Back Where We Left Off

School started back up yesterday after a three-week winter break that was too busy and too short.

I was looking forward to getting my days back to focus on work. Unfortunately, yesterday was not it.

We started the morning in a panic because Megan couldn't find the gym clothes she had dutifully laundered and placed in her bag at the start of her break. The bag was right where she left it, but it was empty.

I've had Megan do her own laundry since she started middle school in September, and she's gotten the message that if she wants clean clothes, she's got to make it happen. But she has also figured out that the worst part of that task is actually folding and putting those clean clothes away... so they tend to sit in piles, wherever she can find an empty surface (and not inside her dresser drawers).

On Sunday, her dad was fed up with the state of her room and so "helped" her by cleaning it up. It looked 100% better and made me happy. But now, Megan had no idea where anything was, and she concluded that he must have removed the clothes from the gym bag.

We threw her clothes on the floor and rummaged through them, putting the room back into the state it was before Dad cleaned it. No gym garments. The only place left was the hamper -- and that's where we found them.

I got her to school just before the final bell rang. I stopped at the supermarket for some odds and ends before going home. And that's where I found the lunch Megan left sitting on the table. We had been so frantic about being late that we both forgot about it.

Absent-mindedness is one of the less fortunate traits my daughter has inherited from me, and forgetting her lunch is a common manifestation. In elementary school, it was no big deal to bring it by and drop it off in the office. Middle school is another matter. The first time I tried this, the folks in the Attendance Office notified her to pick up her lunch, but only because she was a new 6th grader and still adjusting. They made it clear that in the future, she would have to take the responsibility to check with them to see if I happened to bring her lunch over. Fine.

When I explained this to her, she told me that the next time she forgot her lunch, I shouldn't even bother to bring it. I usually make sure I've sent her to school with a little cash to cover emergencies, so she could always use that for lunch.

But again, in yesterday's rush, I forgot to do that. I was pretty sure she had no money in her bookbag.

I wondered if I should text her. The students at her school are allowed to bring cellphones on campus, as long as they keep the ringers turned off and don't use them on school grounds. But a quick exchange of text messages might be able to happen surreptitiously.

Then I noticed that she'd left her cell phone on the table, right next to the lunch.

"She'll manage," my sister told me. "It's good for her. Next time, she'll remember."

So I did nothing. And at 10:00, I left the house to weigh in at the clinic where I've been hanging out the last six months. Before the holiday, I would go in immediately after I dropped Megan off at school, but the counselors there warned me that in January, the morning hour before people go to work was going to be standing room only -- so I've had to adjust my routine. My plan was to follow the weigh in with my workout at the gym.

But that was not to be, either. Upon leaving the clinic, I discovered I had a voice mail message. It was my daughter, calling from the school office, asking me to bring her lunch.

I cursed myself for not bringing the lunch with me, just in case. So instead of going to the gym, I drove back home, got the lunch and drove back to school, using up the time I'd allowed myself for working out.

She got out of school in good spirits, despite the bad start to the day.

"I have lots of homework," she announced as I drove her to her gym for her four-hour training session. "I need to get up at 5 tomorrow." She gets out of gym at 8:00. By the time we drive home and do dinner, she's ready to go to bed. So homework has to be done in the morning and she sets her alarm accordingly.

I woke up this morning at 5:40, just vaguely aware that my husband had just gotten out of the shower... and that the house was still dark.

"Wasn't Megan going to get up at 5?" he asked. I nodded.

She jumped out of bed in a bit of a panic. Her alarm had gone off, but she slept through it.

She managed to blitz through her English, Science and History assignments by 7:20, but still had math problems to do. As that's her last class of the day, she figured she could finish those at lunch.

Once again, we arrived at the school just as the tardy bell was about to ring.

Tomorrow is another day.

Comments

[Jill]

It's always fun getting back into the old routine!

Is your daughter a gymnast? My sister's children (she has 4 of them) are all super involved in sports. I don't know how my sister manages to juggle their schoolwork, sports and their social lives. It's pretty chaotic to say the least!

[TechMama]

I soooo agree with the experience of being relieved that the kids are going back to school - but then the shock of getting back into a routine. I have been stumbling around for the last few days...