‘Twas the night before the first day of school, when all through the house

Not a child was stirring, nor even my spouse.

The backpacks were hung in the garage with care,

With new school supplies tucked carefully in there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of seeing their friends again danced in their heads. 

Ok, cheesy remakes of holiday poems aside, I think that we are finally ready for school to begin tomorrow. But let’s run through the list once more to make sure, shall we?

New lunchboxes ready on the counter to be packed in the morning? Check

New water bottles and sandwich containers washed and ready to be filled in the morning? Check

New outfits set out, ready and waiting for kids to put them on in the morning? Check

School shoes purchased and set aside until the weather gets too cold to eek any more use out of the summer sandals? Check

The new lunch menu posted on the coat closet door and marked (with color coding!) to show which days Abby and Hannah will be purchasing hot lunch at school or not? Check

The girls’ memo boards already holding new school papers sent home on Back-to-School night, and the first important notes of the school year written in? Check

The ‘mud room’ area in the garage all set up with labeled hooks for each girl’s coats and backpack, hooks above for hats and mittens when it gets cold out, and filing areas for Abby and Hannah to put their school papers in each afternoon (thereby hopefully keeping the clutter off of my kitchen counters) ready and waiting? Check

So now I think the only thing that I absolutely HAVE to tackle this morning will be to make sure that I wake up to my alarm (we’ve set Abby’s as a hopefully unneeded backup) and get everyone off to where they need to go on time.

I will be dropping Becca off at daycare for the morning so that I can meet Abby and Hannah’s bus at school and walk them to their classrooms (our annual tradition on the first day) without little sister running around. It also gives Becca something special to look forward to – and not so incidentally gives me the rest of the morning kid-free… 

And then I will be tackling some much-needed Mommy time – to catch up on e-mail and everything else that’s piled up over the last few weeks of summer, and to slow down and rest for the first time since school ended in June.

Have I mentioned that I’m almost as excited as the girls are for school to start? Even though I can’t believe I’m sending off my THIRD and FIRST graders this morning…

Deep breath. T-minus eight hours and counting until the bus arrives. 

What are you tackling this week? And check out other Tackle It Tuesday posts over at 5 Minutes for Mom!