Back to school

Yes! School is finally starting! I can't believe I'm saying that because I love summer vacation and can't wait for it to get here each year. It's so nice not to have a set schedule and the freedom to do what we want each day. However, by mid-August, summer vacation starts to smell like old fish and it's time for it to be thrown out.

I don't think I can stomach one more 30 minute tween comedy episode on t.v. that repeats itself ten times a day. Anytime the kids stepped into the house, on popped the TV right to the kid shows. There were kids shows on all day long, whether someone one was actually watching them or not. Thanks to that, I can now rattle off all the words to each show's theme song and would challenge anyone to name most tween characters in each show. If there's ever a tween show jeopardy game, I would SO win!

I'm ready to have my phone privacy back too. I haven't made a private phone call since mid-May. I'm not a phone chatter kinda gal, but once a week, all I ask is for one hour to talk to my mom or dad, without being followed or interrupted. I politely ask the girls each time, "I'm gonna make a phone call. Can you guys please not interrupt me?" But any mom knows that once mom gets on the phone, kids feel the need to act like maniacs in order to get attention. The whole house can be peaceful as can be, with everyone entertaining themselves for hours on end, but once I pick up the phone to talk, kids come out of the woodwork and all heck breaks loose. It's inevitable. I've resorted to locking myself in the bathroom to talk on the phone, with a severe warning to the kids, "You can only knock on this door if the house is burning down or your arm is hanging off your body!"

The girls definitely need a break from each other too. Not that there is a ton of sisterly love going on in the early summer but it's certainly better than at the end of the summer. By August, the three girls act like just the sight of one another appalls them. Just the sound of one of their voices seems to invoke pure annoyance in another. They can't watch a TV show, play a game or even eat dinner at the same table without some ridiculous argument breaking out. I've had a belly full of tattling, pinching, yelling and door slamming. At least when they're in school all day, maybe they'll be able to stand each other in the evenings.

Maybe they'll be able to stand me too. I've caught on that the sight of me and the sound of my voice is also becoming quite an irritant to them. I guess they forget what it's like to be with mom 24/7. Throughout the school year, the big girls are always hinting how great it would be to be homeschooled and be with me all the time. By the end of the summer, I'm pretty sure homeschooled sounds more like a prison sentence. My cup has certainly runneth over with rolling eyes, sighs and stomping around. I'm not "feeling the love" anymore.

It's like the saying goes though, "There's a time for everything," and it's definitely time for summer vacation to end and school to begin. I'm ready to have my house back and the TV OFF! I'm ready to have the house stay clean when I clean it, the fridge full when I fill it and a quiet phone call once or twice a week.

However, as ready as I am and as much as I belly ache about summer, I'm also just as sad. Each year means one year closer to them leaving the nest and so the first day of school, brings out quite the sap in me. I'm pretty sure I'm the only parent in the world who grieves when her kids start school, so I'll spend the first three days of school bawling around the house and reminiscing over their baby pictures.

Back to school is so bittersweet.