I did it. I made it to the end of summer as a mom of three boys who works from home.  Though the way I see it, all parents who make it to the end of the summer road deserve a high five. I mean, putting aside the moms who love to be with their children every waking moment and entertain them with pipe cleaners and glue and whatever else they sell at Michael’s, most moms are feeling kinda done with summer. There is no doubt that motherhood is the greatest gift. But so is the first day of school. And today, I am ripping that gift WIDE open.

No more…

Cups.

I mean seriously, it is uncanny how many cups a gaggle of kids can use in one day to drink nothing but water. There have been more than a few days that I’ve emerged from my home office and walked into the zombie room — ya know, the one with an endless stream of the Disney Channel and Fuller House — and there are fifteen cups strewn throughout the room. And the snack wrappers? Incredible. And not in a good way. And the best part is that my pups love to rip wrappers into a zillion little pieces. It’s awesome. I know, I should have trained my kids better. Maybe next summer.

The wet towels, oh my God.

We have a pool. It is a phenomenal way for the kids to entertain themselves in summer while mom is working but holy hell, the towels. (It’s an incredibly efficient way for them to bathe too. Hold your fire mommy-shamers—I’ve heard it all before). The kids are sweet enough to ‘sit on a towel’ when they’re wet and inside but they don’t get that a soaking wet bum on a towel really just becomes a soaking wet towel and bum. And the pool is a huge draw for friends and that’s a good thing even when it isn’t. There is something very cool about looking out the window and seeing a bunch of boys playing all sorts of games they’ve invented in the pool and then moving on to good old fashioned whiffle ball.  They do get hungry and in this area, I don’t always shine. I won’t share how many times I ordered pizzas for lunch this summer for my kids and their buddies. But seriously – am I supposed to make 8 grilled cheeses? That’s 16 pieces of bread and 16 pieces of cheese —plus, I’d need to dirty up a lot of pans to make them all at the same time. I did put out lots of grapes, cut up watermelon a few times, and load ’em up with all kinds of chips and freeze pops. In fact, my 8 year old started every morning with a popsicle. He called it his appetizer. Add to that all the snacks everybody snuck from the kitchen every ten minutes and I’d say it was a nutritionally well-rounded summer all around.

Oops…

But seriously, how awesome is back to school time?! I must confess that we fell a bit behind schedule and found ourselves shopping for backpacks and lunch boxes yesterday and that turned out to be a really bad idea. Slim pickins’ would be putting it mildly. But I did load up a week ago on pens and pencils —only to forget to send the boys with a single writing implement today on their first day. That might be embarrassing (but character building too!) I blame my oldest for this oversight—he is always way ahead of the game when it comes to packing his bag with all his supplies and he would have reminded me and his brothers about pencils if he hadn’t still been sleeping. Another two days and he’ll be up with the birds and able to help me with my organizational deficiencies. Did it help that Dad was showing them Michael Jackson videos in the kitchen when the boys were supposed to be getting ready and putting pencils in their backpacks?  Umm. No. But that’s the norm around here so might as well get used to it. To be honest, I’m surprised he wasn’t blasting the Rocky IV soundtrack.

So parents, whether you were working or home or both, you made it to the end. And that’s awesome. And now it’s time to hand our precious children back over to their teachers who are hopefully feeling rested and excited to see our little cherubs.

Here’s to a great year everyone.

Don’t forget the pencils!