Datebook insanity

It's insane. That's just all there is to it.

This is just a snippet of what I'm dealing with this week - and I've already added 3 more things that I need to do tomorrow since I took the picture 5 minutes ago.

As much as I am ready for school to start and for us all to get back into a routine, I can feel the stress building already.

~Trying to coordinate with Ex1 to get the older 3 kids everywhere that they need to go (remember, they don't go to school in this district - they go to another one that's 13 miles away).

~Coordinating everything with getting Alex and Daniel to school (luckily, only 3/4 of a mile away) especially for the first 6 weeks when Daniel only goes half days.

~Keeping track of The Dude's work schedule so that I can get him back and forth to there.

~Parent/teacher conferences and open houses at schools this week.

~A birthday party/sleepover to get one kid to on Friday night and back from on Saturday morning.

~Haircuts for the older 3 on Saturday.

~The Dude has a playdate (*snicker*) with his best friend on Saturday, so I have to get him there too.

This doesn't even include all of the "normal" stuff that I have to do - the laundry and the cleaning and the cooking and the canning....and stuff that I want to do, like sewing and reorganizing some things in the house to make room for the canned stuff until it sells. And I have a million ideas running through my head of things that I can make and sell to make more money to try to get more added into the Transmission Fund so that I can hopefully get my van back and give The Dude's van back to him to cut down on the chaos.

Seriously, I feel like I'm about to lose my mind. I hate not having my van. I hate that The Dude is without wheels because MINE broke. I hate that we don't have the money to get it fixed right away and I hate that the kids are having to deal with my anxiety and stress as we try to get through all of this BS.

But, at the same time....I am so beyond thankful that we have a vehicle to use. It might not be the *cough* best vehicle, but it runs *knock on wood*. I am thankful that most of the things that we need to do are here in town, so even though we are running around constantly, at least it's only for a few miles at a time (until school starts). I'm thankful that people have been so very kind and generous and have helped us out on our way to getting the new transmission. As of right now, we currently have $1046.65 out of the $2495.21 that we need to get it replaced, so we're about 42% of the way there. I am thankful that even though I've had to deal with a few haters, that the majority of people have been supportive - whether through a donation, spreading the word, or even just saying a prayer or a word of encouragement. It's nice to know that there are still kind people in the world, given the generally negative news that gets blasted to us from almost every media outlet today.

And with that, I am off on a scavenger hunt to find coupons for groceries - because that is officially the last thing on my list of things to do today, and I will get that done.