School is starting!!! I have spent my week (trying to) gather moving estimates, getting kids backpacks and school supplies ready, and doing the annual "pass down". That is where we go through all kids clothes and determine if that favorite T shirt is ok to pass down (hence the name) to the younger brother or if it is just plain dead on arrival. This year there seems to be lots of DOA clothes. Or maybe I am just too lazy/tired/overwhelmed to try to refurbish them enough to make it one more year. Eh, right now I am OK with that.

Lunches are another big thing to prepare, so for those of you who have too many kids to buy lunches for without going to that really nice place where loan sharks live, this is for you. But I do warn you it is heading into the kinda weird, OCD territory that many moms/dads of Jedi kids become so immersed in.

Some busy moms/dads just choose to have their kids buy hot lunch. And that is OK if you can afford it. If you can't, look into free or reduced cost lunches. If you you don't qualify for that, read on and I will try not to bore you out of your skull...

As a mom who has her good days and her bad days (that's universal by the way, not just confined to moms fighting the "c" word.) I have found out a few things that have really helped me. First and foremost, conserve every bit of energy you can. I am not saying be a lump, that leads to depression and really flabby butts. But when you do have energy, make it count in all the right ways for when you don't. And do it in ways that won't break your bank account.

OK so you have decided to make your kids lunches. Great. You run into pitfalls almost immediately.

Those little individual sized servings of chips and puddings and crap are also about three times the cost of big family size bags and quite frankly if you add it all up, if you go that route, you are spending ALMOST as much as you would just sending the kid with hot lunches!

So get the big ol' Costco sized bags.  I am not advocating sending a big family size bag of chips with your kid as lunch. Although they might find it really cool.

What I do is  get a whole passel of sandwich bags and divvy that sucker up when the kids are at school, or in bed or when I have a few minutes on a slow Sunday afternoon. It is something I can do while I am sitting. I then put all these little bags into a zip loc or grocery bag or whatever. I do that with goldfish crackers, cookies, fruit roll ups - what ever. Then I put all the big bags into a big bin and stick it into the top of the pantry. Come time to make the lunch, I grab 4 of everything (remember 4 boys) and throw together 4 sandwiches, toss in a piece o' fruit and a bottle o' water and voila, 4 lunches in 5 minutes or less. Whatever comes back home goes into a separate basket, and that is the kids "snack basket"  they can peice out of whenever they get the munchies.

When I want to take even more shortcuts I skip the sandwiches, and put 4 or 5 chicken nuggets per bunch, wrapped in aluminum foil and all stuck in a bag in the freezer. Pizza rolls, corn dogs, pumpkin muffins, whatever makes it so I don't have to go the sandwich route. On the morning of, I  shove the aluminum foil packets in the oven or toaster oven while I am getting them breakfast or making sure they don't have seaweed growing in their teeth. Then when the timer dings stating to the world said nuggets are done, I start making lunches. My record is 4 lunches in 2 minutes. Not too shabby.

With packing, getting IEPs ready for the out of state transfer, as well as all the nice doctor letters proving to the school system that my kids need services, plus all the normal stuff of running a household ,  AND the fact that my energy is somewhat limited, I am gonna take short cuts where I can.

Hey, I know what you are thinking. Either, "wow, what a weirdo" - or   " OCD isn't so bad, maybe I'll try it.". If you have more than 3 kids, special needs or not, I'd definitely recommend the latter.