A side of Kraut

by

Casey K rautkramer Reporter

Whirlwind of getting the kids ready for school

Summer is always a very busy time for me and other parents trying to cram in their children’s dentist, eye and medical appointments before the new school year begins.

There is also the joy of shopping for the kids’ school clothes and supplies needed in the classroom. It’s no wonder that I’m broke by the end of summer.

This was a crazy week for me in juggling work with my family life. I hate leaving the newspaper office in Abbotsford for any length of time on Tuesday afternoons, because that’s when I receive the advertisements and I need to figure out where they should be placed on the newspaper pages. Once I have all the advertisements on the pages, then I can begin layout out where I want the stories and photos to go in the news and sports sections.

Tuesday afternoon was the only time my oldest daughter’s appointment could occur in Neillsville where my exwife lives. We do whatever we need to do for our children, so I spent a total of three hours on Tuesday afternoon driving to and from Abbotsford to Neillsville.

Spending three hours out of the office on Tuesday afternooon put me behind on laying out the newspaper pages. Thus I worked until 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, when I was simply too tired to concentrate anymore.

I drove half an hour from the newspaper office in Abbotsford to my house in Stratford, so I could grab a bite to eat before going to bed at 2 a.m. I slept four hours before waking up at 6 a.m. to travel back to the office. I was able to write a sports story and lay out one sports page before I needed to leave Abbotsford to pick up my daughters from my ex-wife at 8 a.m. in Marshfield.

The only time my oldest daughter could schedule another appointment was at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday in Marshfield, therefore I decided to take my hungry children to my home in Stratford to get them cereal to eat for breakfast. We then returned to Marshfield for my daughter’s appointment.

We left Marshfield at 11 a.m. so I could return to the newspaper office in Abbotsford to finish layout the pages before The Record-Review is printed at 12:30 p.m.

Then it was time for us to grab another bite to eat before traveling to Athens so I could take photos of the new St. Anthony Catholic School staff and the Athens varsity football team, despite it being an extremely warm afternoon. I guess we should enjoy this nice weather before winter arrives again.