“back to school”

“BACK TO SCHOOL!! WA-HOOO!!”

That’s the difference between my children’s reaction and my reaction to back to school week. No, I am not glad to have my children out of the house – I miss them terribly when they are gone. I am, however, glad to have Routine and Schedule brought back into my life!

Oh how I miss those two rascals during the summer months. Having Lazy and Spontaneous come for a visit is fun, for about the first ten minutes of June. Then they start getting on my nerves. They sap my energy. They make me crabby and irritable.

I am one of those BO people – Born Organized. I have to have a plan, and a list of things to accomplish. I need everything put away in its place, preferably labeled with those embossed sticky label thingies. (Just joking!) When Routine and Schedule take up residence in my home, well, I’m one happy camper.

Unfortunately, I’m the only one. DH and DK’s couldn’t care less. So what’s a loving Mom to do to keep her family reasonably happy? Relax the routine in the summer months.

And count the days until school starts again.

My children returned to school on August 14, 2007. They are now happy about it.

– according to my teenage daughter. THE day of her life. Today she gets a learner’s permit and can “officially” drive the car. Over my dead body!

ACK! Can I please turn back the clock and make her a precious baby, that adorable sweet smelling bundle that made me a Mom? Can I turn her back to that adorable four year old with a lisp and a precocious vocabulary? Can I make her ten years old again, still taking tap lessons and learning to ride a horse?

I suppose not. She’s a wonderful young woman: smart, generous and kind. She’s totally gorgeous, and completely unaware of her beauty.

It’s time to start letting go. Besides, once she gets that license, she can help drive her younger siblings everywhere!

As I prepare my children for back to school, I am once again reminded of the cost of living – the cost of sending our children to a Catholic school, of clothing them, of providing them with the tools and materials they need for education. As I make preparations for my oldest daughter’s sixteenth birthday party, I reacquaint myself with the cost of “being cool”; as I schedule appointments for orthodontists, dentists, and sports physicals, I remember the cost of good health. As I sign my brood up for piano lessons and soccer teams, I stop and consider the cost of being “well-rounded”.

As my children grow older and start to pull away from me, I am reminded of the cost of Motherhood. I miss my toned tummy and six pack abs. I miss those pieces of my heart that are forever entwined with my children, those pieces that tug at my soul when they are away from me.

These things, – these costs – are fleeting. Bills come and go, money flows in and out. Children grow up, learn to drive, leave home. I do not regret the costs of living.

These costs are insignificant when compared to the price of living, the price paid by Jesus for our lives. That’s a price that hurts in the remembering. That’s a price that we must strive to repay by living His example in turn.

When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something that I have traded for it. I want it to be love, not hate; good, not evil; service, not self-centeredness; in order that I will not regret the price that He paid for it.