Well I thought we’d done everything we needed to do around here to be ready for the first day of school next week. For heaven’s sake, we bought school supplies at the end of July. But apparently I was mistaken because this whole week has been filled with running errands and doing things that were on the summer checklist.
Please don’t think I had an actual summer checklist. It existed only in my mind, but it was full of goals and good intentions.
In fact, Gulley and I had a whole summer bucket list that we compiled over the last school year of all the activities we wanted to do with the kids over the summer and I think we checked off maybe three things on it. The problem was we usually added to the list while drinking wine. Combine that with the fact we forgot that all our ambitions to create summer fun die sometime in mid-July when it’s too hot to care about much of anything and you have yourself an unfinished list that was high on optimism and low on reality. Although we did take the kids to the pool on Monday and stayed until closing time which was something we haven’t done much, but as we were leaving, Jackson and Caroline said, “What about Barton Springs? When are we going to Barton Springs?” And they weren’t happy when I announced, “Maybe next summer!”
On Tuesday morning I had to deal with several customer service issues that didn’t get my day off to the cheeriest start. I felt like I was back in high school breaking up with a boyfriend and finally had to blurt out, “Look, we had a good thing but I’ve found something better and it’s OVER! Just let me go. I don’t believe you can change.” Thankfully, I stopped just short of asking, “WHAT ABOUT PROM, BLAINE? WHAT ABOUT PROM?”
And then Caroline and I drove out to Staples because we’d ordered a binder online for school and it didn’t turn out to be the binder of her dreams once it arrived. Jackson decided to go with us just to get out of the house and on the way there I told them, “Just think! A trip to Staples is almost just like Barton Springs!” Which cracked me up and got me a couple of junior high eye rolls.
We also ventured into Dick’s Sporting Goods because Caroline needed a couple more shirts for school and she’s a big fan of the athletic apparel.
Wednesday morning Caroline had an appointment to get her haircut at 8:00 a.m. I’m not quite sure what I was thinking when I scheduled it that early, but I believe it was something along the lines of feeling it would shock our system back into more of a school time zone instead of a college frat house. And I’m sad to report that based on the stupor we were in when the alarm went off at 7:15 a.m. that we’re about to have a rude awakening to the real world.
However, I was shocked later in the day when I looked at the clock and realized how productive we’d managed to be before noon. It’s amazing what you can get done when you’re not in bed. Look for that sentiment to be emblazoned soon on motivational posters everywhere!
So after all our errands were finished, we spent the rest of the day cleaning out closets and the playroom. And not much makes me happier than getting rid of stuff we don’t need. Except for maybe not buying that stuff in the first place. But, still. We have a few bags to drop off at Goodwill and that’s always a good day, plus I’m caught up on all the laundry for a glorious three hours.
And now I think we are truly ready for school. We pick up Caroline’s school schedule on Friday but there’s no meet the teacher or anything because this is junior high and this is where you learn that life doesn’t always involve a trip to Barton Springs.
Or even Staples.