17 Days

Saturday was an uneventful, quiet day at home. Yard work, house cleaning, laundry, and some fun in the sun. Daddy figured out to blow up the behemoth pool that grandma and pa gave to us, and Kara and Jenna enjoyed some swimming time in the yard. Jack, not so much. Still not a big fan of water or getting wet!

Late Saturday afternoon, mommy went to check the mail, and the contents of that little box at the end of the driveway put my life into a tailspin. No, it wasn't anything as good as winning a million dollars from Publishers Clearinghouse . . . nothing as bad as a jury duty summons, tax bill, or a collection notice. It was a seemingly innocuous envelope from the school district where Jenna will be attending kindergarten in the fall.

Curious, I opened it. All I had to see was the title of the contents to send my heart racing and my palms sweating: school bus route and schedule. The good people at the school district's transportation office have taken the time to plan, schedule, map out and create the bus schedule for fall. I had expected the information's arrival in "early August", but hadn't really thought about it and certainly didn't realize the impact it was going to have on me.

The paper figuratively leaped out of the envelope and smacked me right in the face. My baby girl is getting ever-closer to the day when she'll become a kindergartner. The beginning of her life as a student . . . the beginning of mommy and daddy sending her out into the world on her own. On a bus. By herself. With about 80 other kids. The beginning of mommy spending her days without her little side-kick in tow.

Sure I knew this day was fast-approaching. We've begun "back-to-school" shopping for clothes, shoes and school supplies last month. We've bought and read no less than three books about the first days of kindergarten. Jenna has been talking about this day for months. I have all of the information that I was given at registration day back in May in a little folder on my kitchen counter. I've been meaning to pull it out and read it over. Let me get it. See, right here. It says that the first day of kindergarten will be . . . hold it . . .

August 20th?!

This month?! What happened to starting school after Labor Day? August 20th is just 17 days away. 17 days?! That's not nearly enough time. I still have so much to do . . . so much to see . . . so much to experience with my baby before she begins school. I've heard other mommies lament over their children starting school. There being so much that they wanted to do and didn't . . . so much time that they wanted to get back but couldn't . . . I swore that I wouldn't let that happen to me. To us. We were connected at the hip and had nothing but sweet time on our hands because I'm a stay-at-home mommy now, and my job is to spend every precious moment of life with my children.

Surely this can't be happening to me.

All I can say is, fasten your seat belt Jenna. This is going to be the busiest 17 days of your life: the zoo, the beach, the pool, wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do. Just be sure to bring along some Kleenex for mama . . . she's going to have a tough 17 days.