Back to School

*singing* It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Yes, as of right now, my two oldest are back in school, and I'm left with the two little ones here at home. I've been doing the countdown since last week, you know, how many sleeps til school starts? I had these grand plans of getting the boys back in the groove. With one week left to go, I was going to have them fed, bathed, in bed by 8pm, getting them up at 7am, so that when the grand day finally arrived, they'd be with the program. Um, yeah. What's that saying about good intentions? You see, summer bedtime in my house is a sort of "play it by ear" thing. If Dad wants to take the boys out fishing or dirt-biking or whatever and they don't get to bed until 11, that's fine. If they're ready for bed but an awesome movie comes on and we're all up another two hours, whatever. Its nothing in my house for midnight to roll around and we're all eating popcorn. And as for waking up early... *shudder* I DID have them in bed by 8 Sunday night but as for waking up at 7am holiday Monday morning, yeah that just didn't happen. I was too busy enjoying my dream about me and Brad Pitt on a beach somewhere, NO WAY was I interrupting that! Last night they slid into bed around 9:30, which I will admit was my fault. You see, I kinda sorta forgot about the whole 'going-through-the-school-supplies-and-stuffing-the-backpacks' thing until I had them tucked in and happened to glance over and see the huge pile of school stuff on the floor of their closet. Oops! So there's me, frantically going over the lists, labeling everything (ever tried to write your kids name on a plastic glue bottle using a pen? I eventually settled for carving his initials in the stupid thing). Then it was like, "Where's your inside shoes? Your gym change? This backpack is broken, go get the other one.. No, the other one! Why do you need earphones? What does this mean, all pencils should be sharpened?!!"

[Quick recess while I change the baby's diaper... (Discuss amongst yourselves the meaning of "night-before-school madness" whereby parents, mostly moms, are driven crazy by hyper kids, school supplies, missing shoes, non-working pens, blisters-and-wrist-pain-caused-by-repeated-pencil-sharpening).... And back.]

This morning actually went great. My alarm was set for 7 but I was up at 6:18 with the baby. After he fell back asleep I seriously debated crawling back into bed for that measly last half hour of sleep, but then I remembered the dishes from last night crowding the kitchen counter, and the fact that my oldest hadn't showered after his hockey session last night and so would need to be woken up earlier than planned so his brother could use it after him, and yeah.... you see where I'm going. I'm definitely not a morning person (look in the dictionary under 'night owl' and there's me) but with enough coffee in my system, I'm okay. Plus, I have awesome kids who are very self-sufficient. They can tell if I'm pressed for time on certain things, like making lunches, and they'll do their own breakfast. Not like its so hard to get out bowls and spoons and pour their own cereal and milk, but I'm sure there are kids out there that rely on their poor overworked stressed-out moms to do that for them. Those are the kids that need a reality check.

I'll admit straight out that I've taught my kids to do as much for themselves as they can, and anyone who knows me knows that I do not "baby" my kids. Once I've seen that they are capable of something, that's it, its now their responsibility. Which is why my 9 year old is responsible for taking out the garbage, sweeping the floor after meals, and cleaning the downstairs bathroom, and my 6 year old takes care of keeping the front entry tidy (putting away coats, shoes, etc) and wiping down the table after meals (okay, so maybe I have to rewipe after he's done, but hey, he still does it, right?). My 3 year old daughter helps me clear the table by putting the condiments back in the fridge (which she loves because she knows exactly where everything goes) and she loves loves loves folding face cloths. Kids are totally capable and in most cases, they relish the opportunity to show you how 'grown up' they are.

Anyway, back to this morning, the kids were ready and out the door 10 minutes early, which gave me an extra ten minutes to relax and drink the last of the pot of coffee. Then it was on to laundry, dishes, setting out craft-time for my daughter, and making the baby a snack. Ain't motherhood grand? *smiling*