Box of Chocolates

Oh sweet summertime, you are missed already.  One of my kids said that the school year is the beginning of a 180 day sentence.  Makes a mother with a teaching degree sad.  I love learning. I don't love the system of education and why I am not a classroom teacher anymore but I understand some of her complaints. I am the mother of a freshman in high school. At a brand new school. No one went to school there ever until a couple of weeks ago.  I told her the first couple weeks could be hard. The plus to being a freshman in a new school is that it is new to everyone. I knew that even though the building cost 75 million to build that things were not going to be ideal.  Boy was I right, I don't always like being right. Some things are a mess.  Some things are getting better each day.  There are things I can not understand and probably will never understand.  Even as a parent that has been a classroom teacher with two degrees in education I can't make sense of the things that h

I have been wide awake since before 2 AM. Wide eyed and well, not so bushy tailed. This is the second day in a row. Why?  No really, why? This is the second day in a row my brain refuses to turn off for longer than a few hours. It's like half my brain wants to party and the logical side knows this is not a good thing.    As a mom of three on the first day of a new school year I am sitting in the family room in the dark thinking of all the things I can't do right now. I am also lamenting summer. Today summer break officially ends. At least I am up in time to get the kids to school.   I am not excited for today. It has a few milestones that we can not put off. I will not drive to the elementary school for the first time in eight years. I will be dropping my youngest off at middle school and my oldest at the high school. Also the middle child decided to go back to school so I will not be homeschooling this year.   In a few hours my kids will wake up and start a new scho