Back-to-school frenzy...

Having not posted a blog for an entire week, my longest lapse to date, I can only say that I've been running at top speed with nothing left in my writing tank as each day, this past week, has evaporated into night. Although still running on empty, I'm going the extra mile to put words to paper, so to say, before I'm completely out of gas tonight.

Our family so enjoyed the fun-filled week with my sweet sister, Kim, and her three boys who were visiting from the East coast. We stayed up extra late each night, squeezing in every precious second we had together. I accomplished nothing while they were here, which was fine, and we considered it a week of vacation, as well.

With my sister's family back home, we decided to immediately hit the mall for some much-needed and rather tardy back-to-school shopping. The plan was to take the girls and leave the boys with their dad for the afternoon. Audra got a last minute invitation to go to the water park with friends and my husband had some unexpected work commitments that precluded him from watching the boys. So, Audra took off with her friends while Sierra, the boys and I headed to the mall. Colton, who had been laying on the couch in his underwear, immediately started crying. "Can't I just stay home and watch baseball? I promise I'll be fine if you guys go." I'm ashamed to admit that I actually gave it a moment's thought, knowing full well that leaving a crazy seven year old at home alone would never be a good idea. Wisdom trumped wishing and as I delivered my verdict, he tearfully threw some clothes on and stormed out to the car. We had two stores picked out to visit as well as a large department store a short distance away. 

We made it to the first store without complications. Buck needed some new shoes, which we found right away. I had a coupon, so I was thrilled with our frugal deal. While in the huge shoe department, Colton talked me into trying on some soccer cleats, which I know that he needs, but was not on our back-to-school to-do list. He immediately picked a bright orange pair and walked right over to the shoe guy to ask for his size. Colton is the kid who could probably live alone and manage life without parents, if only he could drive. He's confident, outgoing and completely take charge. To a fault, actually. After two attempts with the orange pair, he decided to try on a different cleat altogether. Each one was tight and with each one he got a little crankier. I explained that he was using his big brother's bulky tube sock instead of his thin soccer sock. His answer, "Let's just go home and get my soccer socks." I told him we had deviated from our back-to-school plan long enough and we'd need to come back for cleats another day, when we had the right socks. He whined for a moment as I left him there in the shoe department to regain his composure, while hoping no one would realize who is mother was. When he caught up with me, he wasted no time as he tried to talk me into buying him a $300 baseball bat. When I told him that he doesn't even play baseball yet, he said, "It's because I don't have a bat." We kept walking. 

We made it to our final two stores and everyone did their best to stay cheerful, despite the blazing heat and the enormous crowds. Entering the last store, I made a tactical decision to start with the little one's back-to-school needs first. This proved to be a mistake, later on. We went directly to his section and he helped me pick out a handful of handsome shorts and shirts. My rule, they must be on sale or clearance. We did this and then it was Buck's turn. About 30 seconds into Buck's turn, Colton took the cart and decided to race around the boys department while Sierra did her best to stop him. It probably would not have been as big a deal if not for the racks of clothes that he pummeled in his attempt to out run his sister. Other kids began to scamper out of his path and one mother actually screamed. In Colton's defense, it sounded a lot worse than it was and the incident caused absolutely no damage. I grabbed Colton, who had a nervous smile on his little face, and firmly explained that he could not, under any circumstances, race the cart around the isles. He quickly told everyone, in the whole boys department, that he was done and wanted to go home. It went downhill from there.

Thursday, after painfully completing our back-to-school shopping, I decided to drag the kids out to the garage to whip it into shape. As they were eating breakfast, I suggested they get dressed and meet me in the garage for some dirty work before it got any hotter out there. They listened and filed out about ten minutes later. The first thing that struck me was the speed in which they showed up to work. And without complaining - I was impressed. The next thing that I noticed - they were each wearing their brand new back-to-school clothes that we had purchased the previous day. I was torn. So grateful that they showed up to cheerfully help clean out the dirty garage while wanting to send them back inside to change, out of their brand new clothes. I decided it wouldn't be a big deal to wash the clothes and decided to embrace the joy in having four kids who were eager to help their mother.

And, last night we hosted our end-of-the-season softball party. The kids swam, played ping pong, threw coach Louie and his daughter in the pool, fully clothed, and everyone finished off the night with a lively game of sand volleyball. We had a great time and went to bed late, exhausted. Audra and I set out today for one last day of back-to-school shopping. 

You'd think, in a city with summer temperatures well over 100 degrees, someone would sell a decent pair of appropriate shorts. Audra's only request today was shorts for school. She has plenty of long shorts, but wanted some regular, mid thigh length shorts. All we could find were short, very short, shorts and I told her last year that we would not be going there. Modesty and dressing conservatively is an important lesson that my husband and I work hard to instill in our kids, despite the constant exposure of flesh that our culture hypnotizes people into believing is normal. So, running from store to store in a frugal attempt to find just the right shorts, the day quickly faded into evening. Audra will go to school on Monday wearing her Bermuda shorts and I'll be thankful for an end to the back-to-school frenzy.