The Start of School and a KFC Meltdown

The kids head back to school tomorrow.

This should be the only preface I need for any mother of children ages five years and up, to understand.

I have been just a little bit stressed over the start of this new school year. Not only will my baby be starting up in Kindergarten, but my oldest child will be wrapping up her final year of high school as a Senior. There is a huge range of emotions on both ends of the spectrum.

Four different kids in four different schools, with four different buses and four different schedules. Sounds like the beginning of a Dr. Seuss book, or maybe I should say a nightmare written by Stephen King.

Yes, I am feeling a little on edge tonight. No matter how hard I try to be organized and stay on top of things, I can't seem to keep it together.

Last week Ethan was supposed to go to his Sale & Info Days at the middle school, where they pay all their fees and get their schedules and lockers. I marked my calendar, made special arrangements to leave work early in order to get him to it on time, only to discover that it had been the day before! Sorry, Ethan, that you have a lame mother.

I don't even have all their school supplies yet. What more could they need than pencils and paper? Turns out, it's a lot more! And every year I am scrambling to find the college ruled composition books and extra large glue sticks.

Tonight, after a busy day of work, running to Erica's kindergarten orientation during my lunch hour, then picking her up from soccer practice after work, I decided that I was not going to cook dinner. Instead I went to KFC and, after stopping at the music store to pick up Ethan's trumpet book for Band, brought home a big bucket of chicken strips. My kids love them. I could care either way, I just love the biscuits. Something about biscuits always reminds me of growing up and good, home-cooked comfort.

The kids were excited, pulling out all the food, while I was pouring over a text which I had received from Eric. Did I mention that he is missing out on sharing the entire nightmare experience with me this week by working in Las Vegas?! But that's another post...

I looked up at the food splayed on the table, but could not see the box of biscuits.

"Where are the biscuits?" I asked, with a surge of raw emotion threatening to erupt from me. "DID THEY FORGET THE BISCUITS?!" (Insert very scary face here.)

As a side note, you must understand that it seems like whenever I go through the drive-thru of any restaurant, they ALWAYS forget something, and I almost NEVER check the bag until I get home and it is too late.

The kids got very VERY quiet as they saw the look on my face.

Ethan opened up the bucket of chicken and there they were, four glorious blobs of fluffy dough sitting on top of the chicken. Who knows why they weren't in their normal box, but the crisis was averted.

We had a good laugh over my over-the-top reaction. I told the kids that I was just a teensy little bit stressed out. Heidi informed me that when she saw my face, she thought, "Oh no, this is going to go real bad, real fast!"

She will understand one day, when she is sending her own precious offspring into the big and scary world, and feeling like time is slipping away so much faster than it should.

I hope she has some biscuits on those days.