School days, school days!! I'm not even IN school, but I love the first days of school. New clothes that are too hot to wear this soon because ALL mothers buy "fall/winter" clothes so we don't have to go shopping every other week. New packages of undershirts and panties, new pencils, unused pink erasers, fresh reams of paper, cool colored pencils and scented markers. Spiral notebooks, and three ring binders and lockers with combos that won't work. Sweaty gym clothes that only get washed once a month, black marks on the newly polished hall floors, school lunch aroma in the early mornings, daily waits for the bus, gradually colder and darker mornings, sleepy heads trying to adjust to the early mornings to pick out the perfect outfit and do your hair and actually eat breakfast. The motivation to get up at 5:30 wanes quickly. Eagerness to do homework for the first week diminishes, and parents begin asking the questions....do you have homework tonight?....are you finished with your homework?....get to bed....did you hand your assignment in?....your science fair project is due tomorrow?

Late night trips to an all night store for poster board, bug collecting, pant hemming, class changes, comparing schedules with friends, assigned seating, late excuses, sack lunches, field trips, parent teacher conferences.

A college junior, a high school senior and and 8th grader. Ahh.... school days!! School craze!! School phase!! Mother prays!!!