Back to School Week Day 4

Day 4 Tip:  Take a few minutes today to reassess and possibly re-organize your routine. Now you know what the first few days have been like so take a minute to look at your individual situation. Is everything working out? Do you need to adjust wake-up times, nap times, meal times or bedtimes? Were you missing some important school supplies? Have your meals been good and easy enough? Have you been having trouble keeping everything together with the new schedule? See what needs adjusting, and give yourself a little time at the end of the week to do just that. This might sound like common sense, but once we create schedules, it's sometimes hard to admit when they aren't working like we think they should. Just simply tweaking them, instead of throwing the whole thing out the window, is usually all that they need.
Case in point: We have had to make some minor changes this week. Due to road construction, we had to take the longer way to Stenni's preschool, and that takes a few more minutes than we had bargained for, so we adjusted our departure time just a little bit. Also, she's a really slow eater...like 45 minutes for a bowl of cereal slow, and forget real food, that takes forever. So in the future we will try to get up a few minutes earlier so no one feels super-rushed, and stick with less elaborate breakfasts.

Sorry that this post didn't actually make it up in time for the real Day 4 of Back to School Week. I was not feeling great and kind of dilly-dallying during the day. Then due to a crazy heavy rainstorm, we kept losing power at the house on and off. And when the power did come back? Sorry, I was following the story on the news about the Seaside Park boardwalk burning to the ground. My family vacations there every year, about half a block from the boardwalk. The news crews were actually filming from the parking lot next to the house we rent. It's so devastating to think that it's really all gone. Everything that was saved from the storm last year is now completely wiped out, and that includes so many landmarks from my childhood, and now Stenni's as well. It won't ever be the same. 8-9 blocks of boardwalk, as well as what was left of the pier, are just gone, taking over 50 businesses with them. Like Kupper's Fries. Like Berkeley Sweet Shop. Like Park Seafood. And saddest of all, like the carousel that my parents took me on, that Hubs and I take Stenni on, and that she had already planned to take Cuatro on. So just keep the people from Seaside Park and Seaside Heights in your thoughts and prayers. They've been through so much, and this is just adding insult to injury.

It might be a terrible-quality picture, but it's the last one I'll ever get of Stenni (and her Papa) on that carousel on the boardwalk in Seaside, and I'm so glad that I have it.