Jack be nimble
Jack be quick
Jack jump over
the candlestick

Little Man learned it today it in his preK class, only, he’s been reciting all night, just a little bit differently.

Jack B’Nimble, be quick
Jack burned his butt
on the candle stick

*sigh* I know, I know. But he’s mine, so I have to love him.

“Mommy’s on a diet.”

That’s what my eleven year old daughter told my almost-five year old son a few days ago, when I declined to have chocolate covered strawberry from the Golden Corral chocolate fountain.

Never mind that Little Man has no concept of what a diet is… she’s wrong about it, and I proceeded to tell that “no, Mommy is not on a diet.”

Read the rest here…

Reading them has made me think a lot about my own childhood and school days.

Through most of my school days, I was painfully shy. You wouldn’t know it to read my chatty posts on the Internet nowadays, or even listening to me talk to my parents around the dinner table after school. When I am around people I know and feel comfortable with, I am rarely shy. But out of my element, in a large crowd, or surrounded by people who all know each other and not me? I tend to withdraw inside my own little shell and resist being pulled out.

That’s been me for most of life, but it was worse in elementary school. I wasn’t social or outgoing at all.

For the most part, that meant I was ignored. Overlooked. Forgotten. People really tended not to notice I was there or consider that I might have something to offer.

There were, over the years, a couple of girls who took the time to tease me about my weight and awkwardness at sports, but only verbally and I don’t really call it bullying, although I guess it could be considered that in a mild form. Mostly, I got through it by telling myself that ‘high school is only four years and then I never have to see those two again.’ And what do you know — I was right. I graduated high school and never had to see those girls again. Not even on Facebook. I suppose that makes me one of the lucky ones, because I know that some kids had it (and still have it) a lot rougher than I did.

At the time, however, I didn’t feel all that lucky. Being the quiet kid in the corner who everyone forgets is there is not really a position to cherish. I can remember being passed over for birthday party invitations in elementary school, and then listening with silent envy a few years later, as the same group of kids I so desperately wanted to feel like I belonged with made plans to meet up at the mall right in front of me. Without even giving a thought to asking, “Hey, Debbie, would you like to come along?” Even if I had said no, it would have totally been like walking on air just to have been asked. That day really never came.

I also remember the day I said “No more! Enough is enough!”

It was my senior year of high school, just months before graduation, and I was riding on the school bus, headed home from another day at school. Garth Brook’s song, The Dance, was playing on the radio. Something in the words that day spoke to me where they hadn’t the upteenth times I had heard the song before, and I vowed then and there that I would no longer let my shy nature dictate what didn’t happen in my life — and that I would stop caring if they all ignored me. I also promised myself that college would be my fresh start. I would open myself more to new friends and new things, be a little more bold and less shy.

Over the years, I’ve found a balance. I’m still a natural introvert, and that’s not likely to change, but I’ve learned that I can find a place a bigger group of friends without being shoved into the corner.

Today, I am the mother of two blessedly out going children. My daughter is a social butterfly who has a couple of close friends, one like-a-sister best friend, and any number of the garden variety ‘school friends.’ My son is that kid who will easily play with anyone, whether he knows their name or not, and isn’t intimidated if they’re older than him. Growing up with a big sister who’s six+ years older will do that, I guess. He just throws himself into the game and goes with the flow.

Watching them sometimes makes me cry for the shy little girl I used to be. I wish she had been more like her future children.

I made this one for the Bayview Elementary School’s Fall Fun Fair, as a raffle item.

By some twist of Fate, or just good luck, one of my dearest friends entered the raffle at the very last minute and won it!

A lot of people have asked me what I will do with myself while they are both gone, because this is the first time in four-and-a-half years that I’ve had the house entirely all to myself for six straight hours.

Well, today is a bit of a random day, at least until I get a routine going. I walked home from dropping Little Man off at school alone… and boy was the walk home different! I’m so used to having a three-foot-something shadow chasing me (or leading me) down the sidewalk!

I posted the First Day pictures, drank a second cup of coffee, checked email, and called a friend to ask about a fire scare at her daughter’s middle school. (Yikes! What a first day!) And now I’m going to start on some house work.

The routine I hope to have established by the end of the week looks something like this:

1) Exercise (here or at the gym)
2) house/yard work/errands
3) Writing (I will happily take prompts for flash fiction, if you have any!)
4) Lunch (could come before the writing, depending on how long the stuff in #2 goes)
5) Chatting with the husband (if he’s there and if #2 isn’t still on-going)
6) Figuring out what to cook for dinner BEFORE I go to pick up Little Man from school.

These are in “no particular order” because they could change as needed. For example, tomorrow I have a dentist appointment.

So, if you’re kids are in school right now, what are you doing with your six hours?