I Can't Find My Sweatshirt!

Summer went by quickly this year. We finally moved back into our newly remodeled house after 16 months away. That was a long ordeal and too painful to recount and part of the reason I have not blogged all summer. In short, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong....twice! The boys are settled into their new rooms and we are once again part of the great morning ritual of walking to school vs. driving 20 minutes. Aaaaaah, the joys of the simple things in life.

Three of the boys are once again at the same elementary school. This year we have a fifth grader, a third grader, and a first grader. The youngest is also starting preschool for 1 day a week. There is something to be said about routine. Summers are wonderful and chaotic in a good way, but just getting back into the rhythm of school, little league practice, piano lessons, homework has a nice ebb and flow like the ocean tides. School for us also means the start of our annual tradition of losing sweatshirts, baseball caps, lunch boxes, backpacks, library books, just about anything that is, as the saying goes, not physically grown on the child. Thankfully, our elementary school has a lost and found "cart" right at the front of the school. I have begun to call it our kids "other" closet. We go by it every morning to pick up the previous day's lost sweatshirt, hat, .....You have to love the mind of a young boy. They see something fun to do and all responsibility instantly leaves their head. Anything that is not attached is left at the playground, on the lunch bench, in the school bathroom, and at the many friend's houses. I threatened one of the boys that if he loses on more sweatshirt, I would buy him a pink one with big flowers on it, and I would make him wear it until he found his other one. So far, it has been two days and he has misplaced only one sweatshirt, but he knows where it is.

It's late and I need to get some sleep, but did I say how much I love being back home? The boys are great and even though I rant and rave sometimes, my wife and I feel so blessed to be the parents of four great boys.

Ciao!