Back to School Blues

First things first: Please go here and pray for Kim's husband's safety. I'll wait until you get back.

This is the first year I haven't had to buy school supplies. I didn't get to take my girls shopping for school clothes, not that I miss shopping, it's just... different. I'm not fond of shopping, especially with my older daughter, who is so picky - MY WORD, that child is impossible to please. OK, truth is it isn't the shopping I mind, it's the spending. I could window shop all day, not spend a dime, and come home, happy as a clam, empty-handed. If a clam had hands, that is, which they don't, but you get the picture.

Anyway. My office building is located right next door to one of our two high schools. It isn't the school my girls would attend if they were here, but it's school all the same, complete with buses loaded with kids and parents in SUVs dropping off and picking up their offspring. My office window affords me a view of the school's driveway, so at about 3:30 each afternoon I get to watch the cars line up as parents wait to retrieve their children from the clutches of public education. This was my cue last year to give Lindsey a call to make sure she was on the bus and on her way home. That isn't the case this year. Sounds depressing, don't it? Yeah, well, that's not my thing, although I could stand to lose my appetite and drop a few pounds. I appreciate the irony of it is all I'm saying.

School for them doesn't even start for another week and a half. I've often wondered if we should have homeschooled. I did consider it prayerfully before Lindsey ever started school. Back then, she was the sweetest thing. I couldn't bear the thought of sticking my precious baby on a bus with all those older kids. All the schools there are on one big campus, and each bus runs one route to pick up all the kids from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Her older sister, Robin, was in high school at the time, and I knew that Lindsey would be trying to tag along with her and her friends. Terrifying thought, actually. I began to pray about it well before she turned 5, but her dad was against it. It wasn't a popular choice among parents in the community. Most of them were teachers, and many of them were members of our church. Kids need socialization, don't they?

Miraculously (?) as soon as she turned 5, all the sweetness and light evaporated, and I couldn't wait for the bus to run so I could shove her sassy little self out the door and lock it securely behind her. I didn't, of course. She turned 5 in February and wouldn't be eligible for kindergarten until August. So, you know, I had to wait.

Oh, she was so excited. She already knew how to read and tie her shoes and a bunch of other stuff that parents leave up to the public schools to teach. Can you believe some parents don't teach their children to read? Kindergarten started one week later than the other grades, and Sarah and I accompanied our school girl to her class. To get pictures of her first day of school, not because she wanted us there. We had gone the week before to find her classroom, meet her teacher, and choose a desk. I was so proud of her when she led the way down the hall straight to her class a whole week after having been shown the way only once. That's my girl!

Sarah and I hung around just long enough to let the teacher know that we were available for field trips and whatever else she might need us to help with. Then we were free to go do our own thing. That was a pretty good year.