Beginning and Ends

 In the 21 years of having kids in school, this is what I’ve learned; the beginning and end is the hardest. 

The beginning is full of getting unlisted school supplies, parent meetings, fundraisers and just getting back into a home and school routine. It doesn’t matter if your child is in kindergarten or a senior in high school. Each year is different and the family readjusts to whatever changes lie ahead for that new school year.  Now that my last two are in high school our adjustments consist of rides and figuring out who’s going where and who can drive whom.  We have no mass transit so our high school driver takes on some of the driving Mr. Freshman duties if she’s going the same direction. We’ve also managed to find another high schooler nearby that we can pay a little cash to pick J up for the early morning football days and sometimes even bring him home. This has saved us a lot of anxiety on getting him to and from. But now that school is in session the schedule changes daily and our ritual at bedtime is to go over who’s going where with whom the next day.  

For the past week the kids have been selling their all school athlete fundraisers too. They’ve both almost met that quota so we’ll be done with that. And J already has had his first game and our senior has had a pre xc meet and next week will be her first full cross country 5k of the season. All the while she’s getting teacher references lined up for scholarships that she has both started and plans to start. 

The end of the school year is full of state exams, year end exams, more sports and just trying to finish up the school year. For us, track goes past our last day so we don’t focus too much on school being out. But it’s still a lot of prep and the end of this year will consist of another graduating kid; which means a crazy May.

If you’re just beginning this journey with young kids know that it goes very fast.  Enjoy the chaos.  I didn’t always do that. And now that I’m on my last two I wish I would have relaxed and enjoyed more on the first three. Just breath and take the busy days one week at a time. That’s what I’ve learned.

Have a great school year.