Chaos returns

Today was the first day of the second week of school. I was so excited (so were my kids) last week when Monday morning dawned. They were all up early and ready to go by 7am,even Tanner who insisted on having a water bottle and snack in his backpack. We pulled out the camera and documented their return trek to Lagos. It is a new camera because the old one died(of course the kids played with the old camera and got it to work two days later, so now we have two). I was a little nervous that Heidi would play shy and not want to go. I was wrong. She was the first one in and didn't look back. All those fuzzy warm feelings about your babies growing up were hampered by the fact that I was tired from getting up too early I had to run all the errands I had put off for the past two weeks (like grocery shopping) and then Tanner refused to take a nap. When the kids hit the door at 2:45 is when the real reality of back to school hit. My kids had been cooped up in a classroom all day and all that pent up energy exploded in my house like an atomic bomb. And that is what it has been like every day after school. Running, teasing, yelling, jumping, climbing, barbaric yawps, ignoring me when I ask them to perform routine chores, forgetting all manners, demanding, whining, tears over homework, teasing some more. Goths, Vandals, Visigoths. By the time Reed comes home I am on my last thread of sanity. He thinks the whole scene is fun to sit back and take in. He commented on Friday morning that I was not dealing well with the kids. I concurred. I was really glad I got to go to work on Friday. I am hoping that as the routine sinks in the chaos will subside. I am not getting my hopes up.