I Am NOT A Public School Hater But...

I am NOT a public school hater. Totally not! But this week I present my:

 Top 5 Things I DO NOT Miss About the Start of a Public School Year:

1. Back to school night! This is especially a nightmare when you have more than one child, and a husband out of town. Total chaos! There's nothing like meeting your child's new teacher and saying (without saying a word), "I'm a mess! I cannot control my children. I'm sorry that they are making a mess of the classroom you worked so hard to make perfect. I'm trying to hold it together and I'm starting to sweat. I really don't even know what to say to you. I better get out of here. Good luck with my child this year! Bye."

2. All of those forms! I hated those! What a hassle! Especially for multiple children- insurance cards, social security #'s, emergency contacts...blah!

3. School Supply List. THE WORST! I swear every year I would spend $20 in gas running all around town scouring every Target, Staples, Office Max, and Walmart looking for a RED, 3-pronged, pocket folders with brass fasteners. And don't you dare think about getting blue! Oh, and don't buy your child anything special or super cute because it all goes into a community pot and she may not get that one back.

4. School lunches. Need I say more... The only thing worse than packing the same, monotonous lunch every day; is eating the same, monotonous lunch every day. Poor kids! No matter how hard you try at the beginning of the year to be creative and cute with it, it always ends up a sandwich, chips, and a piece of fruit. BORING!

5. The worry. Somehow it never got easy to send those kiddos off to school. For certain kids you would worry about whether or not they would fit in and make friends. You would worry about whether they would get picked on or sit alone in the lunch room. And for other kids, you just worried for the sanity of the teacher.

So, welcome back to school, everybody! I hope your first few weeks are going well : )

Oh, a few other things that happened this week in our family:

Cookie #4 Started Cub Scouts! Cookie #3 is so excited he can hardly wait to coach him through his Bobcat. Gotta love it! 

And Cookie #3 earned his Arrow of Light, the highest Cub Scout rank (I think that's how it's classified). I'm proud to say that he did most of it on his own, which is why I don't know the proper terminology.  So proud, of him...not me : ) 

And Cookie #2 had a monumental evening. Not only did he and his friend (mostly his friend) cook a delicious spicy, spaghetti dinner; he hosted his first "club" meeting. He wants to travel the world in the worst way. He and his friends are putting together an intense business plan in order to raise the money. It's killing me to stay out of it, but I am. I wish I could have recorded their first meeting. It was...intense. No other words. I have one passionate kid on my hands.