Saved by School!

I have never been so grateful for school to begin as I was this Monday. We made it through summer with camping in Yosemite/Lake Tahoe/Mono Lake, swimming lessons through the park service and one week of Oakland Zoo Camp. Zoo Camp seems cool but I can't really tell. Every day that week when I picked my son up and asked him how camp was he'd say "we rolled down the grassy hill" or "snack time was great" or "my favorite was when we played tag during free play." For this I paid my hard-won money? One thing I got out of it is that when I came to pick him up at 4 pm the fruit bats, or flying foxes, were often stretching their enormous wings and I could see their amazing swooping as they flew to the upper reaches of their cage. I love those animals--it's a wonderful addition to the zoo.

I have been trying to organize my household through the marvelous FlyLady.org. As she says, the new school year represents new hope for smooth mornings and early bedtimes, completed homework and not being the last parent to turn in forms to the teacher. To that end, we got some super cheap school clothes at a large chain store that many say one should boycott (I'm not sure why this particular franchise is any worse than any other, aside from its excellent use of RFID technology to streamline its supply chain--and everything everywhere is made in China anyway). I was avoiding it until my husband demonstrated that it has addictive pricing for self-employed people. I ordered a monogrammed Land's End backpack for my son that should last the next decade. My resolution to regularly feed my family through crock pot cooking ended with my first meal, a bland but edible Greek chicken stew. However, we did do a bang-up job on my son's room, finally adding a desk and shelf under the loft bed Emilio built. My husband's approach is to go to IKEA and observe, then build stuff himself with two-by-fours and plywood. It looks so great, my son says he can't wait for homework to start next week. I did buy some blue vegetable oil-based stain from IKEA and a magenta office chair for $18. Emilio thought my son wouldn't like a pink chair, but I said don't buy into that ridiculous marketing stuff--I bet you he won't even notice. Sure enough, he didn't, and he was thrilled with the chair.

So, as summer ends and my son's seventh birthday looms, I thought I'd commemorate a few things he's said recently:

"My favorite movie is Giraffic Park."

"Did you know plants and humans are exactly alike? Except plants are not shaped like humans, of course."

"Mommy, what do the Boy Sprouts do?"

After the first day of school: "I don't like first grade. There isn't no playhouse in the classroom!"

After the second day of school: "I like first grade. It's not so much playing as kindergarten, but that's good because I like to work."

After the third day of school: "Today all my friends from kindergarten found each other at recess and we held hands and said 'together forever!'"