The Back-to-School Drill

Like millions of other families, we too are going through the back-to-school-drill. Unlike several other mothers however, I have never shed a tear over the first day of school...that's right, even in Kindergarten! However, I cry like a starving baby on the last day of every school year.

Maybe I've just got it backwards. But my girls have always been SO excited about starting school each year and I choose to embrace that. It's always a nice change for all of us. We do better without ME trying to teach my kids everything and I like the way they respond to their teachers. And lest I be misunderstand, allow me to mention that I love their guts. I just happen to do better with a bit of occasional (or consistent) space. I'm a crummy director for everyday organized activities---especially when something needs to be learned. Now give me an event or something specific to plan for and I can do that. I may not like it and it may not be the shindig of the year, but I can still do it.

It seems my summer vacation plans have basically been repeating themselves since the girls started school. Each year I secretly commit to myself to be "fun mom" for the summer (I do this secretly so I can back out at any time without screaming "quitter" to those who know of my ambitions). I plan to carry out morning rituals filled with prayer, singing, working together, laughter, and general good feelings toward one another as the spirit fills our home and hearts. After morning devotional and chore time (where everyone willfully pitches in simply because they value their membership in our family), I plan to have a daily project: cooking each Monday, art each Tuesday, a fun-filled yet educational fieldtrip each Wednesday, a science project each Thursday, and a fabulously fun Friday activity each week. To fill in the rest of our time I...

1) purchase workbooks in order to keep the girls minds and skills sharp
2) fill the craft boxes with all kinds of foamy stickers, string, glue, paints, notebooks, glitter pens, etc.
3) talk to all of my friends about how we will organize regular play dates and meet at the park several times a month
4) pen in the library programs on the calendar
5) purchase a big huge bottle of bubbles for outdoor fun
6) sign the kiddos up for swimming lessons
7) check into various community camps and select one or two after stewing over which programs will enhance the quality of their lives and help them grow sufficiently in strength and character over the summer.

After about one week of summer vacation, I finally realize that the summer camps and swimming lessons are basically the only fun my kids will have all summer unless someone happens to invite them to play (at THEIR house). I find that one too many puddles of "freezicle" on the tile floor, three days of crumb build-up under their kitchen chairs, and craft projects spread out all over the fort they created (using every pillow, blanket, chair, garbage can and towel in the house) seems to be the point where I cross the line from being "fun mom" to being "a big meanie-head" as the girls call it.

It's not necessarily that I'm a big meanie-head ALL the time. We do smile at one another occasionally and exchange a couple kind words here and there over the course of the summer. It's just that their overall impression of me at the END of the summer isn't exactly, uh, favorable shall we say.

But after this weekend, their opinions of me changed in a good way as I kicked it up a notch (not hard to do) and we had a weekend back-to-school celebration. Friday we had some of their friends over for lunch and we made dream books (fancy word for cutting pictures out of magazines and gluing them to the cover of a notebook) and played a fun little candybar game. Saturday Jared and the girls went swimming and got ice cream. Sunday we had a back-to-school FHE and the girls modeled for us (it's going to be an interesting fashion year as the girls are excited about choosing their own outfits). Monday we went to "meet the teacher" night at their school and we would have gone to dinner had a fight not erupted in the back seat. We went to dinner at BJ's tonight instead and had a great time. I also hung candybar posters on the girls' doors to surprise them when they got home from school today.




Regardless of how the rest of the summer here at home went, we had a super fun weekend and the girls started school on a good note (and I think they feel okay about me too). Life is good. Now, if I can just get Meg to stop screaming whenever I leave the room...