Spring slacker

I made all these grand plans on New Year's, how I was going to really get organized and get family organized too. Be a better mom and a happier person by having organized kids, an organized home and organized life! Yep, gonna plan out healthy meals for each week, gonna keep weekly homework schedules for each daughter, gonna stay on top of the family budget, gonna plan date nights with Hubby, you name it. Beds were gonna get made EVERY morning no matter if we're late to school, house was getting cleaned once a week, and that bible was gettin' read every day, by all of us!

Wow! What a difference a couple months later makes. It was an eye-opener last week when we walked in the house after school and my middle daughter noticed that my 7-year-old was wearing not only two different sizes of similar black boots, but the two left feet of those boots. Nice!

I remembered watching her walk into school that morning and thinking her feet looked abnormally huge but she's growing so whatever. I also remembered yelling at her that morning to hurry up and get her boots on because we were gonna be late. Little did I know that she slipped on one of her sparkly black boots and one of her older sister's sparkly black boots, which was two sizes larger. And then she put both lefties on. Now I would assume that felt quite awkward, but did she say anything, no. That must a be a little kid thing because I'm pretty darn sure I'd recognize if one shoe was two sizes bigger than the other and if I was wearing two left shoes.

Anyway, when my girls do those sort of things, like wearing the wrong shoes or wearing shorts when it's snowing, I take it as a reflection on my parenting and then immediately was mortified of what the teachers thought of me that day as they saw my daughter's two left shoes with one sticking out farther than another. Probably saying, "What kind of mom lets their kid leave the house with the wrong size shoes and wearing two lefties? What a slacker!"

The slacker that told herself come January 1st that, that kind of parenting was long gone and the new and improved organized mom was taking over.

That organized mom in January was also gonna stay on top of school papers, snack lists and party plans. Hmm, not sure what happened there either, but it seems I'm slacking in that area as well. My 7 year old brought her backpack home last Friday after school, as she always does, and set it on the bench. The organized mom immediately empties it out and checks for all-important notes the teacher sends home to inform of snack duty, upcoming parties and show-n-tell instructions.

These papers can make or break a little kids day, like if it's Cat in the Hat Day and they're supposed to wear red or if it's Silly Sock day and they're the only ones without silly socks. Important stuff, ya know. Well, the slacker that I've become didn't bother to even brush by the backpack the entire weekend, nonetheless open it up. I usually do but for some reason, I did not and it didn't even hit me until driving to school Tuesday morning, mind ya, when I asked my daughter to check and see if, by chance, I got her papers out from last weekend. And ... nope, I didn't. Thank goodness it wasn't Pajama Day on Monday, or I'd have been in big trouble!

Oh well, at least I recognize my slacking and have a chance to redeem myself.

Spring is around the corner and I can't continue these slacker ways! Time to refocus and while I'm thinking about it, go check the backpack.