a new era

Tomorrow marks the dawning of a new era in my life.

Freedom.

Yes, my baby girl starts kindergarten tomorrow. So after almost 13 years of parenting, I will regularly have my daytimes sans kids (sans: French for "without"..... I know, I'm supposed to be speaking Spanish, but certain French words will never cease to be part of me. How could I possibly push out all Ms. Daque and Mr. Bostock taught me?).

Do a laugh or do I cry?

Most definitely a little of each.

I remember very clearly (which is pretty remarkable in itself - that I remember anything clearly) the first day my oldest started kindergarten. It was definitely a laugh and cry moment. Mostly cry - but because she was a bit of a challenging one (kind of like my current baby girl), there was a certain amount of laughter! The most vivid memory that I have, however, it that of my friend Cindy.

Cindy's daughter was a good friend of Maddy's and Cindy was a good friend of mine. Cindy's daughter is the youngest of her four kids. That day, when it was the first day of my first child's schooling - it was the first day of her last child's schooling.

And she was EXCITED!

She cracked me up - well, she always cracked me up, but especially on that day.

Cindy was dancing around

doing a little playful "rubbing it in my face"

- freedom was hers!

And like me, she loved her baby girl a whole lot. She also loved to be with her kids.

But she certainly knew how good it was to have time to herself.

And that will be mine....

tomorrow!

Tomorrow I will dance around.

Tomorrow I will fine some innocent parent who is dropping off their first child at school and rub it in their face!! (okay, I probably won't, but it sure would be fun if there was someone I knew and I could do that too. Cindy seemed to enjoy it so much....)

Tomorrow is my new era:

FREEDOM

Now all that being said, tomorrow will be a lousy way to celebrate my first day of freedom.

First I have a meeting at the school right after we drop off the kids.... probably will be a good hour and a half or so. Then we have a meeting with our mission organization for 2 1/2 hours.

So my day of freedom?

Not so free.

But there's always

Friday!!