first day of school

Yes, it is (finally) that time of year again. kids go back to school... life shall resume a semi-normal schedule soon and to be quite honest, I am looking forward to that.

So many small and large details go into the First Day of School.

- Meet The Teacher Night (last Wednesday and Friday nights)

- School Supply Shopping (which includes but not limited too about a hundred composition books, a thousand different color pens and markers and highlighters and colored pencils, about a million pieces of loose leaf paper, and the coolest most trendy backpacks to hold it all in)

- New Clothes and Shoes (for the first day of school, the first week of school, and pretty much the entire first quarter of school. This also includes new undergarmets and socks and maybe just a few pieces of jewelry and or hats and cute hair things)

- Lunch Food (note to self, never, ever, go to the grocery store the day before the first day of school. the deli counter was like standing in line for Splash Mountain at Disneyland)

- Special Breakfast (the kids wanted french toast and bacon and fruit)

- First Day of School Signs (print these out the night before. it's too difficult to try and remember what to write on each sign early in the morning of one of the most stressed out days of the year. lol)

Yes, I consider the First Day of School one of the most stressful days of the year, no matter how much you plan ahead and prepare. My morning went something like this:

Woke up late (wanted to be up before 6am), got in the shower. Planned on a quickie shower but forgot I didn't have time to shave my legs last night so had to do a quick shave this morning causing me to take a nice slice or two on each leg. yay. Get my clothes on, throw on makeup in, like, five minutes (I usually take a good 20 minutes to put on a decent face that wont scare little children). Hair... is getting a brush ran through and air drying. Will probably end up pulling it up later anyway. Get kids up, cheerfully, no stress, just excitement and happiness. Grab purse, grab camera, grab school signs and run downstairs. Yikes, it's already 7am! Suppose to be at Grandma's at 7:30am to make breakfast and take pictures! Okay, don't stress, just breathe. Will make breakfast at home, head to mom's for pictures no later than 745am. Now, when to straighten Courtney's hair... Start batter, throw bacon in pan. Batter first two pieces of french toast. Crap, no cooking spray. Why did I forget that at the store. No worries, use butter. Okay. Place french toast in pan. Decide to straightened Courtney's hair in kitchen. Yes, this will work. I'm a genius! Wait, whats burning... hair, bacon, or toast. Yep, Bacon. Shit. Okay, start over with new bacon. It's okay. I don't need extra bacon in the house anyway. Flip french toast. Looks weird, not used to using butter. Oh well, looks edible. Back to straightening hair. Ask hubby to text sister and mom my plan b. NOW whats burining? French toast! You gotta be kidding me. It's okay. Batter two new pieces and place in pan, lower heat on both french toast and bacon. Flip bacon. Keep an eye on clock. Back to straightening hair. Two minutes. Remove bacon, flip french toast. New bacon in pan, get plates, back to straightening. Two minutes flip bacon, remove french toast to plates, set on table. Get syrup on table. Batter and place two pieces of french toast in pan. Back to straightening. (Hey, I'm getting this down. Just breathe, nothing to stress about, everything'll get done). Drama on the text messages of plan b. (I know, should have done it myself.) Stop everything, text sister. Remove bacon, add last pieces of bacon to pan. Flip french toast. Read text message, send new message. Back to straightening (goodness, this child has alot of hair). Flip bacon, take out french toast and add it to plates on table. Back to straightening. Remove bacon. Turn off stove. Finish straightening. Kids to eat at the table. Now to clean up kitchen and make my breakfast (4oz greek yogurt, wash and cut strawberries, add sliced almonds). Sit and eat (quickly). 735am. Okay. Grab kids lunches. Grab leftover dinner and protein shakes (thank goodness the hubs makes these in advanced) grab water bottle, put all in my lunch bag. Kids get in car. Haven't heard back from sister. Call Mom. (Apparently my plan b offended mom and sister and now sister wont answer phone and mom is in tears). Okay. Just breathe. No stress, remember. Keep it together. Onto plan c. What is plan c. Crap. Panicking. Breathe. Okay, kids out of car. We'll do first day photos here. Get signs, and smile. Cheese. Click, click, click, click. Preteen is upset because family doesn't want to see her (not the case, she just takes it personally. Again... preteen=hormonal). Try to cheer preteen up (pretty much impossible). Okay, no more pictures. Go inside, finish cleaning kitchen. Kids will now ride bus to school. This upsets preteen even more, and now the brother is having an attitude about this. Sit them down, hug them, tell them I love them, tell them everything will be okay, tell them that they will have a great day and that they are amazing and resilient and I can't wait for dinnertime to hear all about each of their day. Smiles return. Kisses. Grab lunch and I'm out the door, headed to work. It's now 8am.

I know that the first day of school morning is always incredibly stressful, and I did my very best to stay cool and calm and collected. Just because things don't go as planned, doesn't mean that everything is ruined. Both of my kids have mixed emotions of going back to school, as do I. There is an excitement of seeing friends, and getting back into a routine. But there is also a nervousness to meeting new teachers, learning new things, trying not to feel overwhelmed with the mountain-load of homework that these kids will be coming home with (especially my 8th grader). The anxiety that my kids feel, I feel as well. It's difficult as a mother to send them off to another year of school and not be emotionally affected by this. And the emotions just add to the chaos of the morning. Everyone is on edge a bit... kids, parents, grandparents, friends, teachers, etc. But the first day of school is all about the kids! Keeping them and what is best for them in focus at all times. I wanted to make sure my kids had a cool and calm morning, they were already so nervous and excited and anxious. Things sometimes get crazy and busy and stressed, and very rarely actually go as planned. As you can tell, our morning went a little this way, but we recovered. Most importantly, I sat them down to talk and communicate to them my intentions and my hopes for them, and above all, make sure they know how much I love them! And I really do, they are my world (just like my sister and I were the world to my Mom and Dad). 

Source: courtneygoof.tumblr.com via Katie on Pinterest