Today was the day I have been waiting for since the beginning of June. Ah, the first day of school. I realize that it’s probably knocking me out of the running for Mother of the Year (who wants to be MOTY anyway?) to admit that summer overwhelms me, but… it does. I admit, I am a rigid control freak who likes routines.
There. I said it.
I love my kids with every fiber of my being, but – I am a better mom when I am able to separate work and home, and they have some scheduled time outside the home – and really, how can they miss me if I don’t go away?
Our day started by waiting for The Princess’s bus. Charmingly enough, it was nearly a half hour late. The first day of school is almost always a bit of a mess – but thirty minutes? I was getting annoyed thinking of all the other running around that needed to happen, and when on earth was that freakin’ bus gonna get here? It showed up and The Princess and her buddy got on. I then buckled Pumpkin into her car seat and headed to the school so I could meet The Princess and catch her getting off the bus and walk her to her classroom.
What. A. Mess.
Remember, the school is undergoing major construction so half the parking lot was roped off. I ended up parking quite a ways away, and because the sidewalk was roped off and the parking lot was filled with other parents trying to find parking places, I ended up carrying Pumpkin the whole way. By the time The Princess’s bus arrived and all the kids streamed off it, school had tecnically been “in session” for about ten minutes. I walked her to her room, gave her a big smooch and carried Pumpkin back to the car.
Once we were on the road again, I found myself sort of travelling at above the posted speed limit. Um. Quite a bit. I slowed down, put the Cruise on, and safely drove to Pumpkin’s daycare. We walked in and she easily walked away from me, sitting down in the middle of the circle (it was circle time – my kid likes to sit IN the circle) to sing a song about elephants, and barely looked back as I walked away. Sigh.
I stopped at a local store and picked up some special after-dinner-first-day-of-school cupcakes from their bakery, a cappuccino from Starbucks and ventured home to my empty house!! It was almost mind-boggling at first. I’m so accustomed to being surrounded by people that the silence was strange. I worked a few hours before I thought to myself, Why am I not blasting music? I remedied that situation, got some work done, and hit the treadmill for a break during what would be a lunch break for normal people.
Amazing.
Did seven loads of laundry. Cleaned a little bit. Waited for The Princess’s bus to arrive back at home. She ran up the driveway with a huge smile on her face and it was so wonderful that despite her reluctance to get excited about school – that she was so thrilled with how her day went. (Obnoxious side note: she has quite obviously made friends with my ex’s daughter. Wheeee).
Picked up Pumpkin who didn’t want to go home.
Life is very good.
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