All Hell Broke Loose.........Again

I was thanking God for all the kids' teachers this year. We're having an outstanding start to the school year, partly because I'm home more, partly because the kids are maturing and mainly because there are wonderful adults who are instrumental in helping our kids develop their full potential. I not only survived conferences this year, but I came away with a sense of purpose and peace. Yes, the kids still have improvements to make but I feel like we're on the right track and the teachers are on that track with us.

The last conference was at 6pm tonight. Steve made it home just in time to jump in the van with me and drive over to Anthony's school. I had already fed the kids and left them home with Brittney and Gerald. Everyone had instructions for the evening. At the school, Steve and I met with Anthony's teacher and then chatted with Brit's cheer coach and quite a few other teachers and parents. By the time we left, we were in such a great mood that we decided to head to Qdoba's to grab something to eat. Steve wanted to stay there and eat but my mom-sense told me that we had already been gone over an hour so we probably needed to get back home. It was a good thing we did because from the moment we walked back in the door, we could tell that all hell had broken loose. We were home by 7:30pm. It was a mere hour and a half since we had left the house.

As we walked in, Brittney was screaming, Taylor was screaming, Anthony was sobbing, the dog was barking. I wasn't even sure where any of the other kids were. It took us just moments to realize that there had been lots of physical violence while we were gone. The first step was to get everyone separated and stop the escalation. It wasn't fun. I should be ecstatic that it's only taken us an hour to calm everyone down.

This is what happens when I get too cocky about how well everything is going. It reminds me that even though I think I should be able to leave two 15 year olds, three 11 year olds, an 8 year old and an almost 4 year old for an hour, I can't. I need to always leave an adult home and always take at least some of the kids. Reason #528 that Steve and I have very little time together.
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