Back to School
Summer is over and I have been really sad about it. I love so much about summer and while I enjoy fall too, it is hard for me to give up all of the relaxed family time that summer affords us. I have been dreading my daughter's first day of middle school for at least a year, maybe longer. It means getting up super early (which I seriously dislike doing) and I was worried about the bad language, the fights, the innocence lost, mean girls, etc. Last year our schedule was pretty simple with all three kids at the same school. This year I have three kids in three different schools and I suppose I was pretty stressed about being able to keep up and feel like a good mom, despite being stretched in so many directions.
The first day of school was long and exhausting and I'm not even the one who had to go! But I got up at 6am with one kid, 7am with another and then 8am with the last one. Then I had one very lonely and sad kid left home with me. It was physically and emotionally exhausting, but we made it through the day. Then we had to do it all over again the next day and the next. After two weeks you'd think I'd have finally accepted that summer is over but my heart is still fighting it. I miss my kids and I miss not having to make sure they have their homework done or their lunches made or all the forms they need filled out. I feel like I turn into stressed, have-to-be-super-organized-or-we'll-miss-something-important mom instead of yes-have-a-popsicle-and-play-outside-all-afternoon mom.
The good side is that my kids are doing well and are happy. They each like their teachers, have good friends, enjoy learning, and are managing their time relatively well. They're all tired and so I've had to become strict about getting them to bed on time, which is no fun, but so necessary. Eventually this routine will become comfortable and baseball practice won't always go on for two hours and my four-year-old will get used to playing by himself again. Right now I'm just mourning being in control of our schedule and spending time together as a family. We don't even get super involved in outside activities (each kid does one thing) but even that can really add up and take up a lot of time. Those activities are good, school is good, church activities are good; it just means our time is spent somewhere other than here at home, which I really enjoyed this summer. I suppose I need to also get over my laziness of sleeping until I want to wake up and then just taking the kids to the park while I talk to my friends all afternoon and calling it a good day.
So, back to school, back to being busy, back to working hard and cleaning the house and cooking and driving kids to their activities and being a grown up. Like it or not, here we go!
The first day of school was long and exhausting and I'm not even the one who had to go! But I got up at 6am with one kid, 7am with another and then 8am with the last one. Then I had one very lonely and sad kid left home with me. It was physically and emotionally exhausting, but we made it through the day. Then we had to do it all over again the next day and the next. After two weeks you'd think I'd have finally accepted that summer is over but my heart is still fighting it. I miss my kids and I miss not having to make sure they have their homework done or their lunches made or all the forms they need filled out. I feel like I turn into stressed, have-to-be-super-organized-or-we'll-miss-something-important mom instead of yes-have-a-popsicle-and-play-outside-all-afternoon mom.
The good side is that my kids are doing well and are happy. They each like their teachers, have good friends, enjoy learning, and are managing their time relatively well. They're all tired and so I've had to become strict about getting them to bed on time, which is no fun, but so necessary. Eventually this routine will become comfortable and baseball practice won't always go on for two hours and my four-year-old will get used to playing by himself again. Right now I'm just mourning being in control of our schedule and spending time together as a family. We don't even get super involved in outside activities (each kid does one thing) but even that can really add up and take up a lot of time. Those activities are good, school is good, church activities are good; it just means our time is spent somewhere other than here at home, which I really enjoyed this summer. I suppose I need to also get over my laziness of sleeping until I want to wake up and then just taking the kids to the park while I talk to my friends all afternoon and calling it a good day.
So, back to school, back to being busy, back to working hard and cleaning the house and cooking and driving kids to their activities and being a grown up. Like it or not, here we go!
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