Flashback Tuesday

Well, we are officially inundated with school at our house!  We packed in as much last minute shopping and eating as we could yesterday since it was our last official day with Nana (more on my mom's visit tomorrow...)  But at 7:30pm, after all the playing, my kids finally dragged all the homework assignments out of their backpacks!  

The one and only thing I say over and over again in this house is "Work first, then play!"  (ok, there might be a couple of other things I say a lot.)  But my theory is, if you get your work out of the way, you can play all day long.  And how much more fun is it to play WITHOUT your mom nagging you to do your homework or clean your room?  

Mack had to decorate the cover of a composition book with pictures of things he loves.  (That was kind of a fun project actually.)  June had something, but she's so secretive about her stuff and such an independent worker that I really have no idea what it was.  She finished right at 9:00pm.  Spell Girl had a history test to study for and another small project to do on the 50 states and their capitals (easy peasy...she was done in 30 minutes.)  And then there was Flowering Buttercup...she has a SUPER hard schedule this year!  Spanish 2, World History, English, Algebra 2, Geometry, and Chemistry (oh yeah...and choir.)  She doubled up on math instead of taking a second elective because she wanted to be able to place out of it in college.  And all of those happen to be Pre AP classes because she's much more driven than I ever was.  She was still up and muttering something about hating chemistry at 11:15pm when I got in bed. 

Watching them study and think and stress brought back floods of memories, good and bad ones.  I was a good student, but I remember plenty of tests I was totally unprepared for and projects I should have spent more time on.  As I cleaned up the kitchen last night, threw a load of laundry into the dryer, and snuggled in bed to read a few pages of my book before falling asleep, I had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude that I will never again have to study for a Chemistry test or do Algebra homework!   I'm so happy to be on the supporting end as my children go through the next 10 or so years of high school and college.  

University of Texas, October 1987 (I was in charge of bulletin boards in my dorm)

I could totally fit that little car into the smallest parking places on campus!

my roommate and BFF...so many amazing adventures with her 

my dorm room and friends from a neighboring men's dorm (super nice guys!)

I am so grateful for an amazing, enlightening, happy college experience.  And even more grateful to be right here, right now with kids who have all those things yet to come.  (If we can just make it through all this homework.)  


btw...I just read a cute post today from another blogger called "Time Capsule" and I'm thinking I might steal that for these Tuesday posts...because, well, stealing is the highest form of flattery, right?  (or is that imitation?)  It's kind of been bugging me that "Flashback" and "Tuesday" don't both start with the same letter.  Time Capsule Tuesday sounds so much better, don't you think?  (I'll let you know what I decide...or you'll probably just figure it out when next week's post is called "Time Capsule Tuesday")