At long last

Finally!!  Tomorrow is one of my two favorite days of the year...the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!

What is my other favorite day of the year you wonder?  The FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

I believe that moms fall into certain groups.  There's the "Summer Moms" who take their kids to the park every day and the beach and movies and do crafts and go to museums and playdates and the zoo and picnics and the pool and summer camps and...well you get the idea.  The enjoy being free of the routine of the school year and free to hang out with their kids doing fun things.  They try to pack as much fun and entertainment as is possible into their days.

Then there are the "School Year Moms".  Those are the ones who'd rather chew their own arm off than push their kid on the swing for 3 hours.  Er, maybe that's just me.  They like the familiarity of the school days where they always know what has to come next (getting up, going to school, coming home, homework, making dinner, bedtime!!!) and they take much joy in sending their little ones off each day.

I am definitely NOT a "Summer Mom."  Staying home with my kids is simply not fun, they are loud and obnoxious and they fight constantly and complain of being bored and make a huge mess all the time.  Taking my kids out places is even less enjoyable.  The amount of chaos they create at home pales in comparison to the torture they dole out for me when I take them out of the house.  I love them all dearly, but I do not really like them when forced to take them in large doses.  Maybe if I had well behaved children I'd feel differently.  I have a friend who has these well behaved children (several of them, more than I have) and they do all sorts of fun things.  And at times I do wish we could experience those same kind of activities.  But then my own non-well behaved children are fighting and crying and hitting and arguing all at the same time all in a matter of 5 minutes just while I'm trying to get them into the car and then proceed to scream things at me about how mean and horrible I am while I'm trying to drive them to do one of those fun activities...well I quickly remember why I'd rather stay home.

So I fall into the category of the "School Year Mom", although really I'm more of a "Beginning of the school year Mom."  The middle of the school year there is too much time off, starting with 1 week at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at the holidays, 1 week in February, and ending with 1 week of spring break in April....enough vacation already!  The end of the school year starts to feel like things are dragging on.  I'm sick of helping with homework and all the papers that come home and trying to get everyone out the door on time in the morning.

So tomorrow I will rejoice at no longer having to trek to the school twice a day in the van and I'll happily recycle all the papers and workbooks that were brought home.  I'll wash the backpacks and put them away for the next 2 months.  I'll revel in this freedom...for about 24 hours.  Because by Wednesday afternoon I'm going to be counting the days until I can rejoice yet again.