6:45 I wake up early and exhausted. I had trouble falling asleep and didn't sleep well. And no wonder. There's the David starting kindergarten thing, which is going extremely well, but still strange and full of worries. And there's my three possible jobs. You heard me, three. I spent most of the night designing a workshop for nursing students who need writing help and figuring out what I'm going to say to the parents of an incoming college student with learning disabilities who wants to hire a writing tutor for the next four years.

7:30 The breakfast and lunch making go smoothly, possibly because John does most of it. We split the lunch bag duties for Rose last year. Adding David's into the mix doesn't seem to be adding a whole lot more work. This is amazing because one of the fights we were sure we were going to have was: what are you having for lunch? That fight where he couldn't decide and changed his mind and complained that he only wanted hot food. The fight we've had on and off for the past two years. A few days ago we made a list of what he'd be willing to eat in his lunch and told him we'd be picking from the list. You're dying to know what's on it, right?

quesadillas
fritos and cheddar cheese
bread, salami, and muenster cheese
nutella and bread

And then we didn't have any muenster, and he accepted mozzarella as a substitute. While we are on the food subject, he's doing a great job eating his lunch. Rose is a rule abider, so we knew she'd eat her grow food. But we had been warned that most kids skip their lunch in an attempt to get to recess faster. It's true yesterday David skipped his raisins, fruit leather, and oreo, but he ate the protein, and we are grateful.

8:00 David asks me to play Whiz War with him. I don't like Whiz War. I can never remember the rules or the strategy, but I say yes and am very pleasant about it. Why not? I'm only on duty another 1.5 hours.

9:00 The whole family joins Julia and family and five other families and we walk to school. It is really cool to see all these kids and parents walking down the street. David wants to hold hands, but otherwise, he's completely cheerful. You all probably don't remember the hell that was getting Rose to school in K. She would play all these mind games: you're walking too slow! you're walking too fast! you let Miriam walk in front of me! She was always one whine away from a full out melt down. David is a different kid, and he has five years experience on this route. Next week John and I are probably going to an alternating schedule, and I score another 2 hours for my week. Whoohoo!

9:30 It's Fluency Friday where the parents are invited in to read to the kids for the first half hour. This will probably be one of the many volunteer projects I do for the school. I'm going to try to do things I enjoy like reading and teaching poetry or dressing up as the Bagley Bee. I find a pillow by the gorgeous bay window. David and three other kids join me, and I read and read and read. It's amazing how many picture books you can cover in half an hour.

10:30 I drive to the library to return the three bags of books we have accumulated. I'm used to going to the library three times a week, with David of course. I feel a little like I'm missing a limb but also happy to get in and out quickly.

10:45 I avoid writing poetry by writing this.

11:00 I write poetry. It's a bit of a struggle. My creater tries to get to work, and the room is packed and noisy. My critic says, "That's crap." My book organizer suggests the poem I haven't written yet come after this other one I haven't written yet. My researcher wants to jump up and check the Mishnah quote, and my publicist is ready to send it out. However, a few words get on the page.

12:15 John and I have lunch together. This is weird. It's like a flashback to 10 years ago. For eleven years we had pretty much the same pattern in the summers--both of us working at home and then hanging out a bit at lunch and reading our books. Then kids came and kaboom to that life. It's mostly weird how normal it feels. Of course, when John starts teaching again, I will be home alone with no teaching job to run off to. That will definitely be different.

12:45 I take a nap. Oh, I'm so grateful I was able to sleep. I've been taking naps every day for the last five years. But the last two days I haven't been able to sleep--too keyed up. I'm hoping that if I go to bed at a decent hour (ha!), I may not need a nap what with caring for myself alone being a lot less exhausting than caring for a kid.

1:15 I do a little house business. I'm trying to mostly not do any today because it feels like in general chores, errands, email etc. could just eat up all my writing time.

2:45 I've been writing for an hour. I'm cooking with fire. The angels are speaking to me, and the phone rings. It's the school. David fell off the rings. He got hurt. It didn't look that bad, but he won't stop crying. Perhaps it's just because he's so tired, but I should get him. Yet another reason to work from home.

3:00 He's fine. In fact, he refuses to leave his classroom. They are watching a Bearnstein Bears video about manners after all. Who would want to miss that? I help set up the classroom and then hang out outside schmoozing with all my peeps. We keep hanging out with the kids. This is just like always. Back in my normal groove.

4:30 We go home and bring 5 children with us. There is a lot of yelling and door slamming and water fights. Back in my normal groove.

5:30 We kick all the extra kids out and have dinner. I am exhausted. After dinner David and John play Whiz War. Rose and I play Professor Noggin's Human Body, and I clean out the art box. The kids discover things in the art box they've forgotten to play with and start coloring. I go hang out on the computer.

7:20 David gives himself a bath. Have I mentioned that in the last three months, David has gotten completely competent at setting the water temperature and bathing himself? I spend an hour working on poetry. Stopping in the middle of a project is a Hemingway trick. It makes it very easy to have something to jump in to.

8:50 David fell asleep at 8:15. I put Rose to bed. She wants to keep reading From the Mixed Up Files, one of my favorite books. John and I eat popcorn and watch some cool Daniel Craig mystery set in Moscow.

10:30 I will be in bed.