Well another summer just flew by! Jeremy and I went to lunch for the first time this week since school started and he comments, "Can you believe summer vacation is over?" He is so funny--I reminded him that summer is a SEASON, not a vacation.
School has indeed started. I can tell because my kids' sleeping schedules have flipped. I mean last week they were sleeping til the afternoon but this week they are falling asleep IN the afternoon when they walk in the door from school.
And with back to school, we get into all the back to school, back to schedule, back to structure stuff. It's really good. I like it. But I also don't like it. Probably for the same reasons you like it/don't like it, but maybe also because it can be overwhelming.
It's overwhelming in different ways--last weekend we moved Katerin back to UMHB on Friday
and Emily to A&M on Saturday.
We thought we had a week between those moves, but found out just a week prior that Emily would be going August 18th. That was a whole week before we expected! When Emily read the email about her move-in date, anxiety welled up inside her and she literally yelled, "I HATE IT...I MEAN THANK GOD FOR THE OPPORTUNITY, BUT I HATE IT!"
Rollercoaster. That's our mode of transportation. The ups and downs can happen so fast that I hardly have time to catch my breath. A lot of the time I don't have time to process what just happened because I grasping the safety bar getting ready for the next turn.
I can see now how the summer program Emily completed was for the parents just as much as it was for the students. Dropping her off this time was a lot less teary and more happy. Happy because she was glad to be there, really happy because she was already connected with a few friends, and she knew a little more about what to expect. Rollercoaster is headed up at the moment.
Overwhelming...so my two oldest girls are away at school and the other 5 are starting the new year. August brings football practice, band camp, pick up schedules (oh yeah, be sure to re-enroll online so you can get your schedule), find your classes, find your locker, practice the combination, buy school supplies, clothes, order yearbooks, pay athletic fees, band fees, choir fees, orchestra fees, join the PTO, join the Athletic booster, join the band booster--all the things all the parents go through when it's back to school.
If you have a child with special needs, that receives special services, or has learning differences, there's a whole other level of overwhelming. And it's not just parents overwhelmed. Our kids feel it too. They are facing challenges I never faced. They are overcoming obstacles and finding ways to manage that I never had to consider.
I'm thinking about how to be pro-active and help their teachers understand -- yes they may have gotten the IEP, but honestly I don't know how teachers do it. How do they have time to do everything they do?? And then put a stack of IEPs on their desk as they prepare for hundreds of students to walk through their doors all day.
So I'm typing and retyping emails to teachers, discerning what to say, what not to say, in efforts to help my kid be the most successful they can be. And my kids are going to all the new classes, catching up with friends, getting all the papers and packets to sign, and coming home to crash in exhaustion.
It's overwhelming. My feelings are not left off of the rollercoaster either. I'm excited for all the new then I may feel down a little as I recognize the real challenges ahead.
This summer, in the middle of this crazy ride, when the rollercoaster was taking a dip and turn, Jeremy looked at me with a smile and said,
"Rollercoasters can be fun, right?"
He may have confused the summer season with summer vacation, but I love this guy.
