Changes are brewing.

There were two things I could always count on;  General Hospital coming on at 3:00pm each weekday and eating dinner together as a family. 

Within the same week, both constants in my life took a left turn, when it should've gone right.

I've been watching General Hospital since I was 5 years old.  For the past 36 years that I've been tuning in, you could set your watch to it starting at 3:00pm on ABC.  Over the summer, commercials started announcing that as of September 10th, it was moving to 2:00pm. I guess I should consider myself lucky that they are keeping the show on and not giving it the same fate as "All My Children" and "One Life to Live".  When something like a 3:00pm start time has been happening for as long as this show has, it really throws you off to shift everything up to an earlier start time.  Not that I plan my day around watching General Hospital, but I knew exactly at what point I'd have to leave the house and pick up Ian from school. No more.

Unless Jeff gets caught in a late meeting or I have a girl's night out, our family can be found at the kitchen table having dinner each and every night. It was the rule, not the exception.  I find eating dinner together as a family one of the most important things we do with raising kids.  It gives us a chance to talk, recap our day, go around the table and give the best highlights.  We are able to put down all the electronics and enjoy each other's company.  Take some time and unwind.  Not to mention, this is the best opportunity to get a well-rounded, healthy meal into the kids and have them try new foods.

I plan our meals for the week on Sunday and go grocery shopping accordingly to be ready to make dinner each day.  As each day flew by last week, I realized even if I made the meal, we wouldn't be around to eat it.  I thought for sure, I'd be able to get our act together for Tuesday.  Nope.  Then Wednesday.  Nope.  Three nights of dinner planning that will get moved to this week.

With our new Fall schedule, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays can find us in the car during the dinner hour shuffling back and forth between activities.  As soon as I pick Ian up from school, he goes directly to his next stop.  There is no passing "go", no collecting $200, and no time to gather the family and eat together at the table.  It is a bit of a mess.  The only bright side in all this is that I don't have to cook dinner.  By the time we are all in one place again, at the house, it is too late to begin serving dinner.  In order for Ian's energy level and focus to remain elevated, I've been bringing him a substantial snack to eat in the car, when I come to get him at the end of the school day.  I've been rotating between pizza bagels, chicken & cheese quesadillas, or a burrito filled with bean, rice and cheese.  It's a nice, tasty, hot mini-meal that he can eat on the go and be ready for religious school or gymnastics.  Because Sam likes to do exactly what her brother is, all of a sudden, Sam is hungry too and needs the same exact thing, at the same exact time.

When the activities are over, it is time to wind down with our bedtime routine.  The kids usually need another snack at this point, not a full blown dinner. 

I never thought we'd get to this point where we weren't home for dinner.  But then again, I never thought they'd move General Hospital to 2:00pm either.  Each occurring on its own was a lot for me to wrap my mind around...both in the same week, I feel like we are entering the twilight zone where anything goes.