We have gotten away from our Day in the Life posts (we planned twelve months of them, which we finished in July) but I feel like we should be sharing a big, back to school organization post today (like the one below from 2016). To be honest, like many parents, for me this year has been far from a prepared, organized start and instead is just a mad scramble to get everyone ready to start learning in this entirely new world.
Still this just seemed like the topic I needed to talk about today! Are you kids back to school yet? Are the online? How is it going, do tell!
Anyone else feel like this is the saying of the year? Don’t we all need this shirt?
Here is our saga…I have spent the last two weeks getting my three kids ready for three different schools. My oldest started college (in person), my daughter is starting middle school (in private school) today and my other son is starting his sophomore year of high school online (for the entire semester) today. If you follow us on Instagram, you saw me sitting in the middle of my daughter’s room, surrounded by chaos on Saturday afternoon.
Six months of quarantine, boredom and changing tastes left her once pretty room (above) one big huge mess. A few months ago, she and a friend decided to redecorate it and moved out most of the furniture, hung LED lights (in a rather halter skelter fashion) and stacked all her clothes on her gold etagere shelf. I decided it was her space and let her enjoy it over the summer, as she seemed perfectly content with the way it was. We pick our battles, right?
However, even though she will be in a private school that is full time, she still needs a place to do homework and study. I knew it was time to get some organization back into her space so she could start the year off right. Over the next few months we’ll be refreshing her decor (again) but my plan is that her new space will resemble her old room and just be a little more boho/teen than the pink/girly that it was. That is the plan though her changing taste is making it hard to pin down definite decor. In the meantime, at least her room is clean and her desk is ready to go.
We are also now down a child; college drop off went amazingly well. Of course I miss my son but I am mostly happy he is finally at school and he is thrilled to be there. The school did a great job organizing move-in (everyone got two hour slots throughout the week), and we’re hoping that they are able to stay for the entire semester. My husband and I spent the night at Mountain Lake Lodge after we dropped him off, which is where they filmed the movie Dirty Dancing, one of my favorites! It was the perfect place to escape to after moving him in.
The one loop I still need to close is my middle son’s school, he’s done a great job preparing for the fully online high school semester he has ahead of him. I’ve been busy squaring away my other two kids in their new situations I haven’t had time to even wrap my head around exactly how that is supposed to work. I admit I am wondering how classes like PE and drivers Ed can effectively be taught online?
So that is where we are…how is it going for you all? I have talked to so many parents that are tearing their hair out (especially where I live as they just switched our county two weeks ago to a fully online semester) as I have been but I am looking forward to having a routine and some structure again. Whatever your school plan is, I wish you the best of luck!
We’ll be talking about Fall decor here shortly, then we’re right into Christmas as happens every year it seems. That seems crazy to think about!
XO,
We promise to never sell your email information. Our posts contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on these links, we will earn a small commission, which helps to keep our content free. You don’t pay a cent more than you would otherwise, since that would be tacky! Please see our full disclosure policy here.
I hope all goes well for your family this semester! Three of my children have flown the coop completely and have jobs in their chosen fields of study (yay!) and have been able to work from home since March. My daughter is a transfer student at UNC Chapel Hill, and unfortunately, they had to close after only one week of classes because of Covid outbreaks (tell your son to stay away from fraternities!). Now, all classes are online, but at least she is with two friends in a house in Chapel Hill, so she is still enjoying part of the college experience. Here’s to hoping for a better year in 2021!
I’m glad you had time for a little getaway. I have wanted to go to Mountain Lake Lodge and would love it if you did a blog post on it.