School Days

Makayla - 8th Grade

This cute teenager has spoiled me.....

*I wake up each morning to her beautiful piano music.

*She is incredibly responsible and helpful.

*Not once have I had to tell her to do her homework since 4th grade.

I think I will keep her.

Jarin - 5th Grade

Trevor - 2nd Grade

As I drove the boys to their first day of school, the tears I never knew I had started escaping. What?! I've never cried in all of my mommy days of dropping kids off to school.

Jarin noticed and exclaimed, "Mom - don't get emotional! Roll up the windows, that's embarrassing!"

I reassured him that my sunglasses were enough cover to not put anyone to shame. Then I admitted that I would miss them and wished for more summer days.

Jarin promised that he and Trev would be home soon enough to cause trouble. I dropped them off, wiped my tears and drove home to await my two troubles.

Rebekah and Kerri started afternoon kindergarten a week later. This time the tears began to flow before I even reached the school. My ladybugs were leaving to school and their gigantic backpacks didn't even fit them - sniff sniff.

This was my final time of taking kids to their very first day of school - how did they grow up so fast?

My melancholy mood ended as I drove away to embark on my first day of freedom. I had anticipated this moment for a long time and I now had 2 1/2 hours to do whatever I wanted all by myself - yeah!

Half way into my first day of freedom, I was standing in the check out line admiring my purchases when my cell phone rang. It was Trevor's teacher asking me to consider putting Trev in the AM track. (Our school has 2 tracks - one group of kids start at 8:00 - Early Birds, the second group starts at 9:10 - Later Gators. This allows for small group teaching in the classroom.)

Knowing that this move would cut down my independence time, I deliberated for a whole 10 minutes and decided this would be a good idea.

Trevor's first day of being an Early Bird brought much peace to our morning - seeing that Jarin could focus on his morning routine without the display of brotherly affection interfering.

Trev came home 1 hour and 15 minutes earlier than the Later Gator crew and declared, "Mom, being an Early Bird is a great idea because you only have to be alone for 1 1/2 hours!"

I agree - I love our one-on-one time.

Rebekah and Kerri

Kindergarten

When I ordered the backpacks, Kerri announced that she wanted a pink backpack and Rebekah wanted a purple one - the good old switch- a- roo.

Who am I to tell them what colors to get?

Now to train the rest of the family.