Dry Cleaner Eyebrows

We have completed our first full week of everyone in school.  I had 4 days of 2 1/2 hours to myself Mon.-Thurs. this week.  It was glorious.  I determined ahead of time that I was not going to do any work during that time for the first week.  Rick said, "Why just the first week?"  Well, honey, since you put it that way, maybe I will extend my time.  We'll see.  I do have some goals for this time throughout the year.  

~I want to use one of those days each week to do a project around the house.  I figure if I consistently do this, I can tackle out some big areas of our house that have needed attention.  I don't know about you, but these things eat away at me, but I feel so overwhelmed with the daily tasks that I feel I can never get around to them. 

~I want to use one day a week to do some make-ahead meals.  I plan to take a day to make breakfast foods, main items for our family meals, gluten free baking, and revive my regular bread making.  Having things prepared and ready to pull out from the freezer really eases my daily stress.

~The other two days, I hope to have some time with friends and some extended quiet time and time for reading.  

I just downloaded these cute photos from Laila's first day of school.  I had to share them:

She was so adorable that first day.

I calculated her "20 hundred seconds" and it is actually 3 1/2 hours.  So she wasn't too far of when she said that school lasts 20 hundred seconds!  She is a math genius already!

 washing her hands in the classroom

I had quite the adventures during my first week "me time."

On the first day, I headed straight to the mall.

I really can't remember the last time I went to the mall, much less alone. 

I didn't need a stroller or have to keep up with kids.  

I was able to take my time and browse. 

 I had a coupon for FREE Chick-fil-a

 I walked around and smelled all the yummy scents!

I had some coupons and ended up get a few hand soaps that we needed.

I even left with a FREE lotion!

I even had a coupon for FREE underwear!

I couldn't resist splurging a bit with my favorite, a French Silk Pie Blizzard

Earlier this year, I purchased an online deal for eyebrow threading.  I was excited to try it out after my time at the mall.  I didn't know where this place was, and when I pulled up to the address, this is what i saw:

 I was thinking, "what in the world."  I had trouble scheduling the appt.  The phone number seemed to be someone's private cell number.  I was suspicious leading up to it, but now I was just plain confused. As I got out of my truck, I thought, "well, at least they will grow back."  As I walked towards the door, a woman came out to meet me and led me to a room off the side of the building.  When I walked inside, I felt like I was in a another country.  There was a chair and a light.  She told me to sit down.  She grabbed her thread and started going all Edward Scissorhands on me.  It was amazing and frightening all at the same time.  She ended by doing a little trimming with some scissors.  The whole thing took all of 2 minutes.  I sat up and was amazed.  I love it!!  I will totally do it again.  I have even had a few people who didn't know about it comment on how great my eyebrows look.  This is the best pic I could take on my own:

 Man, my nose looks huge in this picture!!  

The rest of my week was spent reading, having quiet time, eating relaxing lunches while watching some TV, doing some blog reading, and running some "fun" errands.  I will say that first day seemed really long and each day after, the time felt shorter and shorter.  It goes pretty fast.  Once it ends, I begin a 5 hour marathon that includes picking kids up from 3 schools, delivering kids to sports and other activities, feeding everyone dinner, checking homework, and getting everyone to bed.  It is nonstop.  I am really thankful to have the time in the afternoon to reenergize before the chaos sets in.

Isaiah's first 2 weeks of school have been pretty good.  He did get in trouble on the second day.  I really hoped we could make it through a whole week before we had issues.  Evidently, they were unable to have recess so he decided he was just going to shut down and not participate anymore.  Lovely.

It is interesting to me that every day when I asked what he learned at school he always says things like, "I learned not to punch people," I learned not to stomp on people's feet," or, my favorite, "I learned not to yell in the classroom."  I guess he is testing his boundaries to see what he can get away with.  It should be an interesting year.  As I said earlier, many prayers are going up for his teacher.  She has 10 boys in her classroom.

We found this jiggler mold at Walmart this week.  The kids have love their Phineas and Ferb jigglers: