Back to School Rules!

So, school starts in about two weeks and I couldn't be happier! Back to 8:00 bed times, mandatory baths every night, no tv watching in bed, and best of all the constant sounds of fighting, screaming, and whining are significantly reduced for seven hours a day! The school year has it's faults too like, homework, sports practices, pta meetings, and the 3,000 fund raisers that you must participate in but I would gladly do all that and more to be able to enjoy the peace and quiet for a few hours each day while Maizy takes a nap. I'm not saying that I don't love spending time with my girls, but when they get bored their horns come out, and with all that goes on during the school year, there is no time for that. Well this year I decided to start early on all of the back to school necessities. The girls got cool haircuts, new shoes, a new wardrobe, backpack, etc. But I had no idea how much I would come to HATE getting the school supplies. The list was basic enough. Markers, scissors, crayons, glue, folders, and other school related things. So, I decided to go to Walmart on a weekday, mid-afternoon. I figured there wouldn't be anybody there getting school supplies at that time three weeks early, but I was so wrong. First of all, Walmart frustrates me even if I'm just running in really quick for diapers. I mean, they have like thirty registers but they only open four and the express line people always have more than twenty items but they never get told to move to another line! Anyway, I usually go to Target, but I had groceries on my list too, so I figured I would conquer Walmart. Well I left the big girls at grandma's house because they hate shopping but Maizy wouldn't leave my side so she got to go with me. Now, I love Maizy with all my heart, but she is a little devil most of the time. She hates sitting, shopping, being quiet, being still, pretty much everything I needed her to do that day. Well, we get to Walmart, in the 108 degree heat, and head straight to the school supplies. I can't even get my buggy down the first isle because there are fifty people standing there arguing with their kids about which folder to get. We've literally been there five minutes and Maizy is already standing up in the baby seat trying to climb out and I am already sweating. So, I pull out my list and try to make it around the crowd to the folders. They each need two folders with prongs. That's easy enough except all I see are folders without prongs. Ok, we'll come back to that. Next thing, glue. They each need one 8oz. bottle of glue, well they only have 4oz. Next. They each need four spiral notebooks, 1 yellow, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 green. Really?! So, I dig through the the stack for ten minutes until I find eight spiral notebooks in corresponding colors. Check. At this point, I have already opened a bag of m&m's and given the whole thing to Maizy to keep her quiet and she is steadily dropping them two by two on the floor and screaming "oh oh!" at the top of her lungs each time one hits the ground. It's this early in the trip and I already had to pull out my candy reserves, this can't be good. So, I continue on with my list and I actually find the markers, manilla paper, and glue sticks. The list says they need 16 count crayons, but the girls will be using 24 count because that's what I found! I got the sandwich bags, hand sanitizer, four boxes of Kleenex, and a supply box for each of them. I managed to get everything on the list except one thing! My things may differ slightly like the 8oz. glue was replaced by two 4oz. glues, but at that point I really didn't care anymore. I had run over a man's foot with my buggy, knocked a display of supply boxes down, and Maizy was covered in chocolate from head to toe. We got our groceries and $100 later, we had our school supplies and we were headed home. I was feeling pretty good knowing that I was done. Then when we all got home, the girls wanted to see everything I had bought. Instead of "Wow mom, you're the best!" I got, "Why did you get me an orange folder?" and "I wanted a pink supply box, not blue!" and I had to listen to Maizy's screaming fit for half an hour because I wouldn't let her open the markers. When you are a stay at home mom, your family and your home are your work, so when you feel proud for accomplishing something, it's usually something small like, buying school supplies or getting the sheets changed on the top bunk bed (which is SO much harder than it looks) or actually having all of your laundry done. It's not things like, promotions, or raises, and it's usually short lived because in ten minutes when Maizy eats an oreo cookie I'll have more laundry and Avery will probably have a nose bleed on those clean sheets tonight and God forbid I did not get the pink supply box, but for a minute when I left Walmart, I was super mom and that will at least get me through til' bed time!! Moms are AWESOME and hooray for school!!!!! Oh, and m&m's too! :)