Back to school means so many things around here… as I’m sure it does in your house.

We’re back to organizing and coordinating. Clothes, carpools, drop off times, pick up times, schedules, … ugh!!

We back in lines. Not just in the carpool category, but tonight we stood in the Office Depot line with everyone else and their dog. Fighting the crowd to get notebooks, spirals, pencils, highlighters, … you name it.

I’m back to hearing, “Please, Mom … Don’t talk to anyone else!!” What am I supposed to do?! Office Depot was like a mini-reunion. Crowd, schmoud … it was a blast. Every bend in the line brought another friendly face. How nice that we all put off school supplies until the last minute.

My kids are already back in the thick of homework. Why??!!! Can’t they have a few weeks to acclimate?! I mean really.

Moms are back in the signing up frenzy. Not a good place for the calendar challenged such as myself.

We’re back in the car.

I really don’t like being in the car.

Since we’re back in the car, driving to less than desirable destinations, the naggy conversations are back. Well, some passengers might describe them as naggy. I prefer to think of my soliloquies as inspiring.

I’m back at the pump filling my car with gas. Just this week alone, I’ve visited the 7-11, Race Track and Tom Thumb pumps. Not only have we been piling on the miles since last week (our kids started Wednesday), a certain someone who borrowed my credit card to go to the movies seemed to have put it in a very special spot. A safe spot. A hidden spot that only she knows and has somehow forgotten (hmmmm… she might be following in her mother’s footsteps). So I’ve been paying cash, when I can find it stray in a drawer here and there (thus the many stops!). Not a fun endeavor in our still 100++ degree heat. As is obvious, I haven’t been to the bank. I’m basically inflicting torture upon myself by putting band-aides on my gas consumption issue. I need to get my card back and fill the tank full!

I have one little schnook back to being sad because all of his very best friends have left him and gone to school. His mini-school still has a few weeks before it begins.

The sad kid is back to hoarding. … Okay, so it never stopped. A friend asked me the other day if he still gathers, organizes and hides stashes. The answer: YES. Always!

Here’s what greeted me just last night as I ventured into a bathroom to turn off a light.

FHA Markers

What in the world is that?!… one might ask. Well, here’s FHA’s favorite jar, a Christmas gift from his grandmother. It came with a nifty little lid that keeps track of coins deposited in its slot. Of course the lid has long ago been put away for safe keeping… somewhere. So, why not use the jar to store markers. And yes, these are the same markers Slow Walker discovered so neatly arranged in his shoes a few short weeks ago.

FHA sock

And here is a sock sitting on the couch just outside the bathroom. A lovely rainbow sock

FHA rock sock

filled with rocks… of course!

Poor kid. With everyone gone, I’m it. So who can blame him for even more excessive hoarding. He and I are back to Chutes and Ladders, chalk drawing, I Spy, bubbles, hop scotch, and so many more activities… with many of which I have a bit of a love hate relationship going on. I struggle with the mind-numbingness of certain activities and games, but at the same time I LOVE the simplicity.

What I’d give for that simplicity to wash over the emotionally challenging, often complicated teen years. If only landing on a licorice space in Candy Land could be the day’s biggest tragedy.

Thanks for walking the road with me.

-Kay

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