The kids are back to school. All three are at a new school this fall, and A is even at a different one from his brother and sister. It's an adjustment for all of us, but at least they all got through the first day.

The bar for having a good first day of school is pretty low in our house.On my first day of first grade, way back when, I tripped on the playground while pushing the merry-go-round. I managed to fall under the merry-go-round, which ripped my skirt and my underwear, and left a giant scratch on my leg.My day did get better when my dad brought my favorite Super Girl underoos to school and I proceeded to skip down the hall showing them off to anyone who was there to see them.I'm just glad we are settling back into our routine. It's great to return to school uniforms so that I don't have to argue with G that putting on the clothes he wants to wear tomorrow and sleeping in them to save time isn't the best idea. I did however, run into a new problem with E.The new school allows different color shirts than we had before, however, I wasn't quite sure what red "cardinal" was, so I only ordered one burgundy colored shirt to see if it was the right shade. It was, and of course, now it's sold out. That is the ONLY color shirt that E wants to wear.Since we are now a family that needs to do a load of laundry every day or drown in dirty clothes, I have been able to cycle it through at least every other day. I also have a closet full of navy polo shirts that will apparently never be worn.Speaking of doing things daily, we are rapidly becoming a family that needs to run the dishwasher more than once a day. On the plus side, it's partly because we are once again in a routine of sitting down and eating breakfast and dinner together.It's also because we're transitioning from our summer menu of quick snacks, salads and sandwiches that don't require much cooking to heartier meals. All three kids have also opted to carry lunch for now, so that's adding to the pile, too.On the down side, the kids need to learn that dishes can be stacked in the dishwasher just as easily as they can be stacked on counters and in the sink. They also don't need to use a new glass every single time they need a sip of water.I think that's how the problem really started. I was away for just a day a few weeks ago, and it seems that while I was gone, the kids took the opportunity to use every single dish we owned.They then piled them in the sink until it was full, and then started filling up the countertop and kitchen table. I may still be working through that backlog of dirty dishes, I'm not really sure.The dish situation is not helped by the fact that the Wonderful Husband refuses to acknowledge the existence of the dishwasher. He prefers his dishes hand washed.Our kitchen, which was not designed by us, has limited counter space.I am not about to sacrifice any of it to a drying rack, especially when I have a perfectly good dishwasher underneath the counter, where it belongs.The kids have had the job of unloading the dishwasher for several years, but recently seem to have forgotten where some of our kitchen tools live. I have gotten used to finding the measuring spoons in the drawer with the regular utensils. I get it, a spoon is a spoon. When they're both referred to as teaspoons, I can understand the confusion.The potato masher has been missing for months and I finally broke down and bought a new one, so I'm sure the old one will now turn up any day. They also managed to lose the vegetable peeler. I searched everywhere for that thing. I went through every drawer, every shelf, every cupboard, even through the pantry. I thoroughly interrogated each of them, complete with visual aids showing them exactly what it looked like.They acted like they'd never seen one before.Then, a few days ago, I walked into the kitchen to find A peeling himself a carrot for lunch. WITH THE PEELER!He claims he found it in the utensil crock, but having thoroughly searched that myself, several times, I am starting to suspect that they are conspiring to convince me I'm crazy.I saw that parenting meme that says something along the lines of "If your kid can operate one of these (insert picture of an iPhone), they can operate these (insert pictures of all household appliances.)My kids certainly get the idea of pushing all the buttons. They managed to turn on the wrinkle prevent and the "done" alert on the dryer, which scared the pants off me when it went off an hour later. I don't typically use either of those functions.They have some work to do on actually loading things like dishwashers and washing machines. I bet if I let them play more Tetris, they'd be better at fitting things in the dishwasher.And once they've mastered it, they can teach their father how to use it, too.