Ok, so out of my own selfishness I was trying to consolidate my chores. I wanted the first school morning to be as smooth as possible. I would pack snacks the night before and then talk Megan into eating lunch at school cutting my time in half.
I mentioned that Monday the first day of school was Cheese Pizza day-Yaa, her favorite meal. All I got in return was a pouty face. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“Mom, you always make my lunch on the first day of school and you put notes in my lunch box and I need those notes” she replied. Yes throughout the year, I tend to write notes saying -Have a great day or I know you are doing Great. I love YOU!
I really didn’t understand the importance of this until Megan said to me… I look forward to those and I need them.
“Well what if I write the note and hide it in your book bag instead of your lunch box, that’s the same thing right?” “No mom, you always make my lunch and put the note in my lunch-it’s what you do”.
So this is when I realized that I had created a tradition much like the Elf on The Shelf that I was never aware of until now. It’s the little things we do for our children and means so much to them, and we do it just because we love them.
Ask yourself what tradition will you begin this year or what have you been doing that you don’t even realize is a tradition for your family? I did create three notes and hid them in different areas of her lunchbox. At the end of the day, I found that she had put in her homework folder to look at every day.
While we prepared for this day by talking about the first day and having everything ready the night before, Megan still had a little anxiety. I began to get angry at her mood thinking this is fourth grade this cannot keep happening, but suddenly I felt calm inside and said wipe your tears and lets pray about it ok? I hugged her and asked for our minds to be cleared of worry and fear. I asked that our hearts be open to new friends and to remember that nothing would happen today that we couldn’t handle without our faith. She smiled and said she was ready to go-A calmness had come over her too. The power of faith can be a very powerful thing.
A few weeks ago an application was mentioned at church called the Legacy Marble Countdown that could be downloaded to your mobile device. You enter your child’s name and either their birthday or graduation date, and it tracks how many weeks of school you have left with your child. Today my youngest has 400 weeks of school before she graduates and moves away to college. That’s really not a lot and I want to make every one of these weeks count because I know from experience that time goes by too fast and before you know it, your children are grown and the first day of school anxiety will just be something to laugh about years later.
Let me hear from you. What is your tradition? And be sure to sign up with your email on so you will get alerts when I post new blogs.
