Monday, June 17, 2013

Thank God School is (practically) OVER!!

Technically, Eamon and Maggie are done with school.  John-Paul and Andrew have a closing Mass/awards ceremony tomorrow morning, and then they are also done.  I love my kid's school, I've said it before and I stand by it, but by the time the hot weather rolls around, I am more than ready to be done with all things school.  Utterly thankful for summer.  

Let me count the ways:

1) No packing lunches.
From left to right: Xander, Maggie, Eamon, Andrew, J-P - all from L.L. Bean.
This is Phil's favorite part of summer.  He packs 5 lunches every night (4 school kids and one for the baby to go to the nanny's house) and it's one of the chores he dreads the most.  He's got the system down so well, but every once in a while we'll sit down after the kids are in bed and he'll remember he forgot to pack the dern lunches.  Minutes packing lunches = years out of Purgatory.

2) No more projects.



Project deadlines stress me out, and what's even more stressful is when your kids sort of forget to mention when things are due.  Ahem, John-Paul.  Thank God for the internet and digital photos that can be printed in an hour.  It's bailed me out many a time.

3) No creating custumes.
All Saint's Day

Mismatch Day
Usually they wear uniforms to school, which all the parents love, but on the special days of creative clothing, my kids act like they do not know how to dress themselves.  Suddenly, what everyone else will be wearing is more important than what Mom and Dad are telling them to wear.  Ahem, Andrew.

4) No Sick Days
Stomach issues again.
Getting that dreaded phone call from the school is enough to sink my heart into my stomach.  Who's sick now?  Usually it's my eldest with vomiting.  The doctors don't know why, it's just how he's made?  We've determined it's not Celiac's but too much dairy seems to upset him.  I always feel the worst for not being a SAHM when my kids get sick.  It's a fine line between caring for your sick children/asking for too many sick days at work.  In the summer, we don't have to think about it since Dad's home!

5) No Sports
Soccer season.
My ballers.
This isn't totally true since we still have track club in the summer, but it's more of a fun hanging-out-with friends-and-family-time, instead of scheduled games and practices all evenings and weekends.

 6) No Early Mornings
A boiled egg inside a sweet bread?  The perfect breakfast to go!
My kids still wake up early all year round (when does the whole sleeping in thing start??) but at least we don't all have to be up, dressed, fed, and out the door by 6:45.  Those mornings are rough!  

7) No Searching for Clean Uniforms

Ummm, but Colleen, you just said you loved uniforms?  I do!  Really!  But it's the laundering of said uniforms that's a problem.  How many mornings do we have a kid scrambling for a uniform shirt even though I could swear we picked one out the night before?  It's like the lost socks in the dryer dilemma.

8) No More Homework
We are so lucky that our older boys get their homework done in "homework room" at extended care after school each day.  But getting certain people to do their homework (ahem, Eamon and Maggie) is like pulling teeth.  Thank God that's over for a couple months.

And in August when these same kids are driving me crazy?  I'll be counting the days until school starts again.  Mother of the Year right here ;)

15 comments:

  1. I can't believe you are still in school! I feel like we have been done for a long time now...it is all just a distant memory...

    Good for you bloggy friend! Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 17, 2013

    I could have written this post! But I didn't. :) We have our lunch bags from LL Bean, too! Matter of fact...that one 2nd from the left is a pattern of one of my girls' lunch bags!

    out-of-uniform days are. THE. WORST.!!!!! I love uniforms.... :)

    No homework, too! yee-haw! although at our school, there's this thing called the required summer reading program with a project due on the first day of school. Ugh. I told my kids it has to be done by end of June this year! I don't want to be scrambling in August again! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 17, 2013

    When my children were your children's ages, they were up and adam early in the morning... too early, especially on those weekends. Now, the older they get, the more and more I have to work to get them up in the morning.... It's funny how life works.

    ReplyDelete
  4. love those LL Bean lunch boxes - we have them, too!

    I am still in that honeymoon phase with summer vacation. Still enjoying all the non-school freedom but not going crazy with the kids yet. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh my goodness.... Those lunchboxes reminded me of the Lands End bags I have been packing up for the girls this summer. We've got the LL Bean bookbag for the one preschooler and I can't wait for the other one to pick out hers.

    Do all your kids go to the same school? I am already dreading two drop offs -elementary and preschool - and having to rush out of the house half an hour earlier - and its not even for a whole year. Seriously scary thoughts!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Once my kids are preschool age, they all go to one Catholic elementary school until 8th grade...it's awesome!

      Delete
    2. Sounds similar to what we would like to with our kids... but they are not big yet and I know at least with #3 on the way we will be doing two stops a morning for a REALLY LONG TIME! Really wished the Catholic school had a full preschool program with 2s and 3s (it starts at Pre-K) BUT Catholics are somewhat of a novelty in this semi-small town. Hoping that the schools sticks around because the church 20 minutes over had to shutdown their school a few years back due to low attendance - that would create an even bigger conundrum!!!

      Delete
  6. I could have written your post VERBATIM! (Shameful secret...at the end of the year...an 8.5 X 11 piece of cardstock came home for the parents to fill out for the kindergartners on their baptismal day. So I go to the safe where i keep documents...and Ben's baptismal certificate is GONE! I start searching high and low and remember that back in AUGUST, the school needed a copy of it for enrollment. What the *bleep* did I do with it after that???!!!! Point being...day turned into days..turned into missed deadline...turned into my kid being the only one with no cardstock baptismal day memory being displayed. *sigh* (And I'm a stay at home mom). So done with mommy projects by May! LOL There..feel better???!! Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love this post, Colleen. And I will fight you for Mom of the Year any day. We can compare homeschool/schooled frustrations,

    Oh, and WHEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNN will my kids sleep in? Wheeeeeeeeennnn?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yay for summer!! So, do you get the summer off as well or do you still have to work? Your husband must be off though right..cause he's a teacher. Having summers off was the best thing I loved when my husband was a teacher!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Happy summer!!!! That was such a magical time as a kid.

    Is sorting uniforms especially tricky since they all look the same but are different sizes?

    ReplyDelete
  10. and HOW did you get out of doing lunches??!!!??!! I couldnt imagine in a zillion years my hubby doing something like that..every day! you hubby rocks.

    I even pack his lunch.

    well onto other things. Now that I have a couple of kids in the older grades, school is so much easier because they do everything.

    You are a very busy HAPPY family! Yippee no more schooL!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Goodness, y'all's schools get out late! Please, please tell me they don't go back to school until after labor day. Teacher in service for us starts August 6th and the kids come back the 13th. If we were in school as long as you all, I don't know what I'd do!

    Phil should totally do a guest post on packed lunches for that many. What a feat!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yay for summer! Even as a homeschool mom who spends the vacation with my students, I still really look forward to summer vacation :) Cheers! Celebrate summer and all the cares we can leave behind. Until September.

    ReplyDelete
  13. yay! Now I feel bad that we have been out three and four weeks! Already have summer camp behind us too... but we go back way too early!
    We had those tummy issues too...dairy allergy and egg (not lactose intolerant!)Hope it gets better for him! If you ever need help though, I'll "help" in any way I can! We are now doing well but she misses all that dairy!
    Have a wonderful summer!

    ReplyDelete

Talk to me...