Ch-ch-ch-changes

In two weeks I will be officially unemployed. No work, no paycheck, no identity outside of Mommy. I am PETRIFIED! Never before, since I was 14 years old, have I been unemployed willfully. It's not really the fact that I won't be working that scares me, I kind of like the idea of setting my own schedule and being accountable to only myself. What worries me is that I will be all alone in this new job, stay-at-home Mom. Parenting is the toughest thing I have ever done and now I will going it alone for the most part. Oh yeah, Chris is still here, don't think I am counting him out, but he leaves for work at 4 am and gets home at dinner time. Bless his heart, he works so hard to take care of all of us. But the day-to-day work in the trenches will be mine alone. Kaytee is off to college (still choke up every time I even THINK about that)

I met with people from the school on Friday to get Ahren and Seth officially registered for the pre-k program. I had finally gotten the official 'they qualify' call on Thursday so I wasted no time in getting them registered. Of course, it couldn't go smoothly. The principal questioned whether they really qualify and wanted to see some official paperwork on them. Well, heck, it has taken me 6 months of hard work to get to this point and all I have is verbal approval. So they put in a call to the head honchos (who I had talked to the day before and who had ASSURED me they qualified and told me all I had to do was go enroll them and tell them she said so....) Of course they couldn't get her on the phone, so we are still in limbo.

Then, if they do get to go, we won't know if they go mornings or afternoons until meet-the-teacher night Aug. 19th. Then there is the stupid bus schedule. If they go mornings, I will drop them off early at Levi's school (30 min before Levi can be dropped off) where they will be fed breakfast, then bused to their school. Then at lunch time they would be bused back to our house. But, if they are in the afternoon class, they get picked up from our house and taken to their school and then after school bused to Levi's school where I could pick them up or they get put on another bus and dropped at the end of our road 1.2 miles away from our house. If they go to Levi's school they will arrive 30 minutes after Levi gets out. Not sure how this will all work out. My guess, given my luck, is one kid will be in the morning class and one in the afternoon and I will be insane trying to get three kids on three different schedules to 2 different schools every day.

So people (men and women) who stay home, what are your tricks? How do I keep my sanity and still keep all the balls in the air? Can 4 year olds really ride a bus and end up in the right place or are my babies going to get lost? What in the world do I do while I am home alone? (The last time I was home alone I was pregnant with Levi and on bed rest. ) Any tips? Trade secrets? Sage advice????