Anyone else exhausted?
If your kids started school this week, I'm willing to bet you are propping your eyelids open this morning with the help of a cup of coffee.
Because they didn't just start school. They also probably started football practice, cheer practice, dance lessons. You had to fill out paperwork on the first day, the second day, the third day. You had to mark school picture days and homecoming on the calendar.
Shoes and clothes that were set out nicely in preparation for the first day of class are now being dug out of the laundry basket in a hasty game of, where is my uniform shirt?
Lunches made with care and proper proportions, set out the night before are now hastily being thrown together in the morning with a stern reminder to just eat what they give you in the lunch line and be happy you eat at all.
You were probably late for work, at least once.
You have already probably had to re-arrange your schedule to account for an upcoming cross country meet or meet the teacher night you were not aware of.
You have probably definitely missed your work out, at least once.
And you have fallen into bed without brushing your teeth more than you would like to admit.
It's ok.
The first day of school means big changes for our children, and, for us.
Gone are the days of mismatched summer clothes and eating dinner at 8 p.m. They can't take naps at summer day care anymore and they are raging baby bears when we wake them at 6:30 now in time for the bus.
We are hustling to keep up with all the havoc that comes with a school schedule: Early up, late to bed after fights over homework and extra-curricular activity events. Papers shuffle between school and home, there are emails, lots of them, and reminders from coaches, counselors, principals and bus drivers.
It. Is. A lot.
And it is ok to be tired.
And it is ok to miss your workout. Or shove your kids a birthday cake flavored PopTart instead of the perfectly nutritious egg and red pepper burrito you had envisioned the night before.
It is ok to make them eat in the lunchroom and wear a uniform with a small stain from the day before.
It is ok to not be perfect.
It is ok to be tired. It is acceptable to simply say, I'm going to try again tomorrow.
And tomorrow, and every day after, it will get better.
