Mission One: Clean House-Days 1 and 2

So it seems that the mission is not going according to plan.  When I turned in my notice, I had a plan in my mind.  Come home, throw down my boxes of neatly packed desk stuffs that I had accumulated over the course of the past 9 years, and lay down the law.  In my mental picture, I was an army general getting her troops ready for battle-the battle of school.   I even had Princess, the cat, in check.  But now here we are.  That moment has come and gone as of this past Friday.  My (less-than) neatly packed box is somewhat unpacked and opened on my bedroom floor, while the other one is still in the backseat of the car.  I may actually keep it there as it serves as a great divider between the girls in the back of my little Civic. I have managed to get the laundry caught up after being confined to the computer and books for the majority of my waking time during this past summer semester.  9 weeks of laundry breeding like a cage full of bunnies tends to harbor some interesting smells.  Aack!  (thats my gagging sound).  So far, all has not quite gone according to plan, but so far, one idea I had about all of this has been realized, just as I had imagined it would... Thats the realization of the importance of the first day of school.  At least how it is perceived by all of the stay-at home-mothers  I know.  Come tomorrow morning, moms all over the mommyhood will put their kids on the bus, and the bus driver will see a slight tear in their eye as they shut the door to cart the kiddies off to school.  But it will not be, necessarily, a tear of sadness; but a tear of joy.  Cries of "WOO HOOO!" will be heard across the mommyhood as if a sense of freedom is being experienced, because it will be.  Freedom of the moms who, for the past two and a half months have endured hours of "Mom, I'm bored!", "There's nothing to do!", "She stole my iPod", or my favorite "You're trying to ruin my life, Moooom!"  Freedom, from the constant mess making, the repeating of phrases that request picked up shoes or getting out of the fridge.  Freedom from the arguments over one out of a dozen video games to choose from, and freedom from having to wash the paint out of the dog's white fur because the kids felt a little artistic and paper just wasnt good enough.  But you mothers out there must admit.  While at the moments of experience, we may not always appreciate the captivity of summer; but its when we look back on it and reminice, we do stop and smile.  We smile because these are the things that remind us of something important.  Most men would have crumbled under the pressure after the first week.  So moms out there, working or not, raise your coffee mug in cheers! Your children will go off to school-hopefully-with memories of a great summer, and you can return to the relm of cleaning house, chores, or in my case school.  Working moms, you can work easier knowing your kids are at school and not sneaking friends over while you are away during the day, worrying over whether you should have increased the homeowner's insurance, or if they and the unauthorized visitors have eaten you out of house and home in your abscence.  So with that being said, this house wont clean itself... and I have under two weeks to get this place in order before MY school starts!