Temperatures have cooled and school-age kids seem more restless than usual.
The store aisles are crammed with crayons, backpacks and restless children, all telltale signs of the school season apparent across Garden Grove.
Grade-assigned shopping lists have been sent out, the stores are stocked, Walmart, Staples and Target are offering sales galore for anything a student may need to prepare for their first day.
Our schools have been cleaned, floors scrubbed, maybe a new coat of paint on the walls all ready for our students, teachers and staff on our first day of school just two short weeks away.
I’ve spent the past two months mostly on a “staycation” relaxing at home, spending quality time with my granddaughter and my girlfriends. Although I don’t feel quite ready yet to get back to work at least I feel I have accomplished what I set out to do during this time off.
My garden is weeded and looks great. My windows are washed and I’ve cleaned out and organized my closets. Yahoo!!!!
I really didn’t have a plan this summer’ I just needed to rest mostly, and I accomplished that. I settled in to a nice routine and I’m not ready to give that up. My cats are probably ready for me to get back to work so they can get back to sleeping all day, uninterrupted.
Ryan is back to school, ready to take on a new semester at Golden West College and a writing class he is looking forward to. It just seems like yesterday he was starting kindergarten at Enders Elementary. Boy, how time flies.
I vividly remember my first day of kindergarten-in fact as I was cleaning my closets this summer I came across an old box full of pictures I haven’t seen for some time.
On the bottom was a picture my mom took on my first day of kindergarten at the old Seventeenth Street School in Westminster. I was wearing my new red and white checked dress, white bobby socks, black leather shoes, a red bow in my hair and a big smile.
There I was smiling for the camera and decades later I can remember my first day as if it were yesterday. My mom walked me into the classroom and I immediately made a beeline to the playhouse and not to the rug where all the other students were sitting quietly with their hands folded and legs crossed.
No, not me! I was ready to play. That day I learned about rules and I continue to avoid them still to this day.
I accompanied each of my boys on their first day of kindergarten and cried for the entire three hours they were gone. The truth is I think the first day is harder on the parents than the kids. By the time it was Ryan’s turn to start school you’d think I could handle myself, since he was third in line. Ah, no, he’s my baby so I probably cried more. He thought I was utterly ridiculous. Plus, “What is the camera for” he asked.
I don’t want summer to end, I’m not ready to trade in my morning routine, bare feet and staying up late watching old movies. Sometimes I would never go to bed at all and Russ would get up at 4 a.m. for work and ask why I was up so early.
“I have the “back-to-school blues”
Oh baby I say I’ve got
the back-to-school blues
Just spent two months cruising in
My lazy shoes
Now I’ve got the back-to-school blues.”
