Penance

Forgive me readers, it's been 2 weeks since my last post....

Uhm, what have I been doing?

the short answer is 'nothing' - I haven't been doing anything blogworthy. I maintain the tidyness in the house so that it stays somewhere between 'sorta neat' and 'epic hurricane ran through here'.
I volunteer at the school on Mondays.
I putter around the house, sorting papers and losing the kids homework. Yes, I lost Duncan's homework - it was due today, and I was busy looking for it last night, and do you think I could find it? Nope. So now I am faced with the humiliating task of telling Duncan's lovely sweet teacher that I'm a big goof who can't keep 3 kids school routines sorted out.

I don't know what it is, but having that 3rd kid in the mix there has done me in. It's not a big deal to make lunches, and snacks for 3 - that's really not any more work than last year. And they don't get a LOT of homework - in fact Joey gets the most in Kindergarten.
It's just the *stuff* I need to keep track of.
Joey has:
A reading folder
A homework folder that goes on Mondays
Library on Monday (I think)
Show and tell on *red group* days so I have to check the calendar for that
school on Mon/Wed and alternate Fridays - but check the calendar because the Fridays are not consistent.
Pizza lunch form - for a different pizza day than the other boys, so don't confuse them

Matthew has
a daily agenda that I have to sign
spelling tests on Fridays
Library on Tuesdays
Ongoing tree observation project (5 weeks)
Pizza lunch form due

Duncan has:
a daily agenda that I have to sign
spelling test on Fridays
Library on Friday
pizza lunch form due

Add in their regular homework, which comes home sporadically
separate trip permission forms to sign
school picture forms (2 different days) to sign
and I know it has started yet - but the big boys will be bringing reading folders home soon
They all get book order forms. (3 different ones)
They all get winter fundraising packages.(all the same)
Occasional little requests from each of them - 2$ here, box of kleenex there, glue sticks over there

And that's just school
I'm also trying to balance Joey's OT appointments
all the boys have speech therapy appts
All of us had study appt's for the Autism Genome Project down at Sick Kids Hospital
Regular doc appts (no, Joey has still not been in for his 4 yr checkup and MMR shot)

I am trying desperately to stay organized - but find that the amount of paper that comes into this house is staggering.
Went through the mail that's been piling up for about a month - we get bills online, so this is mostly statements, and well, stuff that doesn't need to be attended to right away.
like 25 magazines. Darn that stupid magazine fundraiser for the school last year.
I think it would make my life easier if they just said - here, we need $50 per kid and no fundraisers except for pizza days.
That would be fabulous. except most parents would balk at that - so we do fundraisers - which they balk at anyway.

So yeah....I have been doing nothing.....kinda, sorta. Keeping my head above water, because school is determined to drown me in paper and forms.

Oh and I folded laundry today.

my life is exciting.