How to stay sane...

When your house goes from only you to 4 people overnight!

My lovely brothers and sister have come for a visit... Taylor, Rhys and Aaron are all here for the week. This is fabulous and so what I need and I like to think also what they need. The thing is, my schedule hasn't changed - it is still the middle of the summer with a full week of programming with 110 people on site ahead of me. The other things is - I'm still tired with no solid sleep time in sight. And we have a wedding this weekend in Vernon for a cousin (yay!) followed quickly by the start of our final week of programming! The season is full right now.

I'm grateful for the energy my brothers and sisters bring with them and the way they are able to be both mature and fun at the same time. We hit a few road blocks once in a while (getting up in the morning - eek!). So in preparation for their arrivial I tried as hard as I could to make sure that things were as organized as possible. Here are a few of the ways I attempted to do just that:

- We're all eating meals in the dining room on site, this is great because it means no food preparations, cooking and clean-up for me. But kids still want to eat snacks! On my counter is a container of all the "odds and ends" from my cupboard that they can enjoy at any time, including: trail mix, crackers, rice cakes, rye crackers, peanut butter, nutella, granola bars, etc... And in my fridge: pickles, pepperoni sticks, cheese sticks and sliced watermelon. And they grab something when they need it.

- A laundry basket is in a central location for all dirty clothes... once this basket is full laundry must be done ASAP!

- They are all registered in programming at Sorrento Centre. Why?! Because otherwise they'd be inside all day while I'm working and they'd end up so bored. I'm hoping for a flexible enough schedule that I'll be able to spend chunks of time with them in the afternoons. But if I can't, they are old enough to go to the beach (lifeguards on duty) and play around site without me.

- I'm aiming for a 10:30pm bedtime - earlier if possible! This means technology off, lights out and heads on pillows! The kids arrived at my house with their summer sleep schedule... stay up all night and sleep all morning/afternoon. Well, let's just say breakfast is served at 7:30am these days!!! So an early bedtime is a must! (If not for them... then for me!)

- I've entered into the week thinking about fun and flexibility. We all need to have fun but we also need to all be able to live with some flexibility. On my end (that work project CAN wait until a different time) and on their end (oh, Melissa needs to ditch basketball for a few moments and go help someone at the office).

It's already off to being a great week and we're having a great time together!