Sleep and school

Last night was one of those nights where the Universe was determined to not have me sleep. My kids, too.

I got to bed kind of late, close to 11. Fell asleep right away. Was woken up around 11:20 by ds who was thirsty and couldn't find his water bottle. I let him use his sister's (who was also awake at that point) and went back to bed. Fell back asleep. 30 minutes later, ds is back in our room complaining he's thirsty. Let him again have some from his sister's but went downstairs and got a sippy cup to replace his bottle as I couldn't find it anywhere. I wanted to make sure I wasn't bothered again by water needs!

Was woken up around 1:30 or so for... can't remember what reason now. Think it was the cats. Yes, it was. One of our cupboards wasn't completely closed and our younger cat had pulled out a bag of powdered milk. Didn't fall back asleep right away. Then I was awake at 4:45 (can you believe it? 3 hours straight of sleep!), unfortunately, not an uncommon time for me to wake up. I got back to sleep by 5 but then was woken up at 5:10 by dd crying--she'd fallen out of bed and whacked her arm against something while doing so. (Is it okay for me to laugh at this point? Not that dd fell, but that it was one thing after another to wake me up?) I knew there was no way I'd fall asleep after that, but I went back to bed anyhow. Got tired of laying there so got up at 5:45, which is actually fairly normal for me, except that I usually don't get less than 6 hours of sleep.

In the past, this has meant a very difficult school day. Largely because I can't think on my toes and a lot of my plans are written down in a very general fashion because I know what they mean, but when I have such disrupted sleep, and so very little of it, nothing comes back to me. And yet I know today is crucial to getting a routine going or the whole week will be wasted. So I need to make sure my plans are clear enough before the kids get here so that I'm not having to think on my feet. Fortunately, if they only do about 1-1.5 hours of bookwork this morning, that'll be okay as I have a pot that needs replanting (dh bought the potting soil for me yesterday) and we bought a bigger aquarium for our betta and can prepare the water and transfer him today. But I need to get them working. Ok, really, I need to get the 12yo working. Everybody else works just fine but can be pulled into whatever he's doing.

I've had the thought before but realized it again yesterday how much I feel the need to function as a school with the two oldest here. Having them here for only a set time changes things, as well as just personality-wise as the 12yo demands an imposed structure. I would not be so structured if it were just my kids. Mind you, even within our school structure, my kids still have more freedom than the two oldest, in part because of their natures, and perhaps lack of previous public schooling, and in part because of their age. For the oldest to get credits for her diploma, she absolutely has to spend a considerable amount of time during the day working. What am I going on about? No clue. The thought got lost somewhere.

I just realized that I've lost the things I'd printed off yesterday for the two oldest. My brain is incapable of reasoning out where I would have put them. I'll have to do a quick search and reprint if I can't find them. No way I'm going to park day today--I don't think I should be driving anywhere with my current lack of brain power!!