Yesterday was Stephen's first day of Senior Kindergarten, which in American terms, simply means "Kindergarten". Timothy is in Junior Kindergarten, or the equivelant of one year of preschool, and he officially starts next Thursday. They will go all day Tuesday, Thursday and every other Friday. But yesterday was Stephen's first day of SK and as we were waiting for the bus, he asked me a very loaded question.
"Mommy, if I'm in SK this year and Timothy is in JK (looooonnnnngggg pause), that means that only Christopher will be home with you. What are you going to do all day long?!"
This is where the art of silent laughter shone in all it's beauty. I simply smiled at him and assured him that I would find something to do while they were gone, and I'd be waiting for them to come home again, too.
What am I going to do all day long?!?!?! Where in the world do I start?! I will regain control over living room. I will sort, store and pitch the toys in the basement. I will go through the bags of hand-me-downs that I've been given. I will clean out the garage. I will clean out the refrigerator. I will organize my Watkins material. I will clean up my desk. I will go shopping for smaller snack containers for the boys' lunches. I will detail clean the van. I will start getting ready for some Watkins shows coming up. I will clean for our company this weekend. I will get ready for the beginning of The Cookie Kitchen season. I will purge the overabundance of books in this house. I will clean up the yard for winter. And these are only the major projects! I don't want to continue or my list will be far too overwhelming.
The first thing I'm going to do is sit down on the couch with Christopher and read through the stack of books that he is always bringing over to me! I can't wait!
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8 comments:
This is the first year that I was so backed up with summer that I did not anticipate the hours in the day that would (for the most part) become mine to direct.
So for two weeks now, I have been astonished daily at the chores accomplished, the meals cooked, the magazines read, the floors and counters and tables cleared (until the backpacks come back home).
I miss them. I wasn't done with summer. But there is an upside!
I am old. My life is not disrupted by children in the summer or liberated from them in the fall. Summer and fall are about the seasons not the activities and I don't want to do any of the chores or errands you mention so I'm baking all day and then going to visit a friend who is REALLY old.
Tell me, Elizabeth, is there an upside? Assure me, Martha, that you are looking forward to the chaos and joy that your children trail behind them. I wasn't feeling old until I read all the blogs of people with school age children. When my kids went to school I always went into a temporary mourning because they were gone so long. I'm not only old, I'm strange.
Don't forget to save some of your chores for next week. After all, school lasts for several months!
By the way, I always missed my kids when they went back to school. I actually hated to see the summer end...and have an empty house again.
Don't worry, Mar (or Liz). Those chores might and might not get done, but there are still other chores that take their places! Remember the saying "Man may work from sun to sun, but woman's work is NEVER done". So true!
When your kids are gone, there are others around who need your assistance, no matter what season. Guess I'm getting kind of old, too, but for the present, ENJOY those boys. They'll be independent before you know it.
I am one of the bad mom's as well. I look forward to them going back to school and having some sanity here. I think it's more the routine, though, that makes us all happier and easier to get along with. I wish I missed them everyday. I hate to admit it, but I enjoy the quiet days. Maybe someday I won't, but right now it seems a lot better than listening to the constant "activity" of 4 healthy boys. Maybe that's the difference--no calm girls willing to do quiet things.
Sorry. I meant "bad moms." I don't know where the apostrophe came from!
heidiannie, the upside for me is twofold. One is that the focus that is so completely on my kids for three months--and that we all seem to like a whole lot--lessens and I return to another part of my job: housekeeping (and my house was very, um, dirty after three months of utter neglect--yes, I just wrote that on a public blog!). The other is that along with the dread and absolute surety my kids have that this school year will be awful, there is also a sense of excitement about learning and (on a lower scale) interacting with friends. I'm happy for them for that reason.
So the feelings are mixed at just about every level. I find that my melancholy can drag everybody down, yet I can ride a wave of enthusiasm with my kids and both states of being are our reality.
and then there are those of us who will be home schooling and won't be able to "miss them" during the school day, yikes! That's the downside of home schooling. Already I'm dreading the winter months of being shut in (and sometimes it literally happens here in MN!) with no reprieve!
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