Blue

I may be the only mom and in the free world who is sad that this week our children go back to school. This summer has been fun and productive and entirely too short. In the past I have celebrated our children going to school for the following reasons:

1. It gets quiet at home.
2. The kids have something productive to do.
3. Our children get to be educated.
4. The kids are bored and can now go hang with their friends all day.

This year, however, I am sad for the following reasons:

1. It gets quiet at home.
2. Those productive things for the kids to do also become things I have to do. (Seriously? Have you SEEN the packets of paperwork the parents get to fill out? I did about 1,000,000 papers and signed my name more than when we bought our house. And that was just to get them registered. Now comes the permission slips, the disclosures, the calendars, etc., etc. And then the REAL fun starts--a.k.a. "Homework.")
3. I want the kids to hang out with me and Spencer, not a bunch of dumb teenagers. (OK, this is partly a lie because we love our kids' friends.)
4. Each new school year means they are another year older. Briana is going to COLLEGE. (So is Spencer. Again.) Taylor and Ashtyn are both in high school. Landon is starting at the middle school. There is no elementary school for us. This is a sign of getting older--for them and for me. *sigh*
6. Going back to school is expensive. If everything is on sale, how come it all costs so much? :)

I'm just a tiny bit blue.