The First Day of School - Evening

I had a long day. School starting means that my canyon of leisurely accomplishing my everyday tasks catapulted into the highest, steepest, tallest mountain and I can't really describe my job as being anything other than part teacher, part school counselor, part school administration, and part school secretary. There are lots tasks that are so mundane I don't think about them everyday and there are tasks that accelerate at exponential speed when school counselors, principals, and students are back in their brick-and-mortar buildings - tasks that still exist when we have the valleys, just not as frequently. Instead of a steady pace of hitting the mountaintop peak, it is a catapult up to the top with no incremental steps.

Couple the spring of hitting the mountain peak with the implementation of new processes and what I need is an exponential growth of my patience. Instead, I am short with my husband - because he doesn't ask if there's anything he can help me with. I am short with my kids because they can't read my mind and understand that we need to leave for gymnastics now. I am impatient. I am tired. My house is a mess - dishes haven't been done this week and my laundry is vomiting out dirty clothes. I also haven't slept well. And the work processes? Well, they will get better - but to keep the majority of people happy with the data-processes, we had to implement the change at about the worst possible time for me.

What should reduce duplication of efforts has not proved to reduce my processes yet. My process worked before - it worked because I was able to delegate tasks and knew how to complete them in a pinch, but right now, the process has slowed me down. It won't always, but I like to live with the Amazon philosophy of customer obsession. I have communicated the hiccup to the superusers of my program and I am exercising my patience with those that I rely on to do my job - but for my family - my patience is gone.

I didn't have sidewalk chalk for our annual tradition of drawing the grade level around the child and taking photos this morning. So I bought some after work. I got the kids. I got home. Immediately we went outside to sidewalk chalk it up. My daughter didn't wait for me to get her brother's K done before jumping in and my son was blinded by the sun - so my pictures turned out crappy.

The two around my daughter was not filled in and I was beyond done in waiting on her to do so - so I left her outside. When they look back at their pictures, they'll be disappointed that for Kindergarten and 2nd grades their back to school pictures are pretty crappy - because mom had a crappy day.

The First day of School - Morning

My children start their first days of kindergarten and second grade today. I am sending them on the bus. As much as I would love to be there when they walk through the doors, they need the independence today. It is probably harder for us, as parents, to let our kids grow up, than for our kids to be independent.

They've both ridden the bus before. They will be fine. They have a bus attendant and a bus driver - so all the mistakes that could be made will probably not be made - unlike when I started school. I walked on the bus confidently my first day of kindergarten, but didn't know that you shouldn't sit more than three people in a seat. I just saw a bus full of students and picked a random seat. Now, there's someone guiding my children, so I know that they'll be fine.

Once they walk in to the school, they will either wait for their teacher, or they will go eat breakfast. The second grader has been to this school before, so I have no doubt she will bossily, and possibly in a helpful way, show my son how things are done. Thankfully they will head to their classes at 8:40 and each of them will be able to be independent.

Through the day, they will find routines. They will learn the expectation of their classrooms and their school, and they will review the JSA Way - I am kind. I am calm. I am a listener. I believe I can, I KNOW I can! (Words that we should all live by).