Back to school and blogging

 Wyatt and Henry started preschool this year at a Montessori preschool and daycare.  Henry has never gone to any kind of daycare before - we have had a nanny since he was born - so I was interested to see how he would like being in a more structured environment.

 Wyatt went to daycare when we first moved to Cedar Falls, and he always seemed to like it.  He has been so ready to go to school!  Every night he sets out clothes for the next day, and when he wakes up in the morning it probably only takes him 5 minutes and he is ready to go to school!  Depending on when he wakes up, he has to wait awhile before the rest of us are ready.  :)

Henry is not a morning person typically.  There have been several days I have needed to wake him up so we can get out the door on time.  This is when he says to me "No school!  No school!  No want to!"  But once he is in the car and awake, he runs right in to school, hangs up his backpack, washes his hands, and is off to play with no second look at Mommy.

Starting preschool is giving me some extra time to myself on my days off from work.  Today is one of those days.  The actual preschool part of the day doesn't start until 9 am, so I took the boys in just before that.  This let us have a much less hectic morning and a chance for me to actually cook them M&M pancakes, which is usually a Saturday morning or Mommy's day off treat.  I was feeling a little guilty about not spending the whole day with the boys, but then Wyatt told me he wanted to go to school, and he wanted to stay there for lunch with his friends.  So no mommy guilt!

This morning I have been thinking about how my generation puts everything out there in our social media society.  You can find blogs about politics, about couponing, about being a stay-at-home mom, about being a working mom, about religion, about healthy eating, and on and on and on.  Everyone is finding their niche- their thing they are passionate about.  People talk about bucket lists - things you want to do before you die - and it seems like my list keeps growing because of all of the "awesome" things I am constantly seeing.  So what happens if you don't cross it all off of your list?  Was your life less meaningful because you never saw the Eiffel Tower in person?  Are your opinions less valuable because you never held a leadership position on your local school board?  Are you less of a person because you didn't devote your life to filling shoeboxes to send to children in Africa?

In America we have the luxury of so many choices, so many that it can become suffocating!  At preschool Wyatt can sign up for extra enrichment activities - so far it has been swimming at the Y, Kindermusik, and now on Monday he will start a soccer class.  At this stage of the game, it's not so overwhelming to him as these classes only happen one day a week.  But give it some time and I'm sure we will have to start making choices soon on what he really wants to do with his time.  In a way, I relate with the need to make choices on how I spend my time.  Do I go to yoga class or spend more time at home?  Do I bring work home with me, or be content with the way things are?  Does our family pinch a few pennies to allow ourselves to cross off a few "bucket list" items?

No perfect answers here today.  Just a few moments of quiet without any distractions.  And now... off to that yoga class!