Busy

I haven't posted anything to this blog in almost a week, but that's because it's been INCREDIBLY busy in my family's lives lately. Here's what's going on:

• School started yesterday for the students in my school district. I've written before about how stressful and busy this time is.
• In addition, Lisa began her long term teaching job at Notre Dame High School this week, so she's gone all day. Her first day with students is TODAY. 
• The girls, though, haven't started back to school yet (Fun! Fun! Fun! Now we have THREE different school calendars to shuffle around!), so they've been staying home alone each day this week, and I've been checking on them throughout the day and coming home at lunch to be with them. They start school tomorrow.
• And if that weren't enough, we also have a contractor who has been working all week to replace the retaining walls in front of our house (You can see the old retaining walls lining the driveway in this photo.) So the poor girls, in addition to being home alone, have had to deal with banging and pounding all day long.
• Finally, Meredith continues to have band practice in the evenings from 5 to 8:30, meaning that we have to eat by 4:40 or so each evening. Coming home from work at 4 and trying to have a meal ready by 4:40 has been challenging, to say the least. 

So we've been busy...