The First Day of School . . .

. . . was actually on Tuesday, September 8th. I'm finally recording it. It's better this way - less tears and more objectivity. If I had written minutes after wishing my three troopers good-bye, this would have been a much different entry with alternating phrases showing sadness and stress. But all is well now. Yes, my heart felt like it was torn out three times on Tuesday. But all three came home happy, thrilled with their teachers, and all three had someone to hang out with at recess. I couldn't be happier. Mary loves being an only child and I must say errands are much easier with just her - we are accomplishing much thus far.

I always have mixed feelings regarding school. If I could, I'd hold my kids here at home forever and just love them, watch movies, and eat chocolate and peanut butter all day. Wouldn't that be perfect. And we'd probably all be happy all day. But you see, as a parent, I'm supposed to teach them to work, help them grow wings so they can leave the nest someday and be responsible people in society. So, I have to ask them to do things. I expect them to be kind and respectful to their siblings and to get along. I give them chores. I try to teach them things. And that's when things go awry. The bickering begins, my frustration level rises, they try to get out of doing things, and all they want to do is watch TV instead of reading a good book or learning something new. So that is when I feel grateful for school. Grateful for the amazing teachers who reinforce what I'm trying to teach and my kids actually listen. I appreciate the other great kids at our school who hang out with my kids and the fact my kids have school work to do and classroom jobs to complete in a responsible fashion. And it is also nice to be able to complete tasks here, alone, in one sitting :).

So yea, I both love and hate school at the same time. It's all good and so far, this appears to be just the beginning of another great school year.