Mom/Antonin World Times (or, Labor Day & First Week of School)

Hello and welcome to a sweetly cool Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 9^th.

What a week! I feel like I’ve lived a year in this past week! Labor Day weekend kicked off with my relatives’ annual Family Gathering. This coming together of cousins has been happening for almost 30 years. One of my cousins wrote in our Facebook event, “Please share this event with the kids who aren’t on Facebook,” and I legit thought, “Which one of us isn’t on Facebook?” Oooohh… She meant the next generation of kids, as in, our kids. When I shared this with her, she laughed and said I wasn’t the only one who kept thinking that WE are the kids, even though we’re all in our forties and fifties.

Sunday's plan was to travel to the Twin Cities and move College Kid 2.0 into his dorm. After a brief morning visit with my mom, College Kid 2.0 and I went to mass where we heard an excellent homily by a young priest sporting a bald head and long beard who looked like the perfect candidate for a lumberjack deodorant commercial. With a booming voice, he urged us all to step up our game for our fellow man. I thought it was an apropos send-off message for the college student.

After church, we had coffee with one of my dearest friends who taught English with me when we lived in the Czech Republic. Whenever I get together with her, I get this squishy, mushy, gooey warmth in my heart and I want to hug her for about five minutes. We rarely see each other, so understandably I amass huge amounts of affection and appreciation for her in between visits. Once I get that out of my system, I’m able to converse normally. She introduced me to avocado toast and I introduced her to College Kid 2.0 (aka CK 2.0), whom she hadn’t seen in person since he was a toddling 2-year-old.

The next stop on our trans-Minnesota trip with CK 2.0 was my cousin’s house to frolic on the Mississippi River. What a delight when I saw - not only my cousin and her husband (and the perfect blanket ladder I want to get my husband for our anniversary, which is next week), but another one of my cousins and his wife. “The party just keeps going!” I gushed.

The hot day was perfect for jet skis on the river. It was my first time, and I rode with CK 2.0 whose penchant for jumping waves eventually gave me a sore rear end. Despite this, with 90-degree + temps heating up the entire state, it was the perfect midday break.

Finally, CK 2.0 and I made it to his dorm in the early evening where we unloaded his gear and rearranged his room to create the greatest “spacious and homey” feeling.

Aaah...back to school. After a blissful summer filled with so many adventures, I wasn’t looking forward to it. But the charm of “back to school” has lured me into loving it. (Or, at least, greatly appreciating it.) Besides, with all of those back-to-school Facebook posts, what’s not to love?

You work so hard with your kids when they live in your house - a help they tend to find SO annoying at the time. So when they ask you to help them move into their college dorm, it feels nice. I’m no organizational wiz, but I’ve got some muscle, patience, and a capacity to move heavy furniture until it looks juuuust right. Decorating your child's dorm room is sort of like cooking a nice dinner for him - it has all the special touches only a mom can do. 

He’d never been to IKEA before so we went there. However, except for a few cacti and a lint roller, nothing was vibing. “We’re in the wrong country!” I joked. Then we headed over to Target where we found our shopping mojo. We loaded up with a lamp (that had shelves!) a computer chair (exactly what he wanted) various throw pillows (to provide some complementary color to his black and grays), and a peanut butter monster trail mix that I fully endorse even though I’m usually not a peanut butter fan.

Monday, i.e. Labor Day, we went to work assembling the furniture we’d purchased the night before and put the final touches on his room. We had a list of more items to buy, but I had to skedaddle – I needed to drive home in time for the first day of school for the rest of the kid crew at home. And I still had to buy school supplies. (Parent tip: If you want to help your college student build a credit score but you don't want them to have a credit card, consider adding them to your own card as an authorized user.)

On the morning of the first day of school, we all woke up not sure what to do. The state of Minnesota is providing students free breakfast and lunch this year – both of which usually come from our home. So, do we make breakfast? Do we make lunch? The 6^th Grader got up early to cut apples no matter what, while the rest of us scratched our heads. In the end, kids decided to try school breakfast. Two opted to pack a few carrots and slices of bread and butter for lunch, while the third agreed to school lunch. We gathered outside for the requisite first-day-of-school pic after some bickering involving our most recent senior (aka WAKWIR 1.0, aka Senior 3.0, aka Middle Child) and his desire to drive versus our desire (logic) to take the bus. (The bus comes 20 minutes later than last year which is a mega win in our books.)

We waved to the kiddos as they boarded, shouted our last well wishes, and gave the bus driver a final nod. Yep, school had started. We are back to what I call Ordinary Time. 

Despite my initial ominous feelings about getting back to proper sleep schedules, packed lunches, homework papers piling up on the kitchen counter, and signing off on reading sheets, I feel pretty good. "Ordinary Time" means structure and steady plodding towards a great goal. It means family time and routines that we enjoy –kids sitting around the table doing homework while I make dinner, eating together as a family, the table conversation, “Tell us one good thing, and one bad thing about today,” praying together as a family, watching Czech cartoons before the bedtime stories.

When I think about all of these things, I’m reminded that we’ve got a good thing going. And when I look at my friends’ Facebook posts of their kids going back to school, I hope and wish the same for them. Happy families make happy communities. This collective spirit has the power to make Wannaskaland a place where I’m grateful to be living and a place that can thrive. I think that’s beautiful. Even if it sounds a bit delusional and farfetched, it’s a good goal. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts," and all that.

While I worked on home improvement projects (more on those next week), a Schoology notification informed me that the Senior 3.0 was marked “Absent” in Homeroom. I swiped right, knowing I’d get the full story in the evening. I thought about the 6^th grader, who would be schlepping back and forth between the elementary and high school wings of the school. Would she feel winded and overwhelmed, or just fine? The 3^rd grader, I knew, would be okay; happy to be back with friends, but would he eat enough?

When the younger two bounded off the bus and hopped into the house after their first day, they shouted, “Honey, I’m hooome!” A good day, for sure. In the evening, as fatigue set in, just a few small quibbles. (Because a good day does not mean a perfect day.)

From the 6^th grader: "I wanted homework from school and I didn’t get any!" (Followed by tears.)

From the 3^rd grader: "Mom, I was 8 minutes late for homeroom." (Preceded by tears.)

From the Senior 3.0: "Let me tell you why I was marked absent in homeroom."

Here are the WAKWIR 2.0's thoughts:

The first days of school were annoying. We already started jumping into division, times, addition, subtraction - and for some reason, we're learning how to have a conversation. I'm already good at having conversations. That's how you make friends. You have conversations with them.

My mainly three favorite parts about the day are recess, gym, and lunch. My favorite part about recess is that all my friends are there and they're all the way, down the hall, by the 4th and 5th graders. Why gym is my favorite is because I get to run around and play games. Mostly I have to do football stuff. I don't really like football, but the reason why I like doing it is because we can pick our own teammates and we can have at least up to three. Yesterday, we worked on punts. The day before, we worked on spirals. You may be wondering what a punt and spiral are. A punt is where you drop the football and then you kick it - with, not your toes, but you hit it with the top of your foot. And a spiral is when you throw the football, it goes straight to someone else, and it's spinning in a direct circle but staying in place. 

Why lunch is my favorite? I get to have conversations with my friends and all of them are there in line when we go back to class. Also, because we're usually starving after recess. 

Something new at school is that all the food is free. I haven't had school food yet because I don't really like school food. They do it so sloppy. Sloppy looks like during lunch, whenever there's a sauce, they just slap it on their plates. That's unappealing to me because I only eat a little bit of food. So, there's slapping sauce, and then there's a taco with a breadstick, plus milk, plus so much more. I just can't process it.

I'm supposed to have homework because, if you don't finish your assignment, that will be called as homework. So far I have not had any homework. But some of my classmates have had homework.

I think there are going to be a lot of new things [this next school year.] I think that because, at the end of the year, we're going to have SO many field trips, like 8 field trips, that are out of the school building.

So, this is my ending and this is my moral [of the story]: School is hard, but it all pays off when you're older. 

Make it a great Saturday!

Mom/Antonin

A lot can change in 3 years!