Reflections of a Hassled Maytag Mom

Well, five days down, 175 to go.  I am not quite back into the swing of things this school year and it shows in my mood.  I woke up this morning the biggest grouch, despite the fact I am quite sure I was asleep before 10:30.  In my head this week I would say,  "This is the first Monday of the whole school year, this is the first Wednesday night I have to work of the whole school year, this is the first time I will clean the whole house by myself on the first Thursday of the whole school year."  Thus begins the grind of...the school year.  I think that is/was the source of my grouchiness...

Unlike many parents I know, I love school breaks.  I love when my kids are home and we sleep in and don't get out of our jammies until 10.  I love fixing lunch of macaroni and cheese.  I love the evenings when there is freedom from homework, assignment notebook signage, rounding up the lost shoes, sorting papers from the backpacks and pulling out uneaten snacks that were smashed in the bottom. The hassle of Infinite Campus and trying to decipher exactly what is a  "Who Am I" Frame that was missing and not being able to see or access 4 out of the seven classes on one of my kids is irritating to me.  Why can't they just get the bugs worked out of that system and have all teachers use it and use it consistently?
I like no-school nights so that the kids can finish a movie or read late because they can sleep in--and I love knowing that when Tom kisses me good-bye in the morning I have the privilege of rolling over and dozing to the sound of "Good Morning America." Now, if I could just get him to make me coffee on those mornings...


The school year also brings an increase in the hassle of laundry...oh, my!  Did you know that if you shut the door on your laundry room dirty laundry actually breeds?  It is true!  And now...spending the day in swim trunks is no longer an option!  School clothes no longer exist...they are ALL football, kickball, lunch-stained, grass stained attire.  It is all the same.  Shorts and t-shirts are eventually exchanged for jeans and sweatshirts, thus doubling the size of the behind-closed-doors breeding.  And I swear the makers of Shout are making a fortune on me!  What is in grass and mud today?  It is just not like it used to be.   Miss a day in the laundry room, miss a lot.  It takes forever to catch up and once you get behind, particularly on boxers, you never catch up.  Oh, did I fail to mention that boxers and socks are exempt from the closed-door breeding policy?  Well they are...Target and Kohls are right behind Shout in underwear/sock replacement costs.  Sometimes I think my kids think that socks are disposable...like a kleenex, use once and toss out!  One time we actually found 27 lost socks in the basement!  My mom asked me a few years back, when I was telling her that yet another pair of jeans had holes and I needed to buy more, why I didn't make my kids change their clothes after school.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?  That would double my laundry...I would rather buy new jeans!
 
But this morning, as I was ironing my boys' church shirts God gently reminded me (and believe me, I didn't deserve gentle at all) that I could have no kids to iron for, do laundry for, help with math, cheer on at a football game, tear up over when one sings a beautiful choir solo, to invite a backyard of school friends for a football game.  I could have no A+ papers to display on my fridge, no bookfairs to attend, no valentines to help write, no band concerts to attend, no field trips to chaperone, and never hearing the sound of "Pomp and Circumstance" at the end of 13 wonderful, laundry-filled, project-laiden, schedule juggling, backpack sorting years. 
 
I am the luckiest launderess in the world!