So Busy

We were busy today, but we're always busy and it's been even more so since the beginning of September. I haven't written about my Dear Child and kindergarten (other than mentions of dropping her off or picking her up). I didn't write a lot about my milestone birthday. And I've written a bit about my Eldest Daughter being away and having the girls but, again, more like bare bones about it.

Why? Because I'm too busy living it all to write about it for the most part. And some of it needs a little reflection. I'm not getting much time for that right now. One of the things this reminds me of (and I'll freely admit I'm too lazy right now to go look through my L.M. Montgomery books for the actual quote) is a scene where a young Anne of Green Gables and her best friend are having a sleepover. They get ready for bed, race down the hall and bounce into bed, only to find the friend's Maiden Aunt in the bed! There are apologies and further conversation where the Maiden Aunt says something to the effect that every year after age 13 time seems to speed up until the years are just racing by. I feel like that more and more every year.

How can my baby be almost 6 years old and in kindergarten all day long? Worse, how did my Number 1 Son get to be almost 30? I'm not that old, am I? I guess that's why I tried not to dwell too much on the milestone aspect of this birthday. I feel like (maybe) I should be turning 30, not 20 years more than that. But the one place where I do feel my age is when I go to the school.

First of all, my next to youngest graduated from high school before his little sister was born! I'm very out of practice with all the details of getting small people up, fed, dressed, teeth brushed, hair done and in the car in time to get to school on time. This was never my favourite thing to do in the first place and it really doesn't seem to have gotten any easier with the intervening years. I'm still a night owl masquerading as a morning person and my children are all unabashed owls.

I like to have a pleasant start to the morning and having to focus (and make my child focus) on sticking to a timeline tends to create dissention, whining, pouting and fussing (and it makes my kid crabby too!). Getting into the car several minutes late is a guaranteed way to raise my blood pressure and stress level through the roof. Traffic is always bad, we live quite far (20-25 minutes driving in traffic) from the school and every minute of the drive is excruciating when we're late. Every red light is a disaster, along with every bit of construction that wasn't there yesterday and every stalled car.

We were early once (by 5 whole minutes!), just on time once and late or later the other 6 times to date (although the on-time days have been the most recent ones, so at least we're improving). I'm pleased that DC says she likes school and appears to be getting along well with her classmates, even though almost all the rest of the class has been together already for the past 2 years. But I feel funny at the school, even though I know a few of the mothers. With a few exceptions, they seem a lot younger than I am (I wonder why) and I don't know the kids or even that many of the families anymore. Yet there's a sense of deja vu about it all.

Anyway DC looks cute, has developed some extreme climbing abilities at the playground, is now eating sandwiches and is doing very well in school. Her secular studies teacher noticed last week that she could read in English (not news to us) and she comes home each day with new Hebrew words (from the Judaic half of the curriculum). But she's tired by 4 pm and still not always agreeable about eating dinner and getting ready for bed.