I'd be crazy not to be excited for school to start. Right?

Do you know what the number one question moms are asking each other right now? If your answer is, “Are you excited for school to start?” You’d get an A!
The most popular answer is a resounding, “Yes! I am counting the days!”
All the moms I know are already making plans for what they are going to do when the kids are back at school. Spend a day at the spa. Go back to college. Get a part time job. Turn cartwheels. Set of fireworks. What? You don’t set off fireworks? I guess I am alone on that one. I have been known to spin and leap my way across the playground after dropping off my kids on the first day of school. But, this year I feel significantly different. When the number one question is asked of me, I give the canned answer. I wouldn’t want to say no and start a riot or something. After all, I would be crazy not to look forward to my three kiddos going back to school, right? Well, call me crazy. We have had a wonderful summer that is coming to an end all too soon.
My kids are the perfect ages right now. My twin boys are eight and my daughter is six. They are old enough to feed and dress and bathe themselves, but they are still young enough to believe that I know it all. My boys aren’t too old to think they are too cool to play with their little sister and she is old enough to keep up with them. They have played so nice together this summer. I hate to see it come to an end. The end of the summer means the beginning of the school year. The beginning of a new school year means my kids are getting older. Heaven help me, I just want time to stop so I can take a breath before I miss something good.
One of my sons and I had a mommy/son date the other day. He is not too grown up to be embarrassed walking hand in hand through the mall with his mom. I told him I would buy him all the Pokemon cards he wanted if he would stop growing. Although tempted by the offer, he said he didn’t think that was possible.
A couple days later the sands of time stopped just for me. We came home from the pool and all three kids immediately went their separate ways in the house. One went to watch TV, the other to play Game Cube and the other to play on the computer. It wasn’t two minutes later when the electricity went out. The house became dead quiet. Three kids from three corners of the house in unison shouted,
“Mom, what happened?”
When I explained to them that the electricity went out, they said,
“Well, can we watch a DVD?”
“Nope.”
“Can we make some popcorn?”
“Nope.”
“Well, geez, what are we gonna do?”
They started to panic. Admittedly, I did too. So much of what we do everyday requires electricity. How was I supposed to entertain these kids without electricity? (My grandma would be ashamed of what I just said.)
Completely unconvinced that my offer would be accepted, I suggested,
“Hey, how about we read The Mouse and the Motorcycle now?”
“Mom, that’s for bedtime.”
“So, there’s no rule that says we can’t read it now.”
They agreed and we all cozied up together on the couch to read a book.
I got my wish. The hands on the clock stopped moving and I got to hold my three kids and relish in the peaceful, electricity free moment with no interruptions or distractions. That was until twenty-five minutes later when the power came back on. The buzz and blips of their video games lured them away from me and all too quickly they were off again.
What I thought was going to be the longest twenty-five minutes of my summer, turned out to be the very best.