It’s here. Well, almost here. A few weeks from today, my kiddos will begin their Senior year of high school. As odd as it sounds, I vividly remember bringing them home from the hospital…and on that first night home…I laid in bed and thought “it starts right now, start to say goodbye…” Odd right? Two babies, in the thick of learning motherhood and everything that comes along with being a new mom…those were some of my initial thoughts. They will leave and go off to school…or out into this world, whatever they chose….but they will go together. Once and done. When we found out we were having a boy and girl…we knew this would be our only pregnancy (did I tell you that my Grandmother had 2 sets of twins?? ) We were both settled…our family was complete.

I remember dropping them off for full day kindergarten…that first week was a huge adjustment. I struggled at first to find my place. I was born to be a stay at home mom…it is/has been my joy. I loved being there to send them off to school in the morning after an episode of Arthur, or gasp…Calliou. I loved being the first person they saw when they hopped off the bus. I have loved it all…the good, the bad, the ugly….it has all been a huge ball of goodness every single damn day. I do think that I have mentally been preparing for this for some time. I am really excited for them to go off and prove to the world that the past 18 years of loving, learning, screwing up…all of it… has gone into creating these incredibly kind hearted, cautious, loving, caring, thoughtful young adults. I haven’t been their friend…I have been their parent. It has been work….crying in the middle of the night hoping I am not screwing them up, kind of work.  It is not to say that I stop parenting at the end of senior year…it is just that my role takes a backseat…and I am ok with that. My one and most important role have ever been granted has been to help guide our kids to become healthy, happy, caring, independent and productive people. It is not easy…I am not always popular—but I am not supposed to be. This next year…I get some of the last opportunity to polish off my mom-skill. My last and final exam so-to-speak, as a parent. What have I forgotten to tell them? So much. But I hope that the past 18 years I have repeated the true nuts and bolts of life over and over enough times that they hear it in their sleep. “Remember who you are.”, “please and thank you always.” “Balance your life. God, friends, family, work and play.” “ you teach people how to treat you.”, “be the first smile” I hope that these mantras and others will stick with them. So, as we draw the summer to a close…and start up for one more last and final year of high school…I have been tallying a list of notes that I want to remember to share with my kids before college begins. I figure if I make this list now…when the day comes to drop them off at college…I will feel like I have covered my bases. But I am sure as I write this list that there is already something that I have forgotten—which leads to the biggest life lesson that they will learn. They will, it is a fact, make mistakes….go out and make them. The true mark of an adult is how you overcome a mistake and I hope that we have given them the tools to figure that out on their own.

I thought I would share this list with you….in case you too are in the same boat this year:)

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This is to serve as a “reminder” list of sorts, many of these things my kiddos already do…and do well—but reminders are powerful tools to stay on the track:)