon sized ziploc bag of treats after the Halloween weekend. This was, in part, because we didn't trick or treat Sunday night, but then usually we take the gatherings from the trunk or treat and hand them out to the revelers who knock our door and we didn't have that option either. But, since we have an exceedingly large Primary (135 active children), many many of whom brought friends, we were able to hand out all of M's candy and much of Bam's before the evening ended. The net candy received was perfect because no one felt robbed of sugar, but there was little gorging or sugar comas and an extra plus was that no one handed out the dreaded fun dip!
Success is buying a new box of 64 crayons (because I donated our mangy bags of imperfect crayons to the coloring table at the festival) and finding the two that M lost before they were used in any new murals.
Success is openly denying Z the ball python he "MUST have" as a pet (when he asked for a snake, his original concession was "I'll pick a non-venomous one!") AND denying Bam a real live Scooby Doo dog (a great dane) in the same day (Bam is as terrified of real dogs as I am of snakes) and not causing a complete offspring mutiny.
Success is also making it to the end of October, when I promised CE and Z they could quit swim (it's getting cold and coaches are getting mean and teammates are lane hogs . . .) without killing anyone during the daily onslaught of whining and recrimination until October finally ended. I'm thinking that all those negative campaign slogans were written by an angry 11 yr old. And now, for our exercise and skill development, two moms and I have formed a running club. The other two moms take the kids (half a dozen or so right now, but strangely more have expressed interest) for a 2 mile run after school on different days and I make them run hill repeats, sprints and intervals. Z continues with flag football and CE is learning tennis. That gives them about as much exercise as swim was giving them without the fees, the whining, or the carpooling.
And that brings us to November, a month which started with two staff development days, to be followed by a two day Veteran's Day holiday next week, one full week of school and then Thanksgiving weekend the following week and we will be well on our way to Christmas. And I am not ready, not ready not ready.
What was your definition of success in October?
2 comments:
I'd say that's a pretty successful October!
Your October gave me a headache...or was it my October gave me one?...I'm not sure anymore but I'm with you on not ready for the holidays! I already canceled them. can't afford them anyway. Still paying for October:)
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