Back in the Saddle Again

We've been home for more than a week, and it has been harder than I expected to get myself together here at home.  I really should include a picture of my bedroom here.  It seriously could be a good candidate for the Hoarders TV show.  We, no kidding, now have narrow paths leading to various spots in the bedroom.  I can barely see any carpet because of the mountains of things littering the floor.  There is all of our unpacked baggage from China, clothes that are dirty, clothes that are clean, discarded take-out containers, and on and on.  My little pug is even afraid to venture in here.  My kitchen is not much better.  Despite doing as little cooking as possible in the past week and using lots and lots of disposable containers (don't judge me too harshly) the kitchen looks like a nuclear disaster zone -- definitely a rubber gloves zone.  And I could go on an on.  The house is a disaster.  I have a month's worth of mail to go through.  I need to update all of our financial records.  I need to upload all of our trip pictures.  I need to get Christmas cards ready to send out.  Argggggggggh! 

Okay, time to breathe.  It'll be fine.  This jet lag from the return trip is a killer.  I'm sure glad that we had Thanksgiving break at least to give us a bit of a breather before we had to head back out into the world, but I am still suffering extreme fatigue from the whole trip.  I go to sleep at 8 pm each night and wake up around 3 am each morning.  Then I spend the  entire day either fighting fatigue or taking quick half hour naps every couple of hours or so.  It isn't exactly a schedule that is conducive to getting a lot done. 

Yesterday, despite the mountain of a mess that sits in this house Herman and I decided that we needed to take a quick trip to St. Louis to go to the temple.  I really, really didn't feel like going.  I was convinced that I would fall asleep during the session or spend my entire time worrying about everything waiting at home that I should be doing.  But as is often the case, when I don't feel like getting out and going, that is when I most need to go.  So we left super early and got there for the first session, and we were able to get back home in time to pick everyone up from school.  So it was a nice quick trip.  I won't exactly say that I got a good dose of relaxation while I was there, but I did feel like I got grounded, and that is what I really needed.  I just need to recalibrate a bit and start fresh.  So that is what I'm ready to do today.

The kids have been in school for the past two days, and all of them were able to re-enter school without any problems at all.  Everyone had been dropped but Savannah, and she was the one I worried a bit about since she was required to do all the work she had missed, but she found that she had actually been given more homework during our trip than her classes were able to cover while she was gone.  So she's a bit ahead.  The rest of the kids do well enough in school that they were able to jump right in and catch up without problems.  Hurray!

As for Minsy, she is doing wonderfully!  I'm going to devote a whole post to her in the next week or so when I have more time to sit and really try to articulate what a wonder she is.  But she has entered her family as if she was always meant to be here -- and to be honest, I know that she really was meant to be here all along.  It has been a bit of a transition just getting used to having a younger child in the home again -- worrying about crayons on the wall and spilled cereal in the living room.  But I can handle that.  She's a gem for sure!

Now I'm off to tackle the disaster that is my home.  I'm just going to have to take the FlyLady approach today.  This mess didn't get made in a day, and it isn't going to clean up in a day either.  I'll just keep smiling.  It'll get done.  I'm sure I'll need to take a few breaks during the day to add a couple of posts that I have floating in my head, so keep reading.