Kindergarten Kraziness

Well we've made it 3 ½ weeks into the school year. Let me tell you, it is not all stickers and snacks. Our routine has been completely turned upside down. I thought I was tired before, but now I know what exhaustion is.  I’m pretty sure I’m going through a pack a day now too (of K-Cups, that is.)

It all begins with waking up so early. If I haven’t said it before, my children and I are not morning people. Daddy can get up at the crack of dawn without effort. But for me, I must set 4 different alarms and set the first one an hour before I actually need to get up. Once I get up (at 6:15) I stand by the Keurig until I've had my first cup of coffee. Then I have the energy to wake the children. Brady is hit or miss. He either jumps up asking for cereal or has to be dragged out by his feet. Cecilia usually wakes from the racket we make and is just sitting in her crib happily. We get dressed, have more coffee, and the kids have breakfast.

School starts at 8:00. In order to avoid sitting in the carpool line, we leave at 7:25 and arrive at the school about 10 minutes later. Brady is assisted out of the car by a teacher and enters the school. Cecilia and I return home at about 7:50. That’s too early to spend the entire morning at home so we started taking an hour long walk. By then it’s 9:00 and we watch Disney Jr., have a snack, play and read. We go on about our day until it’s time to pick Brady up. School lets out at 3:00. But the carpool line is worse in the afternoon so we leave the house at 2:20 and sit in the line (which is already about 50 cars long) until 3:00. Then we wait for all 50 kids ahead of us to get in the car. I have begun conducting phone calls and sorting mail in my car during the wait. Cecilia sits in the back and eats snacks and fusses. By the time we return home it’s 3:45. When we walk in the door, both children are starving. I spend the next hour in the kitchen fixing snacks and cleaning up. Then comes the homework drama. It’s not like the teacher is asking for a research paper. A typical assignment, so far, is to write the letter D five times uppercase and five times lower case. Then draw a picture of something that rhymes with “dig.” It takes another hour to get Brady to complete his homework. By then they are starving again. This goes on until bath time. After baths, they are hungry (yet again!) so we must do one more snack before bedtime. At 7:30 Cecilia gets in bed, followed by Brady at 8:00. Then it is time for me to find some dinner, feed the dogs, clean the kitchen, pack lunch and snacks, lay out all our clothes for the next morning and then fall into a coma. And these are the nights we don’t have soccer practice.

All this is in addition to our “old” life of laundry, housework, grocery shopping, paying bills, doctors’ appointments, veterinary appointments, hair cut appointments, grooming appointments, errands, exercising, cooking, etc.

Many moms thrive on being busy- hustling around from one activity to another. I don’t think I’m one of those moms. I like slow-paced quality time; I would rather spend our time doing a few things that we enjoy together. Sadly, now that Brady is school-aged, we don’t have the option to spend our days as we please. He is growing up- I cannot believe how fast these first five years went by. I think I am growing up too, in a way. I feel like I have entered a new “mom stage.” And upon entering that stage, I have realized something else. I have a whole new respect for mothers that work outside the home and still accomplish all of their “home life” tasks and obligations. I know I am not doing anything special. All us moms are in the same boat. But I am finally feeling the accomplishment of having raised a little person to go off to school on his own, while still maintaining my household. Moms do a pretty amazing job if you think about it. Overall, I suppose we are getting used to our new routine. And while I don’t believe I will ever be a morning person, I am confident that we will get homework done, lunches packed, and arrive at school on time. For the first semester, anyway.