"The days are long...but the years are short."

This is the most true statement about Parenting I have ever heard. Some days as a parent seem like time is standing still. That laboriously long crawl of time passage when your life is a sea of diapers, stepping on hair-clips and going through 10 boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese each month. But one day, you wake up, and a year has passed and it catches you off guard in a way you never expected on those days when you touched poo more times than anyone should have to.

Today was such a day.

I just got off the phone with the Donegal Springs Elementary School and set up an appointment to register Ella for Kindergarten. Kindergarten? Seriously?


Backpacks. Lunch boxes. First crushes. Freshly sharpened pencils lined up in a row. Squeaky new shoes that pinch your ankle a bit. The smell of newly cleaned elementary school hallways. Butterflies in the tummy and nervous glancing at the doorway as Mom says goodbye for the first time.

And it's a new journey for me too. Parent teacher conferences. PTA meetings. Ramblings with other Moms about the first Grade teacher you WANT to have next year. Putting my child on a school bus and waving goodbye. Letting her go a bit. Hoping you taught her to be kind to everyone. Watching her recite new things that you didn't teach her.

A new journey begins now.