And Now for Something Completely Different

You know, I've been thinking that it would be great if I had a place to record my thoughts, do some writing about my daily life, find some way to reach out to my friends with whom I don't chat with as much as I'd like. I've been hearing about some new-fangled web thingy called a blog. Thought I'd look into that...

Yeah. So. Right....

I'll do better now that I am unearthing from the summer. I promise.

School starts for the Pickle next week. The Staples commercial from a few years back is running through my head. You know the one- "It's the most wonderful time of the year" is playing and the dad dances with his shopping cart while collecting school supplies for the sullen children following behind. We are all VERY ready for school to begin.

And the Pepper begins daycare, but not until October. For those of you who don't live in the world of daycare, you are blissfully unaware that being under two years old is the kiss of death for daycare. It is the stuff of which nightmares are made. In Maryland at least, the ratio of caregivers to children under two is 1:2 where children over two is a 1:6 ratio. Which means there are substantially less childcare options if you are under 2. We have a lovely daycare lined up for Pepper but unfortunately, we've got six weeks starting from when we need it before she can actually attend. It's a nightmare. No one wants to babysit part-time short-term, not that I blame them and a nanny service is waaaaay out of our budget. So we piece together days- Land Baron is going to work evenings and Saturdays and handle the morning shift - I'll take over the afternoons and on Sundays we'll be able to spend time together as one family. Six weeks....

This October thing also means that Pepper can't start school for an extra year. In some ways this is good because she'll get to be the oldest in her class- a role she'll never play in the family. But it is daunting for me to think that she still has two years before preschool starts.

I have to be very careful with this whole "Back To School" season. I'm addicted to office supplies, much like any writer, and the potential of going to staples and dropping three hundred dollars on pens and notebooks and pencils and cases and sharpeners, well, I'm salivating at the thought of it. If we need anything there this week, I should probably send the Land Baron to go pick it up.

I know, I have a problem....