I have a cold, my dishwasher is broken again, I’ve spent much of this morning trying to outwit an escaped guinea pig, it feels like 100 degrees outside… but life is glorious because SCHOOL.

Our last week of summer was nice. The boys went to camp at school for 3 days. We had some cooler weather. Friday, we went down the Shore for one last beach day with my friends and their kids. Lots of fun and the kids played together great 🙂 At dinnertime we drove up Ocean Drive from Sea Isle to Ocean City and made a last pilgrimage for Mack and Manco’s pizza. Seriously, we got it, ate it, got back in the car and left.

Summer’s in the rearview mirror.

Over “Laundry Day Weekend,” I did a lot of that, plus a lot of dishes, due to the aforementioned dishwasher failure. School started Tuesday and it’s just been go go go. Soccer is ramping up, and all three kids have games this weekend. The kids, especially the younger two, are a little cranky. I feel for them. It’s hard to go back. Gemma pitched a fit last night about going to her first soccer practice. “It’s just practice, you’ll just be learning some stuff.” “I DON’T WANT TO LEARN ANYTHING ELSE!!!” But once she got her gear on, she became excited and it was no problem.

I’ve been taking it easy, with being sick. Like actually watching TV during the day, which I never do. We have had two days of lunches so far, and I was just tossing in juice boxes and plastic bags left and right. My whole drawer of reusable containers needs to be revamped and organized. The tomatoes have mostly been going in the freezer whole. I had to put off food shopping til Wednesday, and everyone was rioting. Ran out of bread, milk, everything. We had Thai food Sunday night, stretched it into Monday, and ordered pizza Wednesday night. Hopefully next week will be better (or not, because there’s all this PTA stuff).

I’ve been trying to think about what I can do now for next year’s garden, as far as making new beds. But the weather and my cold are not cooperating. I have a few ideas. Also got an email today that my garlic bulbs are on the way.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I needed new clothes. Last week, I poked around our local resale shop, Frugal, one day, but didn’t find anything. I didn’t have time to make it over to Goodwill. I investigated some fair trade-type sites including Fair Indigo, but balked at the prices. Ultimately, I ordered some shirts, shorts and pants from Eddie Bauer. Sorry not sorry, because I really like everything I got, some of it was on sale, and I used eBates as well. Eddie Bauer does have some standards and practices in place for labor in their factories, at least.

I did manage to get some clothes for Gemma at the Nesting House last week, for fall. I also went through her closet yesterday and now have some good items to trade in to them.

And, after a weird incident a few weeks ago where my Wawa latte seemed to be spiked with chemicals or something (two sips made me quite ill), I have sworn them off and am trying to do either no coffee, or smaller, lower-calorie coffee drinks. This promises to be better for my weight and my wallet.

The guinea pig is out again, so that’s all for now.