It may seem counter-intuitive

But I swear public schooling is much harder for me than home schooling ever was.

It is far more tiring. Getting Sebastian ready in the morning, making a lunch before 8am while simultaneously making breakfast, making sure he has everything he needs in his backpack, ensuring he's wearing the appropriate combination of layers for a 35 degree morning and a 75 degree afternoon, getting to the bus stop at 7:58, spending a half hour twice a day waiting for the bus that is late 80% of the time, doing way more homework than a first grader who has been gone for 8 hours should ever have to do, struggling with the resulting bad attitude/exhaustion-- it's all wearing me out.

Add to that the never-ending requests for baked goods, the PTA meetings, the healthy snack prep at school once a week, and my up-coming puppet show performance and you have one chronically fatigued mama.

But he loves it so far, so I'll grin and bear it. Or grimace and bear it. I might need to go back to caffeinated coffee, though.