Back to School Tomorrow

And already it's getting me down! I'm supposed to be writing about the big tattoo day, but until I can figure out how to do pictures in the blog properly I just don't want to.

I knwo that I'm not the only parent feeling the end of summer guilt - realising that all those 6 weeks(ish) of holidays have passed, and that I've done surprisingly little with my brood. It's not all my fault though, for too long they shared that awful cough, which stopped them from being able to go anywhere without unbearable whining. But I could have done more with them at home.
I had good intentions - we wrote out a great plan of action for the holidays, but somehow it never happened. I think I really need to try harder next time, drag them out even if one is vomiting, lol. I know they enjoyed themselves really, despite the shocking lack of sun, and despite our lack of money to be able to go anywhere nice.

I'm mixing this with another couple of issues, just to make me feel moodier - I'm good at that.
1) Uniform issues.
2) Social Life.

I've realised that actually, my children need a lot more uniform than I had bargained for. I've also come to the conclusion that I'm going to end up in debt buying the stuff as I'm not prepared. And I've realised that actually, I've left it far too late to buy any. Tesco have sold so much that they are already taking down their shelves to be replaced with Christmas stock. Asda is looking like a Primark from a dodgy area on a sale day - ie; clothes everywhere, out of packets and on the floor being stomped on, people barging and shoving, grabbing anything remotely the right colour, in the hope that it will be the right size.
I managed to get long socks and red shirts for Scarlett yesterday. That's as far as I got! Yesterday was supposed to be the bulk of uniforms so that I can concentrate on shoes today, lol.

But it doesn't matter anyway, I took everything out of drawers and made the children try them on, and between them Frazer and Scarlett need so much new uniform that shoes will be out of the question for now. The problem with that is that Scarlett's shoes do not fit AT ALL. I'm going to have to get her some cheap ones to tide her over until the child benefit comes in next week.
I'll be off to a shopping centre later today, praying that shoppers will be a little more well behaved than they are where I live, and thankful that Rowan has barely grown, and had to have all his uniform turned up last term anyway! I shall also be swearing, once more, that I shall be more organised next year....

And on to the social life. As I've mentioned before, it's been non-existent over the holidays. If it weren't for my children and the Internet, I might as well be a hermit on a remote island in the Pacific.
I've not been anywhere to see anyone local. There have been a couple of random meetings with online friends (that have become real life friends, I should add) but really nothing more than that. I've not taken the children to meet up with any of their friends, I've not had a phone call from anyone I know to even check on us, but then, I've not called out either. I suppose maybe we are all busy? I think I'm envious of the mums at the school again. As usual. I know (seen on facebook for one thing!) that they have been meeting up with each other, going places, each other's houses and stuff. I knwo that I was told before the holidays that I was welcome over with my lot, a couple of times before the holidays began, but it's hardly likely that I'm going to phone and ask if I can come over is it? I dunno - I'm just really quite crap at this socialising business.

I think going back to school tomorrow is compounding it all for me. I'll go in, pretending like we were only there last week. Smile and say hi, smile and say hi, etc. And ignore the conversations from everyone else of how they enjoyed meeting up on such a day, we'll have to continue it through the term at weekends, half term maybe. And asking what I've done, hearing about their holidays - Gods I'm just completely green-eyed here aren't I?!

Maybe I'll try to do my usual drop and dash with them. If it weren't for new classes and teachers, I'd be tempted to leave going in until the last minute too...