Sep. 3: Back to school

Welcome to Day #3 of our September Blog Challenge! In trying to blog every day this month, it’s taken a very short time for me to feel like all I’ve done for three days is blog, blog, blog! That feeling will eventually wear off, if I remember correctly. Today’s topic:

Back to school: What did you love about back to school and how do you translate that to your adult life?

As a kid, my favorite part of going back to school was definitely the clothes shopping in August. Once I stopped growing so much and didn’t need an entirely new wardrobe each year, that shopping excitement diminished. I was always eager to plan my outfit for the first day of school, though. Second in importance to clothes were school supplies—because OMG, have you SMELLED freshly sharpened pencils? Brand new binders, heavy stock ruled paper, fine tip ballpoint pens, and a full pencil box could (and still can) make me swoon.

My back to school planning of long ago has impacted my adult life in that I feel the need to go all Boy Scout when I start new adventures.

I am the Queen of Being Prepared.

Um, I take that back.

More accurately, I am the Queen of Thinking I’m Totally Prepared But Actually I’ve Forgotten Really Important Stuff But I Did Pack Gum To Share So Don’t Worry Because If You Lose A Limb At Least Your Breath Will Be Fresh And You Can Flirt With The Paramedics Yaaaaaay.

These days I still enjoy going through the planning stages before I tackle new projects; I try to anticipate the things I’ll need and have them ready. My painting projects are much more efficient when I don’t have to stop in the middle for a run to Home Depot to buy spackle or tray liners. If I have to go to a meeting, I gather paper and pens for note-taking, print any documents I may need, and make sure I’ve reviewed info ahead of time. Before I have to dress up for an event, I decide what I’ll be wearing and whether it needs to be cleaned/pressed, if I have the right shoes, what purse I’ll carry, and if I have to buy horrid pantyhose. Some preparations require very little planning, and some call for much, much more. Don’t get me started on how I plan vacations.

Suffice it to say, I’ve been known to over-prepare.

I’ve always liked organizing and being ready for anything, so I don’t know if I can credit my years of back-to-school planning with those traits or not. I kinda think I’d probably enjoy those things either way.

Today is Jack’s first day of middle school. What did he do to get ready? Last night he made sure his socks matched. He didn’t make sure his socks matched his clothes, just that his socks matched each other. I had to remind him to brush his teeth and comb his hair. Katie’s first day is Wednesday, but she’s had her backpack prepped and outfit planned head-to-toe for weeks—she is my girl.

If you’re a blogger and want to do our blog challenge with us, let me know and I’ll send you our list! Otherwise, tune in here (and on Sherilee’s happy little blog) every day in September!

Aug. 9: Daybook

Today…

Outside my window... it’s overcast and not very sunny. It was breezy (chilly) during our PTO board meeting at the park this morning. That was not very fun. The meeting was productive in spite of the cool weather, though, because we are awesome.

I am thinking... that out of the corner of my eye, the pencil holder thing I just set on the floor looks like my dog sitting and staring at me. She totally does that, and I hate it and I’ve almost yelled at my pencil holder three times since I sat down.

I am thankful for... Victor’s day off today. He was on call, but home, for the first day in a long time. It was nice to see him! I’m also thankful for my mom being here. She’s fun to hang with, and she does good things like take Jack to swimming lessons and run to the grocery store for us and cook for our kids.

From the kitchen... we’re at one of those stages where the pantry contents are totally unappealing, the refrigerator’s mostly empty, and we definitely need to do some menu planning and grocery shopping. I hate when we get like this. It makes every meal such a chore.

I am creating... a new format for the PTO budget, and it’s taking every last brain cell. Don’t tell anyone, but I don’t think I’m smart enough for this job. Or, possibly, any job.

I am going... to chemo tomorrow. Mom’s my chemo buddy.

I am reading... very inconsistently lately. I started a new book last week and when I picked it up a few days later I had to start from the beginning again because I couldn’t remember anything I’d already read. What’s with my concentration these days? I think the PTO budget ate it.

I am hoping... this dandruff shampoo friggin’ works. Why it was behind a locked barrier in the store, I don’t know, but I wasn’t about to go ask someone to open it for me. Can you imagine? “Cootie-skank on Aisle 4 has dandruff! Key-holder to Aisle 4 where we store the dandruff shampoo and STD creams behind locked barriers because only skanks have dandruff and STDs and everyone knows they shoplift!” Fortunately, Mom has long arms and she just reached right in there and grabbed what I needed. It was embarrassing as hell buying dandruff shampoo, though. I hope the 20 glue sticks I bought at the same time distracted the cashier.

I am hearing... the neighbor kids yelling outside. This doesn’t bother me; I love living where kids can play safely at dusk. I’m also hearing Gilly bark at every one of those kids’ sounds. This kinda does bother me. His bark is MONSTER, and I pee a little every time.

Around the house... Mom is doing lots of our chores, including cleaning up our pee puddles. Thanks, Mom!

One of my favorite things... is new school supplies, which my dining room table is full of right now. I’ve got tons for my own kids and a bunch for donating too.

A few plans for the rest of the week: chemo tomorrow, work (hopefully) on Wednesday, Moms’ Night for Jack’s new football league, the end of Jack’s swimming lessons, and a trip to Salem on Saturday.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

Want to blog your own Daybook? Here’s the info: The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

Aug. 23: Let them eat paste!

‘Member when the most exciting thing on our school supplies list was a binder? We could pick out the cool three-fold ones and then prop them up on our desks like cubicle walls so our classmates couldn’t cheat off our work. That was so awesome, huh?

Having gone to private schools—and I’m not bragging about this; until college my education was little more than religion with just enough math and science thrown in to satisfy the state requirements—I was unaware of the expenses of public education. With the budget cuts in so many school districts, it’s surprising the things that parents are now expected to provide. I’m not complaining; I’m simply saying that things sure are different.

For instance, nowadays—at least in our school district, and in our kids’ grades—supplies are brought to school and thrown together to be shared by the entire classroom. No pencils engraved with names. No artistically personalized glue bottles. No gloating over how one kids’ crayon tips are nice and sharp, while the others are all broken and from a restaurant. We’re also required to send items that were never on my school supplies list, like large boxes of Kleenex, baby wipes, bottles of waterless hand sanitizer, graham crackers, paper plates, wiggle eyes, etc. You get the idea.

The biggest change, though, is that we bring enough supplies in September so that they’ll last the entire school year. This means that instead of sending our kid with a box of crayons and replacing them in a few months, we bring six boxes of crayons on the first day of school. Three bottles of Elmer’s glue. Eighteen glue sticks. Three dozen sharpened #2 pencils. Right now our dining room table looks like a stationery aisle at a grocery store. Actually, it looks like TWO stationery aisles, because we have two kids’ worth of supplies.

The only exciting thing on the school supplies list these days—because it’s the one item we’re allowed to personalize—is a backpack. This year Katie got a sparkly silver Hannah Montana one, and Jack got a 3-D one of The Clone Wars. They will undoubtedly want new ones within a couple months.

I’ve been to six different stores looking for school supplies and many are already out of stock of the more popular items. So that mom running into school late on the first day, screaming “I found them, I found them”? That mom will be me, and I’ll be dragging bags overflowing with 18 glue sticks, Prang colored pencils, Crayola watercolors, a Twin-tip black Sharpie, a black pocket folder, hand sanitizer, graham crackers, and Zip-loc bags that the stores finally re-stocked. Because the rest of you did this shopping months ago, right?

(And that kinda makes me hate you a leetle bit.)