by Tara Shafer posted in Mom Stories

August and September can feel like mom New Year?s Eve. With brightly colored new school buses come new beginnings. New School Year's Resolutions abound.
As school looms, I am going to make my annual attempt to wipe the slate clean. Here are five things about which I am going to try to press the reset button. I'm gonna try to do better.
That said, I'm gonna forgive myself when I don't do as well as I'd hoped. I'll try again the next day.

I will be incredibly even-tempered each and every morning. My kids like their sleep. Even my oldest, who for years had a crazy early internal alarm, would now like to sleep. This year I will wake him up patiently. I will even drive him to school if it comes to it. Because as he grows up, I see these years as ever more precious. I will try to have the house smell like something good to eat as often as I can. This is obviously not always possible. We are a culture of multiple jobs, kids, obligations ? keeping it all together is no mean feat. Perhaps this is the year I will finally commit to making good use of the slow cooker someone once gave me and which has since been gathering dust in the basement.
I will try to return forms on time. I will delve into my pile of stuff in a basket on my desk marked ?important? and retrieve all forms pertaining to school. I will fill them out promptly and send them in. The nurse at school will not need to e-mail me about physicals, over-the-counter forms. Or anything el...