First (And Second) Day Of School Traditions

Tuesday was the first day of school. You read that statement correctly. Tuesday, August 14, was the first day of school.

Here in the Midwest, we like to start the school year well before the real threat of snowy weather sets in.

Which is usually around the last week in September.

But that's not my point. My point is that I always cry on the first day of school. Not tears of joy, but tears of sadness. I get so used to having the girls around me all summer that I actually miss them on the first day of school.

Or maybe I'm just weak with fatigue from having gotten out of bed at 5:30 to make muffins for breakfast before my seventh grader had to get on the bus at 6:55. The school year can't possibly get off to a good start without freshly baked muffins for breakfast.

It's in the Constitution. Or the Geneva Convention. Perhaps both.

After getting the girls on the bus and in an effort to stave off my inevitable annual first day of school weepfest, this year I decided to try something new. This year I wasn't going to spend most of the day in fetal position sucking my thumb. Oh no. This year, I decided to keep busy. Very, very busy. Doing, you know, important stuff. The kind of stuff mothers have done on the first day of school for generations.

Basically, cry a little, make chocolate chip cookies and defrost the big freezer.

My day may or may not have included some Kardashian watching as there may or may not have been a Kardashian marathon on E! that I felt compelled to watch since I haven't kept up with the Kardashians all summer.

Mostly, my time was devoted to uncovering what goodies have come to call my big freezer home. I'm proud to say that I recognized most of what was in there. Not right away, but eventually. After a couple of head scratches and some 'What the devil is that?' comments.

Only two quart sized Ziploc freezer bags of garden sweet corn from July '09 surprised me. They had been in the freezer for so long (apparently since July '09) that they had become one with the shelf. The corn bags froze to the shelf so severely that the bags were covered in a thick layer of ice. I didn't notice the corn and had stacked a few (eleven) cartons of Breyer's ice cream on top of them.

Don't judge me. See above snowy weather/end of September comment. I'm just being practical here, people. Really.

By the time the freezer was rid of frost and I had crammed neatly organized the contents inside of it, my kids were home.

The bickering started. I totally forgot what it was like to have them home all summer long.

Which brings me to my second day of school tradition: a four hour, three margarita lunch with my friends.

Here's to a great school year! Pin It Now!