It's True...A Mother's Work is Never Done

I am posting a video today that I saw on Jen's blog. I had to share it with you because I thought it was brilliant!

Hope you find it as funny as I did.

Letting Go Is Hard

I think the hardest part about sending the kids off to school this week has been realizing that I just don't know what they are doing all day long. It really takes some getting used too, and it is something I struggle with every time a new school year rolls around. Even more so this year, with my little guy starting kindergarten. I know they are at school and they are reading and writing and listening to the teacher and going about their day. I know that they are probably paying attention and chatting with friends and complaining that I put an apple in their lunch instead of a fruit roll-up. I know all the basics, but what I don't know is what is really going on.

I don't know if they are feeling rattled as they get to school because the bus ride was extra noisy. I don't know if they waved hello to a friend who didn't wave back. I don't know if they got turned around on the way down the hallway and maybe starting walking to their classroom from last year only to have to backtrack to their new room, all the while hoping no one noticed their mistake.

I miss them while they are gone all day, and the protective Mama Bear in me wishes I was with them in some miniature version sitting on their shoulder and whispering praise at their triumphs, righting the wrongs against them, and encouraging them in the right direction when they are struggling with a decision.

But, this is real life. I cannot be with them every second of the day. They need to go to school and make their own way.

This is the circle of life (cue Lion King music).


I do know that this poem, which I came across recently (I can't remember where I saved it from) and other similiar prayers I've seen before, have helped me get thru these first weeks of back to school. It reminds me to gently let them go, and trust that I've done my best to prepare them for the world they are facing. And it reassures me that even when I cannot be with them, God always is.

And I am beyond grateful for that.



A Mom's Prayer On the First Day of School

Here we are again, Lord. Their backpacks are loaded and their faces are scrubbed and their lunch accounts are full.

And I know you'll walk with them, Lord. You always do. But a mom still has to ask.

Will You walk with them? Will You whisper to them what they need to hear, when I'm not there to whisper it?

Will You please, oh please, cover their school with the protection only You can give, and will You keep harm far away?

Will You make their minds strong and ready to learn? Will You help them understand that hard work honors the One who created them?

Will You guide their teachers, giving them patience and wisdom and creativity and more patience? Will You bless them for their efforts?

Will You love all those children there, the ones whose lunch accounts aren't full, the ones who feel alone?

Will You teach my children to be kind and unselfish and to love those who are different from them?

Will You point them back toward home just as soon as you can?

Lord, I give them to You today and everyday, trusting them to Your care.

Amen.

My Name is Lisa And I Follow School Buses.

School started this week for us. Fiona (9) and Choppy (8) started on Monday. The school district here does a soft start for the kindergartners (yes I spell-checked and it's right, even though it looks wrong!), so half of the kindergarten classes started on Tuesday and the other half on Wednesday. Taco (5) was in the Wednesday group. Gracie(3) even had her first day of preschool today. We were all up early and dressed and had plenty of time for some pictures before the bus came at 8:07.

Here's my big kindergartner boarding the bus. He didn't cry or hesitate, he just seemed very quiet and serious. Me, on the other hand....I cried enough for both of us. On my way back home from the bus stop, and in the car frantically following the bus to make sure that it didn't make some unscheduled stop in which my child would hop off thinking he was at school when really he was just at Dunkin' Donuts getting the bus driver a large coffee and a chocolate donut.





I made it to school in plenty of time to drag Gracie by the arm with one hand and balance my camera and video recorder with the other. We watched Taco get off the bus and head for the doors and lo and behold, he knew where he was going!! I think he must've listened at least once to the 1,587 times I reminded him of how to get to his classroom. "Just get off the bus and follow all the kids...don't get off the bus and follow your sisters over to ABC school where the big kids go....stay with the other younger kids that will be walking to XYZ school with you and go in the doors that have the RED pawprints on the door which match the RED tag on your backpack. Then look for your teacher as you are walking down the hallway and she has a big star hanging on the door so when you see that door with the star go in and make sure your teacher sees you so she knows you are there." My husband told me I sounded like the teacher from Charlie Brown, but as I stealthily followed Taco thru the crowds of K-2 students and other neurotic parents of kindergartners like myself, I am proud to say that he actually found his way. He didn't see me and I was content to know that he made it on his own. Watch out world!

Before we could leave though, I did stick my head in the door of his classroom to see what he was doing and like the prepared student that he was obviously groomed to be, he was unpacking his lunch from his backpack. I wiped the tears away, took a couple aspirin for the mild chest pains I was having, and sped off in the car to get Gracie to preschool only 5 minutes late!





I rushed her in to her teachers, luckily they were the same as last year so my over protective parenting skills needed no explaining, and told them we were late because I had to follow the bus to school and make sure all was right in Taco's kindergarten world so that I could go on with some semblance of sanity in my day. They laughed and Gracie jumped right in to play with her friends. Thankfully, no tears on her part, or mine. And I was not the only one that was late because I was tailing a bus.




And after we got home from preschool we had lunch and went for a swim and my Gracie was lucky enough to be able to lay down on the couch and take a nap. Which her mom also desperately needed, but was too busy pacing back and forth by the front door waiting for the bus to come.






Finally, 25 minutes late, but home at last.

And all is right with my world again.










At least until 8:07 tomorrow morning.

Tonight I Met The Other Woman

The one he will spend his day with.
The one he will see more hours during the week than he will see me.
The one who will guide him thru his days.
The one who he will go to with his problems.
The one who will help him when he falls and scrapes his knee.
The one who will tie his shoes when they come undone.
The one who will hear the funny things he says.
The one who he will listen to.



I met my sons' kindergarten teacher tonight.


And I am having a hard time thinking that there will be another woman in his life. I mean, he is MY BOY.



I have waited for about, ummmmm, roughly 5 years to send this boy to Kindergarten!

But now, the orientation is over, we've met the teacher, dropped off the supplies, filled our cubby with a nap blanket and a paint shirt, and paid our milk money.

And I am having second thoughts.

I thought I would be doing a jig down the street when I put him on the schoolbus. I envisioned a quite, serene house, and not having to answer 8,847 questions before lunch.
I thought I'd get more done around here with the boy in school...no one would need me to pitch the baseball to him, play catch, build a fort, and "come look at this BUG!"
He will not be around to dump clean, folded clothes out of the laundry basket because he needs an animal "cage".
There will not be the constant noise of the Shake and Go Speedway or the A-NOY-ING
bbbbbb----eeeeeee-----ppppppp sound of the Buzz Lightyear blaster going off.
There will be no one around to ask me if I want to wrestle, or practicing Tae Kwon Do moves screaming "KEEEEEYYYYYY-YAAAAHHHHHH" at the top of his lungs.

It will be very quite around my house next week.

And I'm going to have a hard time getting used to that.