Self-sufficient snapshot.

I love my kids. I love that I can sleep in in the mornings if I want, and they get themselves breakfast, get ready for school, make their own lunches... (granted, I think that candy ends up in their lunches more often than not) and most of the time they even get their beds made without me asking. All I have to do when I get up is clean up after them, remind A to take her pill, and motivate J to get dressed and stop TALKING SO LOUDLY, holy cow. (N sometimes asks if he's hard of hearing, lol.) and then we're off to the bus stop.
99% of the time, the girls are done with homework before they get off the bus, so I rarely even look at their folders unless something needs to be signed. Their homework, and their work at school, is truly their own, and I've got nothing to do with whatever grades they get. They do dang well, considering. J and I have gotten into a rhythm with his homework too, and he knows the routine of sitting at the counter and sounding out all the words in his books. Darn those "b"s and "d"s and "g"s... they are confusing, and he has to think hard to recognize the differences. He's almost got the sight word "the" down... sheesh, I didn't realize reading was so hard. He's started to think about being gone from me at kindergarten. Yesterday he asked what my phone number was, in case he got separated from his teacher at school and he needed to call me. We worked on the phone number song a bit, but then he thought a bit more and said, wait, I need a phone too, mom, so I can call you! He's awesome. Funny.
Chores are hit and miss around here, the dishwasher and laundry are daily struggles. Sometimes the dishes are no problem for the girls, but there are a lot of times I don't want to wait for the kitchen to be clean so I end up doing their jobs myself. And I'm never patient enough to wait for J to get motivated to do his chores... but I'm hoping that will change eventually.
It's nice that the girls have been babysitting... they don't mind it at all anymore, and I'd rather pay them any day than pay a babysitter. Last night I needed to return books to the library and no one wanted to go with me, so I left the three of them alone... they actually all took baths and had jammies on by the time I got home 20 minutes later. Pretty good! Except that because they're so independent, sometimes, I miss them.