First Day of School

I wish school would just start after Labor day, instead of right in the middle of summer.  I've made a note to myself for next year not to try to enjoy summer the last week before school starts.  This year, it was all about getting Golda set up in her dorm, getting her recovered from her wisdom teeth, getting kids registered and class-changed and back-to-school-nighted and outfitted for the occassion.  Errands, errands, errands.  And then more errands.  Bleeding cash out of my eyes, too.  I would rather wake up like a hibernating grizzly bear at the last minute, stretch, saunter out of my summer haze and go right into school.  One way or another, everyone went off to their respective prison terms.  Don't get me wrong; I'm very, very happy about my kids' education.  I love their schools and their teachers.  I love the French program.  I'm happy.  It's hard enough, but easy enough.  What we're doing here in little old Kaysville isn't in any sense Ivy League, which leads me to my motto for the year.

"It's just suburbia."

I know that sounds weird, but it helps me stay centered and not get bogged down in minutiae.  It helps me find solutions to the little things that come up, letting it all wash over me so I can be clear-headed and productive.

Examples of when I've used this motto:

- When I worry about what people will think when I don't join the PTA.
-When someone posts something I hate on Facebook.
-When Ptolemy's flag football games are scheduled for Thursdays, when I teach and Scott is in court.
-When I can't figure out a babysitter for Tziporah.
-When Freestone isn't signed up for the right classes, even though I took care of all this in the spring.
-When it seems like I can't get the house clean.
-When I'm getting David's pizza for dinner for the 3rd time this week.
-When all the other moms are younger and look adorable in their gym clothes at the school.
-When a crossing guard yells at me for inching up to turn right.  Seriously, I have no plans to run over a 9th grader.

That crossing guard could maybe use my motto to help her cope with the extremely strenuous task of guiding teenagers across a suburban road each morning.  If she would just stop and reflect, "It's just suburbia," the anger on her face would melt, she would suddenly realize that yes, each junior high student will still arrive safely if she stops yelling at parents, and the earth won't even fall out of the sky if a mom inches a little bit.

See how useful this motto is?  I know you're thinking I would do better to have a goal of not being so snarky, but I'm not superhuman. We can only overcome so much, and that snarkiness is engrained.

So deal with it, as Freestone would say.  It's just suburbia, and I'm just another suburban mom. We're all in this kid-raising thing together, no matter what is going on inside our heads.  We're all doing a good job, we'll all come out of it just fine, and no children will be harmed in the figuring out of the school years.  So let's just roll with it and enjoy all the darling pictures of these fresh faces whom we're doing it all for.

Junior at Davis High

 8th and 7th grade at Fairfield Jr.

 4th and 1st at Morgan