Slipping into routine

We didn't plunge into a fall routine around here this year. In fact, I'm still trying to tie up all the loose ends-- like chore charts and reward systems, labels on freshly purged and reorganized toys, final school supplies purchased, and some other odds and ends-- but we've slipped into Fall 2010, and it's been really beautiful.

I say "slipped," but I have to confess that I'm sure my family has felt on some days recently that it's not been so subtle and calm a transition. I have found myself in Organizational Mode at the most unexpected times. In past years , I have always planned my projects and fall cleaning, and the family has received due warning about when these activities will take place. This year? Well, it's happened rather randomly. I start with putting away the laundry and the next thing Daniel and the kids know, I'm swapping dressers and purging closets; I go to wrap a gift and end up overhauling all my gift wrapping supplies and how they're stored; I buy a bookshelf to make room for more books and school materials, and suddenly I'm rearranging entire rooms. Daniel can't find batteries or flashlights without getting directions from me, and the kids can't figure out where I moved their scrap paper and colored pencils and scissors to and, oops, I threw away every last crayon without meaning to when I decided that any broken ones would go in the trash (apparently, that was all of them).

In the midst of that, though, we've had totally normal days when I haven't gone haywire on everyone, and we've begun working our way through our school books, and the children have been learning new responsibilities around the house, and all this without actual weekly chore assignments getting nailed down or construction paper being bought or even having crayons on hand, for heaven's sake. I won't lie: I am looking forward to having those things in place, but we are managing just fine in the meantime and actually finding our groove.

And it's amazing to me that I really and truly am entering a season of motherhood when I don't have to provide all the physical energy and effort on behalf of my entire little brood for everything we do. I can get all weird about random cleaning and organizing and instead of the kids eating chalk or cutting each others' hair or dumping the entire box of Cheerios on the kitchen floor and stomping all over them while I do that, they play nicely. Even better? They help me! And not just in a "Oh that's cute, your toddler is following you around while you vacuum the house" kind of way. Like, they help in a "Gabriel, you dust and vacuum your bedroom and, Bronwyn, you fold the laundry and, Jackson, you watch Aubrey and Claire while I go crazy with my House Things" kind of way.