Now we get to repeat the whole shebang for the next 34 weeks . . .

Well, I don't know about you, but I am exhausted! 

The back-to-school week has been great because each of my 4 children has come home happy every day.  That, my friends, is a blessing I do not take lightly! 

But, sending my children to school each day, picking them up, and handling all the behind the scenes logistics (think packed lunches and laying out clothes and reading various information sheets sent home from teachers and filling out multitudes of forms and running to the store for last minute supplies we just were told we need and supplying snacks for an entire class and signing agendas and helping with homework and nagging children to hang up backpacks and clean-out lunchboxes -- all times 4 kids!!) has taken every ounce of energy from both my husband and I!

The good news is, we have a long weekend to rest up, recover and regroup.  And I do remember this exhausted feeling every school year and the wondering just how we'll manage to repeat the whole shebang for the next 34 weeks, but then it gets easier.  We adjust and fall into a routine and before you know it, it is Christmas!

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I've been working through cleaning out my kids' closets for a couple weeks now.  Really, it is shameful how many clothes they have! 

I hope I do not ever forget this little boy we met in Ethiopia a few weeks ago with nothing but a ripped, tattered shirt!  It makes me angry at the injustice of it all.  Why should my children have so much stuff and that boy so little?

 My husband and I have been working on some big plans to help about 150 kids we met during our trip to Ethiopia.  The logistics are still being worked and we are asking a lot of God, but He can do big things!

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Back to the closets, I'm ruthlessly getting rid of things and just took a huge bag for donation.  But, I decided to better organize my boys' clothes, I really wanted another shelf or two in their closet.  My husband was understandably thrilled with my suggestion (not really, because I was not offering to build the shelves for myself), but he was a trooper and found some wood in the garage and measured and cut it to fit some support brackets we already had. 'Course it helps that he has the cutest little helper!  The 7 year old loves to build things, so he has become my husband's apprentice on anything handyman related.

(Feel free to be astonished by that organized garage shot.  That is honestly an after picture, you should have seen that garage before we cleaned it out 2 months ago!!)

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One day after school my kids built this house out of their Kapla Blocks:

What I really love about their house is that even with all the space in that large house, the two children are sleeping squished together in one bed!

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 Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!