First day of school

Today was the first day of school, and the first time my son, 10, and my daughter, 6, will go to the same school together.

I overslept of course.

Hurried to the kitchen to start their breakfast and lay out some clothes for my daughter to chose from. I did the laundry on Sunday, but hadn't had time to sort and pick out her school clothes, so I laid an assortment of new dresses on her bed.

Of course, she went and found something entirely different and more to her liking.

I told my son firmly he's going to wear a new T-shirt every day, no matter how clean he thinks yesterday's is. ("Of course it's clean! I slept in it didn't I?")

I'd packed all the school supplies I could remember from a list I was given and promptly lost. Pencils, check. Rulers, check. Tissues, check. Crayons, check.

Crayons I'd wondered about. It seems like we've got boxes of loose around the house, so I thought, "Why buy?" until a lady with a little girl told me my daughter could be risking social suicide if she showed up with a baggie full of used crayons.

Speaking of social suicide, my son is convinced his sister is going to embarrass him in school some way. Unfortunately he's expressed this very loudly and now my clever girl is contemplating ways to blackmail him.

Let's see, when is band practice? Oh right, there's a schedule here somewhere.

Oh my gosh, how am I going to handle helping two kids with homework, plus cooking dinner? Especially since I've laid down the law that bath-and-bed time on school nights is 8:30 pm.

Let's see, remind self to enforce limits on combined screen time. That means TV, computer, video games total.

But they'll be walking home by themselves and be home a few minutes before I get there. Hmmmm, do I want to lay down the law about what they can and can't do when they get home? Or will I just be undermining all respect for Daddy's Law when they "forget."

Have I forgotten anything? Almost certainly, but I'll certainly find out soon enough.