Well another school year is here. And I’m ready. I’ve already got my calendar marked for the PTO meetings, fundraiser days, the 5th grade track and field day, the 5th grade picnic and 5th grade promotions. And I’m seriously thinking about taking some time off of work to participate in the volunteer workshops this year.

Sadly, I’m remembering back to my childhood and I know that the day will come when Keaton won’t want me at the school. He’ll soon be too cool to claim me as his mother. I’ll soon be too old to understand what he’s going through. It breaks my heart to think that some day he won’t want to play board games with me or watch a movie with me. Instead he’ll want to hang out with his friends or sit on the phone.

I spent the greater part of last year trying to help Justis stay on task and looking over his homework. Or researching ways to end the sibling rivalry between Keaton and Justis. I’m so glad I got that time with Justis last year and I wish I could still be there for Justis this year. But on the bright side, I have more time to spend with Keaton this year. And I’m really excited about the opportunity to help Keaton make 5th grade the best year yet.

Besides volunteering more, I have set a few more goals for myself (and the family) this year:

• I am going to look over Keaton’s homework and sign his agenda every single day this year. I slacked off on that a bit last year, because Keaton never had any homework. He always did it at school and I always trusted him to get his homework done. And he never let me down.
• I’m also going to read more with Keaton. And read more to Skyler, Spencer and Caleb. I’ve decided we don’t read enough in this house. Last year we had Keaton and Justis read for a half an hour every single night before they went to bed. It was a great success and I think Keaton is a lot more interested in reading now. So we are going to keep it up. And Lee and I are going to be better role models and read often too.
• Keaton has begged me for months to start a game night. So I’ve decided to stop the begging and give in. But we decided to call it family night. We have always done things together as a family…making root beer floats, picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, flying kites, watching movies, making rice krispie treats and much, much more, but this year we are going to be more consistent with it. Keaton wanted to have one night a week that we can all spend time together. So we’re going to do it. Kids are only young once and we need to spend as much time as possible with them.

So this is the year of the family. And I’ve written it in my blog, so I have to do it. No slacking this year.