Saving the World by 8 am

Swapping watermelon and sand castles for protractors and thesauruses: It was the first day of school for the nephews yesterday. Cheryl took an awesome picture of the boys. Somehow she got them to stand next to each other and even smile. I’m guessing she told them the fly on their pants was open or resorted to some other form of bathroom humor. Getting everyone up and out the door deserves massive kudos. Parents must act as alarm clocks, get breakfast, make lunches, get clothes ready to go, pack backpacks or slings, and act as alarm clocks again – basically save the world by 8 am. And they repeat this process every day, all school year long.
I still remember some of the feelings of the first day of school - the smell of chalk, new shoes, lunch boxes and new bottles of glue; the nervousness at who will be in my home room class; wishing I didn’t get the mean old math teacher; and the exhilaration of swapping summer adventures with friends I hadn’t seen in months.
Hoping it’s the best school year yet!

All Quiet on the Midwestern Front

While in Stillwater a couple of weeks ago, we went down to Sue’s neighbor’s because they had their miniature horses out in the yard. They let us go in and pet them. The picture shows me, Dillon, Tyler, and Cheryl petting one wisp of a pony.
Also while in Stillwater, Dillon and I went into a bookstore in search of the All Quiet on the Western Front book because he has to read it for school. Dillon went to the Classics aisle to find it, but couldn’t remember the author. I found someone to help us. She looked it up and couldn’t find it in the system. She walked over to Classics and started reading each and every title. Dillon and I just rolled our eyes. She went back to the computer. This time Dillon and I watched her type All Quite on the Western Front. Lots of CD titles came up, but no books. I told her to try spelling “quiet” instead of “quite” and spelled it for her. Dyslexia set in and after the fourth time of trying to get her to spell it correctly I finally convinced her to press enter after typing “all quiet”. Whadya know. It came right up. It only took twenty minutes to run this three minute errand, so we had a good laugh.
I bring it up now because that title comes to mind now that Tyler has gone home. It’s mighty quiet here and I miss having one or both of the nephews around. They’re fun and don’t mind if their aunt hangs out with them. Soon the routine of school, homework, and sports will take over their energies; but I’m glad to have been able to spend some time with them as the summer winds down.