Fall Signals...New Shoes?

A cool foggy morning following Labor Day surely signals Fall is here, and Back to School is around the corner. After a hot, lazy summer of flip-flops and tank tops it's time to put on the socks and sneakers and dress to impress for the new batch of preschoolers. With two kids now attending the University preschool, many people will think they are twins, I'm sure. I'll get the questioning looks, disguised as sincere smiles and flattery about how young I look. But with the potty training in the past I look forward to the kids' new routine, even though it means I am going back to school too. My rigorous schedule of classes will be a challenge, but I just have to make it to Spring then I will finally be a college graduate!

So, back to school. I always get excited and anxious. I look forward to being productive, creative, busy. I also know that it means sacrifice. Drive thru dinners, looking past the pile of dishes and wearing outfits twice before washing. Ignoring the kids, or worse...yelling at the kids, while I try tirelessly to read 300 pages the night before midterms. But even with procrastination I get it done, and it feels good. I like pushing it to the deadline, the pressure, the rush of working obsessively to type the words out into some well-thought analysis, the realization that I can do it when I finally set out to.

Fall is finally here. We all have new shoes. Tristan has some white sneakers with navy velcro straps, Ashlyn has silver ballerina slippers also with velcro strap, and I have bronze ballet flats with flowers embellished on their toes, no velcro. We are ready to face a new crowd. I will be excited until I am actually sitting there in my first class, but then I can look down at my new cute shoes and smile.

By the way, we all can jump higher and run faster now, too.