replacing my to-do list

My oldest has been asking to "do school" for months. I'm not sure if it's because he has had to field questions from strangers about whether he has started school (he just turned 4, people!), or he recognizes school is the most direct route to adulthood (4 going on 24 as far as he's concerned). I suspect it was heightened when he witnessed me thumping a pair of red scissors, a pack of construction paper, some finger paints, and a few other miscellaneous items in the bottom of the shopping cart a couple months back.

His persistence paid off. Shrugging off the what-the-"h"-am-I-doing and the I'm-gonna'-ruin-my-child-for-life anxieties, we started "school" the Tuesday after Labor Day. Though it took him some time to get over the disappointment that school wasn't all about finger paints and cutting with a scissors, we have settled into a routine. And there's no turning back now. Because once you start letters and sounds, you can't really stop; when you hit the teens in counting, the twenties are right around the corner. Lord, help me.

Though the amount of time we spend doing school is minimal, I've already noticed the floors are a little stickier, the meals not quite as nice. Opening cupboards is a reminder of more to-do's: take out the trash, make a batch of laundry soap, bake more bread.

A friend commented, "I wish some homeschool mom would write a book about all the things she gave up." Though I wouldn't consider myself a homeschool mom (I'm trying that hat on this year), the thought resonated in my heart. It's hard to give up tidy counters and shipshape bathrooms for little ones who enjoy unrolling toilet paper on the floor, smudging windows and fresh paint alike, and squeezing tubes of toothpaste into the bath tub. But if I'm going to thrive in motherhood, let the re-prioritizing begin.

First thing off my list: making laundry soap. Out with grating the Kirk's Natural castile soap; in with the Ecos laundry detergent.

I feel armed to tackle the world already. Okay, maybe just the bathrooms...tomorrow.