Good Morning, Campers!

It's that time of year again - time for us all to question my Mom's sanity as she embarks on a camping trip with 8 of her 9 grandkids. E1 is the oldest at age 11, nephew D is the youngest at age 4. I enjoy sharing this information with people just to see their astonished reactions.

In their absence, I've got one closet cleaned and another to go...but can't work up the motivation because I'm in the midst of a migraine. There has got to be a connection between my scheduled free time and my migraines...they can't all just arrive ill-timed by happenstance, right? It needs to go away by tonight because we've got plans to see Harry Potter and it will be ever so much more enjoyable without a stabbing pain in my head. Hear that, migraine? ctrl+x already.

School supplies have been purchased, registration is next week; E3 begins Kindergarten this fall. No, I still don't have a good answer for the frillion million dollar question, "What are you going to DO with all of them in school?" I still, naively perhaps, hope to do some major de-cluttering and housecleaning. A little June Cleaver? Maybe, but I can only imagine that it will be immensely easier to unload some junk and forgotten things without a chorus of, "BUT I WANT TO KEEP THAT! I LOVE IT!" I want to be able to go on the many field trips that our Kg classes seem to have - everything from the post office to the St. Louis Arch - and to volunteer in the Kg classroom like I did with the other two girls...and I may add in the role of lunch room helper for E3's Kg class, at least until I feel like they've got a handle on things with her peanut allergy, and then there's the school library and all the help it desperately needs...I only got the majority of the junior fiction labeled with call letters (on the book and in the computer system) last year and there are a lot more books to go...and of course there's always that last wish for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace...maybe I'm going to become Steve Martin now that all my kids are in school.

I've been working with our Superintendent to determine what the school's peanut policy will be. We've discovered Sunbutter, and there's a good chance they'll be offering it in the cafeteria instead of peanut butter. The Super has seemed eager to go 'peanut-free', but E3's allergist is not in favor of that - sets up a false reality, etc. BUT- one of the Mom's at E3's gym class is working on a research paper about peanut allergies and school policies (the coincidence!) and said one of the schools she interviewed said they have a 'peanut controlled' lunch room. They don't offer peanut products and if kids choose to bring in something with peanuts the have to sit at the peanut table...the theory being that it's easier to control the peanuts if they know where they are and who is eating them. I like it. We'll see what the school board thinks, I guess. So maybe my last wish will be for all the children of the world to join hands AFTER THEY'VE WASHED THE PEANUT BUTTER FROM THEIR HANDS and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.