Wasn’t that adorable? I know, I’m biased.

The third and fourth graders were really good and now I wish I recorded their performances even though I wasn’t related to any of them. Trust me, though, they were good. I think the fourth graders sang a song that was in German and then the third grade and the fourth grade sang a song together. My mother-in-law and I thought it was Latin. If I had kept a copy of the program, then I’d know all this information, wouldn’t I?

But Mr. Calkins surprised the audience and the kids when he invited a few teachers and staff members, including Mrs. Breckel, LM’s teacher; Mrs. Francis, the school principal; Mrs. Albertini, the school secretary; and Mrs. Entrup, my neighbor across the street and the lunchtime supervisor, up on stage to sing a song:

I just about jumped out of my skin. I called my husband and asked how far he was from home. He was further away from home than I was. Ack! My mind raced as I tried to come up with a solution to this problem. I didn’t have any of my neighbors’ phone numbers in my cell so I couldn’t call anyone. I felt completely helpless. How could I contact someone from the neighborhood and ask them to watch Little Man for me until I got home?

That’s when it hit me. My sister-in-law is friends with Jean, my neighbor across the street, who also picks up a child at the same bus stop. I called my SIL and asked if she could call Jean for me. Thankfully Jean was home and was willing to watch LM. Crisis averted. Once I got home, though, I immediately got Jean’s phone number and I gave her mine just in case she needs me to help her out in the future.

Today’s excitement got me thinking. In the past, my relationships with my neighbors extended to waving hello as I drove down the street or took out the garbage. I’m not sure why since, when I was a kid, all the families in our neighborhood were close friends and helped each other out regularly. Perhaps it’s a generational thing. Either way, today’s events reinforced for me the importance of maintaining friendships with my neighbors.

So what kept my attention at Borders so long that I missed my son’s bus? I was searching for a daily planner/organizer that would help me manage my time better.  How’s that for a bit of irony.

The past few days I’ve been downstate getting our house ready for us to move in full time at the end of the month. You haven’t heard from me because I forgot my laptop. I was hoping I could use my husband’s, but it seems he didn’t bring his either. Even though I felt a bit lost without it, I enjoyed not being tethered to it.  Nonetheless, when I head back downstate in another couple days, I will be sure to bring it with me.

The next few weeks or so, I’ll be downstate a lot more during the week helping my oldest son get acclimated to our new neighborhood and enrollong him in his new school.

Let me tell you, I love our new house. It’s large, larger than any house we’ve lived it. And it’s on a huge 1 acre lot.  And get this: I will have an office where I can do all my blogging and writing! You have no idea how excited I am to have an actual office.  My kids each have their own rooms, as they do now, but they are much larger. The sweetest part is that they have a huge playroom where they can keep all their toys. I’m hoping this means their toys will actually be in the toy room instead of scattered throughout every room in the house.

Afterward, we went over the name on each envelope so he knew which card went to which child. Unfortunately, Little Man still hasn’t learned to read all of his classmates’ names, so we worked on sounding out each name. Hopefully he will recognize them all tomorrow.

Oh, the Hooked on Phonics kit arrived yesterday. Did I tell you that already? It’s a really nice kit; in fact, it’s more like 3 kits in one. It includes a Hooked on Phonics, Hooked on Handwriting, and Hooked on Math. I am impressed with all the workbooks, flashcards, CDs and books that are included. I got it on eBay, brand new and still in the box, for less than half the price of the kits on the HoP website.  I love eBay.

Even though it was so warm, Little Man’s school was canceled.  Did I know that? Of course not. Since it was in the mid 30′s when we got up, I didn’t feel the need to check to news for school closings and cancellations. So a few minutes before 8am LM and I headed out front to the bus stop. We were waiting for about 5 or 6 minutes when a couple of guys in a red pickup truck stopped and told us that school was closed. I was a little embarrassed. It didn’t occur to me until after we came back into the house why school was closed. It was in the 40′s yesterday so a lot of snow melted. When it dipped down into the high 20′s last night, all the streets to turned to ice rinks. I guess the school administrators thought there was no way the school buses could get down the back roads safely. Even though we didn’t go outside – it was simply too sloppy and muddy – it felt so good to throw open some windows and experience a taste Spring.

I overslept. Instead of waking up at 7:15 am, making coffee, and then going upstairs to wake up Little Man, he woke up me at 7:48 am. His bus arrives outside our house a little after 8:00am. Naturally, I panicked. I know, missing a bus isn’t the worst thing in the world to happen, but with two other little kids in the house, I really didn’t want to have to bundle them up and take them outside in the cold to take Little Man to school.

But that is not the moment where I think I failed. It was how I handled oversleeping. As I said, I panicked when I realized we only had 12 minutes or so to get Little Man dressed, fed, and out the door in time for the bus.

Before any rational thought entered my groggy, coffee deprived brain, I was barking orders at my son, telling him to come upstairs with me so we could get his clothes. I threw open his drawers  and grabbed the first shirt, pants, and socks I could find and shoved them on him, all the while yelling at him that he was not moving fast enough. I grabbed his arm and almost drug him back down the stairs to get him something to eat. After a very quick breakfast, I took him to the bathroom where I very hurriedly brushed his teeth. He usually brushes his own teeth but this morning I knew I’d be faster. I grabbed his snow pants, threw them at him, and barked, “get those on!” while I got his coat and boots from the closet. I dropped them both at his feet and again barked, “get those on!” while I ran to put my boots and coat on. When I got back I yelled, “you’re not moving fast enough!” as I took over and snapped his snow pant overalls and zipped his coat. Grabbing his elbow, I virtually pushed him out the door. We hurried down the driveway as best we could in the falling snow where we waited 5  minutes for his bus to arrive.

It was during those five minutes when I was able to calm down and thank God that we got to the bus stop before the bus arrived that I realized how poorly I had handled that situation. I yelled and barked orders and didn’t even think about how it made my son feel.  Little Man didn’t complain once during my 12 minutes of insanity. I felt like the biggest loser mom of all time.  He deserved an apology. I turned to him and said that it was my fault that we had to hurry, that I shouldn’t have yelled at him, and that he didn’t do anything wrong.  Quietly he said, “That’s ok, mom.”

I hugged him and kissed him on the cheek just as his bus arrived.  When the bus pulled away, I still felt awful because I knew I was not a very good mom that morning.  I know that I will have more bad mom moments in my life. It’s impossible to be a great parent all the time, but I really need to learn to stay calm in situations like that and not lash out so much.  The question is, how do I do that when I don’t realize until it’s too late that I’m doing it to begin with?

Today my daughter had speech therapy at 9:00am and the snow was coming down fast and heavy, turning our 30 minute drive into almost an hour drive. When we got home, I had to finish stuffing our Christmas cards with the letter I wrote at 10:00pm last night. After that, I had to run to my son’s school to help out with his class Christmas party that was moved up to 11:15am because school was being let out at 1:00pm due to the heavy snow. On the way home from school, I had stop off at the post office to buy the stamps for our cards. That’s when I forgot to put my return address on all the envelopes, so I had to stand there at a desk in the post office lobby and write my return address on every envelope. Thank goodness there were only 35 cards.

Every day this week was like today. So much to do but so little time to do it in.

Now I’m home and I am trying to take a few deep breaths and relax before I start packing for our trip to Toledo tomorrow morning.

Yes, we’re talking about a toy, but these 5-6 year olds are learning how to interact with each other, so they are testing the boundaries to see what they can get away with. Out of principle, I wanted to nip this in the bud, so the kids, including my son, know that they can’t just take someone else’s backpack, rifle through it, and take what they want.

Well, Mrs. B was wonderful. She called me this morning and told me that she didn’t want to wait until Little Man came to her, so she went up to him before class began and asked him if he had anything he wanted to tell her. Not skipping a beat, he told her that L took his telescope. She spoke to L and he admitted to taking it. From there she called L’s mother and told her that the telescope needed to be returned. She also got one of the school volunteers, a retired police officer, involved. She had him come and speak to her entire class about respecting other people’s property and that it’s unacceptable for anyone to steal from someone else. Mrs. B said the kids’ eyes were as big as saucers.

Mrs. B called a second time to tell me that the L’s mother brought the telescope and that it’s now in Little Man’s backpack.

Little Man gets home in a little under 2 hours, so I’m curious to hear his take on things.

Thankfully, he is the last to be picked up in the morning and the first to be dropped off in the afternoon so he’s got a short ride – a good thing since the kindergarteners ride on the same bus as the high schoolers.

The following day, we drove him to school and, again, he took the bus home. By the end of the week, he was taking the bus to and from school.

While he’s at school, it’s quiet around the house. I miss him, but he’s having a great time. I’m thankful for that because it’s a long day for him.

His teacher, Mrs. Ballard, does a nice job keeping the day moving. Keeping 5 year olds occupied for a full day, everyday has got to be challenging.  The first couple of hours are dedicated to reading exercises. They also work on numbers, colors, and shapes. And they have one rest time, lunch time and two recesses, one right after lunch and one later in the afternoon.

Overall, I’m happy with how his first week of school went. More importantly, Little Man loves school and is making new friends.