Falling into the Schoolyear

So many things happen as soon as that first school bell rings at the beginning of September. It has taken me about this long to get a grip on some time to write. Though it was a non-school day (teachers got to plan. They must be  collectively sitting down and wiping their foreheads, grateful the moment to plan instead of react) the day is not free from school activities. My friend picked up my youngest while dropping off her oldest about an hour ago so our oldests could play while the younger ones attend a party of some school friends. It seems there is always something to do, and even in the quiet between moments there are reading logs to fill, homework to check, and playdates to arrange. It all goes by so fast, I’ve heard it over and over, and I’ve experienced the crazy blinks of years that disappear into camera phone videos alongside pictures involving forgotten teeth, stained favorite tshirts and long lost toys. The kids are actually agonizing to look at old pictures with because it is one long whine of “where did that truck go? I remember that lego set! Let’s build it again! We actually had a fire station like that? Where is it?” In this craziness we get distant reminders to stop and soak it in, and I do try, although I must admit that soaking it in makes me feel kind of creatively nostalgic so I end up taking black and white photos, viewing the world through my camera phone which is not exactly how I want to remember these young years of my boys. We all have our phones up to our faces these days~ either texting or tweeting or photographing…I actually want to make a movie with the camera phone in the middle of the screen the whole time, and on the phone’s screen you see the little darlings of someone doing all the average things we all do daily, then all around the phone there are all kinds of crazy, beautiful, strange things going on. So like there will be the kids at a park and on the phone’s screen, but on the big screen you see like a quiet but gruesome fight take place. Then the next scene will be the kids walking on a street and the phone’s screen just shows the kids and the sidewalk and all around on the big movie screen you see intense beauty~ Fall colors, amazing architecture, meteor showers. Anyway, I’m rambling. It just feels so good to be thinking about something other than the immediate. Oh, I need to cook dinner. So much for the revery, back to the immediate.