Back to School

That familiar school bus is making it's way down Old Prairie Creek Road that winds back to our house. If I come home from shopping 4ish, I get behind the bus. It makes half a dozen stops out our way, not too many kids live out our road. They always look like pack mules carrying backpacks, lunchboxes and jackets! Tired little disheveled bodies pour off the bus and run wildly up their driveways or roads. I was a city kid and never rode the school bus, but our daughters did and complained unmercifully about the torture they endured on the bumpy un-airconditioned buses. There was always a mean driver, or a kid that picked their nose, or just the fact that it came so darn early! I would drive them to the main road where we would wait patiently for the bus to round our curve and stop. We'd listen to the radio and talk. Great talks about friends and feelings, right and wrong, conversations that make Moms and children bond.

It's back to school today for GRANDson Gavin who's an 8th grader in middle school. Next week GRANDson Ewan starts 1st grade, both are feeling like they "know the ropes, I've done this before!" That's part of growing up and gathering up strength as you gather up knowledge! I have a little lump in my throat remembering those years when their Moms were out the door on that first day of school. I know how my daughters feel this morning and I know what's ahead for them for the next 9 months... helping with homework, packing lunches, attending school functions and along the way making memories that will last a lifetime!