Its the most wonderful time . . .

of the year!!!! Kids headed back to school tomorrow and after a superbly shitty summer, I'm so ready for a fresh start. We had a great vacation in Telluride (partly because K was able to have a friend along so she was generally in a good mood, and partly because my awesome sister drove down to visit!!) but the rest of the summer was a haze of driving kids everywhere, leaving work early and getting in late, writing checks, having cash demanded from me, having kids over, having kids gone, etc etc etc. I seriously feel like I almost lost my mind, and I definitely lost my temper all over K on a multitude of occasions. And of course to top the final week off, during my national HR conference K had 2 sleepovers and a party, and J cut his finger while removing the tags from his school clothes, resulting in an evening spent at the ER and 5 stitches.

Anyway, my approach on dinner this year is ingenious if I do say so myself. I've created a menu of dinnes that I'm capable of making relatively easily. The kids will pick 3 dinners per week, and then when I go shopping I just make sure I purchase all the ingredients for the ones they've selected. It takes all the thinking out of it for me!! And the deal is that they HAVE to eat it, since they picked it. And, they have to work together and agree on the 3 they select.

So far so good. We had grilled salmon and fresh green beans tonight, chicken tacos tomorrow and bean burritos Tues. Wed they're at their dad's and Thurs has been christened "vending night" as J puts it, aka do-it-yourself night. And wouldn't you know, K is already complaining that I'm not making dinner on Thursdays. Ugh. Good times with teens.