oh, blog.  how I have neglected you... :)can you tell that the summer is over and we are now back to school?!I shed a tear today.yup, my kids are 9 and almost 8...I should be used to this back to school thing, right?nope...at least not for a good solid hour after dropping them off.let me explain my ridiculousness...you see, I LOVE routine and schedules...I love shiny new school supplies, the smell of fresh crayons...the ice white new shoes...wonderful!but while I love the new-ness of back to school...my heart squeezes just a smidge and wants to stay just one more week in the summer.why?!because I genuinely LIKE my kids!they're funny, they're sweet, they're goofy and they're my friends...I just like hanging with them and the noise (for the most part) that they make filling our house throughout the summer.so today, after matt and I dropped them off at the first day of their classes...I shed a little tear for them.were they sad...nope, not even a glistening eye for their mom...I thought at least I have an over the shoulder look from mad...but nope.  nada. :)sigh.moving on...:)  fall = organization.I am determined to do this "mom thing" better.I am determined to NOT be the mom who forgets homework...the mom who hasn't brushed her daughter's hair in so long that dread locks are growing...to pay attention on a regular basis to how long my son's fingernails are...to get up and actually make them nutritious breakfast's and lunchesand yes, even tuck notes into their lunch boxes!how will I achieve this most amazing task?o.r.g.a.n.i.z.a.t.i.o.n.my good friend faith said to me once:"failing to plan, is planning to fail."and every fall I come back to that statement and resolve to do just a smidge better.so here goes...who doesn't love a good check mark on their to-do list...or even better yet a gold star?!me and my gold star loving kids! :)we now have a "chore chart" in place!m+m are responsible, every day, to make sure they have:their backpacks in their special basket,their lunchboxes emptied and in their special basket,all the papers put in the school paper box that I go through and see what's important (we might have a lot of recycled paper this year...I cannot understand why schools go through SO much paper!)teeth/faces/hands washed and groomed each night,clothes laid out by their dressers(super good for mad, she takes FOREVER if I let her choose in the a.m.)playroom cleaned and toys put away,and jammies on their bodies.if they do all these things every night before they go to bed...they get a special something on fun friday!and yes, I realize that technically this is not ME who is doing the better mommy things...but baby steps people...being a good mommy is sometimes directing traffic - so this is me "helping" my kids. :)what's that you say? why yes, I would like that "mommy of the year" award now. ;)that's it so far for my organizational abilites...but more is to come...and I'm proud to say that we made it through day one with no dread locks and claw fingernails + gold stars for everyone! :)next up to conquer?  healthy lunches...maybe if I was a super-cool mom I'd make these for their lunches...again, sigh.yeah...most likely not gonna happen :)