The calendar at Hectic Manor doesn’t really start in January…in reality we’ve started with the beginning of the school year for as long as I can remember. This year is no different, and today marks the official beginning of the school year in our little town in Kansas. Sure, two of the college kids have already gone back to school in Lawrence and Pittsburg, despite not starting classes for a while. Our daughter in Maine will begin her last semester in college a few weeks after that. But it’s different with the college kids. They lead their own lives and only really get in touch with us when they have big issues to discuss. In that regard, their starting the school year isn’t that big of an event at Hectic Manor itself. At least not anymore.

So the official start of the school year boils down to when the kids who are living at home start classes. And that’s today!

It’s somewhat bittersweet this year, as our youngest daughter starts 8th grade. In our school district the kids go to elementary school from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Then they move to the 7th grade building. The following year, they move to the 8th grade building (on the other side of town). Finally they go to the High School and stay there for the next four years. So this morning, our youngest daughter just left for her last first day before High School.

On the one hand, I’m really excited for her. Middle school is a hugely different experience than elementary school. The schools are larger. There are more opportunities. The kids are responsible for their schoolwork in a way that elementary kids just can’t be. Sports play a huge role in the extracurricular landscape. Heck, there are boys (although thankfully our current middle-schooler is pretty cool in that regard).

I swell with pride as I realize she’s becoming this totally capable, together, and amazing young woman.

But the other side of me misses my little kids. For so many years I drove the kids to school and I picked them up. They would come running out to the car, despite the rules against running on the sidewalks. They would excitedly tell me about the big happenings of the day…interrupting each other and laughing the entire time. Our car was filled with the happy chatter of kids who were engaged with what they were doing…loving every minute of their lives.

We would race home to get snacks and get changed…only to run out the door to various sports practices. From 2:30pm when I left the house until nearly 9:00pm I would be driving kids, dropping them off, picking up other kids, and putting in dozens of miles of driving all within ten miles of our house. I became a master at getting the kids snacks in the car without breaking every nutrition rule in the book. I would run my errands while they were at practices. Everything was chaotic, but it was a joyful chaotic that I wouldn’t have traded for the world.

Today marks the last day of that kind of chaos.

Now Colleen goes off to school at 7:20am. From then until 5:30pm she’s at school followed by volleyball practice. Lance leaves for High School school at 6:30am and follows that with Cross Country practice. Everybody returns home from sports practices and/or work around 6:00pm. Then we start our evening routine. So instead of the chaos of summer or the rapid-fire errands and driving of the school year of days gone by, Hectic Grandson and I will have quieter days at home.

I’ll admit it, I’m older now…I’m still crazy-busy…but it’s a different kind of busy. It’s not that I don’t like it. Heck, I don’t think I could do the things that I did 20+ years ago anymore. But there are times when I miss the utter chaos of mornings and afternoons. I miss the excited discussions of who did what to whom at school. I miss snacking in the car and me being that weird Dad who used a hand-vacuum to clean out his van in the parking lot as the kids were running out of the school.

I know I’m putting a bright, shiny face on a time in our lives when things were utterly crazy…but that’s how I choose to remember them. So sure, sometimes I long for them.

On the other hand, today’s new chapter has so many possibilities. With just two school-aged kids living in the house it’s much easier to be fully involved with them. They may not like it all the time (harder to slip under the radar etc.), but I love it. I’m much more aware of who their friends are, what really interests them, and what their dreams and aspirations are. I relish the times that we get to spend together in a way that having eight kids in the house didn’t allow.

So rather than being a nostalgic, whimpering old man I’m choosing to look at this year as an opportunity to enjoy this last year of Lance’s High School and Colleen’s last year as a middle schooler. I’ve always been a cup half-full kind of guy, even if I have to downsize my cup to get there. Unlike prior years where I had to use a thimble to be half-full, this year feels like a pretty good-sized glass. There is so much to be thankful for!

So what about you…what are your plans for the school year? Are the kids back in school yet? Is your school shopping done? Most importantly, what are you most thankful for as this school year starts?