It's the first day of school and I am going to....

...sleep really well tonight.

Boyoboy, I'd kind of forgotten, during this long, lazy summer, how consuming school days are, as in "eating little bites out of my flesh." Because suddenly? I not only have to do my regular household tasks, I also have to be available to teach certain subjects: I'm helping Aisling with Biology 1; the three of us do the girls' religion class together; I got the girls started on The Scarlet Letter, which we'll be reading and discussing together as part of their American Literature course.

This time yesterday, I was lolling on the front porch with my library book and my iced tea, idly wondering if I had the energy to get up and pop a little bit of popcorn as an afternoon snack.

This school day has gone fairly smoothly though, I have to admit. I think the three of us were ready to get back into our familiar routine, even though the girls stridently insist that "summer's lease [had] all too short a date (that's a little Sonnet XVIII reference there, so you'll all know how DEEPLY COMMITTED I am to the LEARNING PROCESS, because if you're not deeply committed to learning, how will you ever be able to produce stick-up-yer-butt quotes from Shakespeare at the drop of a quill? AND I used Roman numerals too, so please feel free to curtsy the next time you see me.)

Oh, it's been a longish kind of day. New routine with both girls in high school now....Aisling is all "rage, rage against the dying of the light" of middle school (whoooaaaa! Dylan Thomas reference I am ON with the whole English thing today) and is saying plaintively, "Whyyyyyy can't it be eaaaaaasier? I'm so tiiiiiiiiiired!" in a particularly piercing nasal whine that has used up the limited supply of patience I had stored for October's usage.

Meelyn has doggedly worked away, as is her wont, causing little trouble except to finally screech "SHUT UUUUUUP!!!" at Aisling who was warbling a dreadful song by some baggage named Taylor Swift that had a country twang to it. I can't abide country music, so I wasn't as hard on Meelyn as I probably should have been for her rudeness. There's something about a country twang that makes me want to fall unconscious to the floor.

At any rate, the day is nearly over. I started typing this at about 10:00 a.m. and it's now 8:04 p.m. Pork chops & stuffing casserole is simmering away in the oven, the Prince of Salesmen is on his way home, Meelyn is doing her chores and Aisling is in the shower either singing or crying, I can't tell which.

Everyone has heard of breakfast in bed. Is there any such thing as dinner in bed?



Here's my post from September 2, 2008 on the first day of school,when I was seriously thinking about destroying the Rosetta Stone software.