Mozart and the wail...

Life has been hectic for the past few weeks...The kids are excited about summer vacation.."Only four more weeks Mama!" they shriek excitedly.."Right...ONLY four more weeks...sigh" I try to sound as excited as they are....but I'm not..Don't get me wrong, I do like summer break. I like not having to rush in the morning to get the herd on to the bus. I can lay in bed later in the summer..they usually let me sleep until 5:35 instead of the regular school time routine of 5:30. I like having them around....most of the time. It is the end of school year chaos that wears me out. I've got the end of school year where are all the overdue library books?..school recital...where did I put all the shorts?...your biography project is due when!!!???? panicked Mama blues. My life is a frantic blur of projects, assignments, concerts and all the rest of the things we need to do to finish up the year..

My end of school frenzy, kicked off with the annual spring concert. Sammy was singing in it so I had to go-wanted to. Sammy is part of the special "concert choir"-meaning that he had to audition to get in. He is ten, and has a beautiful soprano voice. I happened to mention to him that in a few years, he would probably be a tenor. Big mistake. "No! Mama! I will ALWAYS be a soprano!"..."But buddy-you are not going to want to be a soprano as a man." "YES I AM!" sigh...some changes you just have to let happen. Although I did hear my boy sing, I spent most of the concert keeping the girls quiet..."We saw Sammy, can we go now?!!...aren't they done yet?" I can't say that I blame them....after sitting through a saxophone duet of "Swing low sweet chariot"....and a choral medley of the greatest unknown hits of 1643...I was ready to go too. More than ready. I had things to do...library books to find...a biography fair to go to...

Biography fair! This is a huge project for the fourth graders. They are each given a person in history to research, and then they give a detailed oral report on their life. Sammy was to be Mozart. I was a little more than worried about this. Sammy does well in school-with a lot of support. This was the first time he was doing a project like this, on his own. He took copious notes...which I found stuffed in the couch, in the utensil drawers, under his bed...I asked him if maybe he could use a little help "No Mama, I know what I'm doing...You just need to help me with a costume"..." A costume?..(gulp)No problem buddy.

"No problem-indeed! I have to confess, I am the queen of procrastination..I will start a project with the best of intentions...but then I get distracted..something more interesting comes along. Which is why, fifteen hours before his presentation, I was racing to put together a decent costume..Omar, being the fabulous guy that he is, jumped in to help. Armed with needle and thread (Omar, not me-I am what you would call "sewing impaired") we created quite the outfit. All that was left was the presentation.

We arrived at school fifteen minutes before he was to go on. I wanted to be there to help him with his wig, maybe ease his anxiety a little bit. "Are you ready bud?..you know what you are going to say..?" "Yes Mama, I'm ready." So, we went into the classroom to watch. I have to say he looked confident. He had been practicing for days..I knew that he was prepared. He walked up to the podium...looked at the audience, quickly looked down and said "I am Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I was born 1/27/1756...My parents were Leopold and Anna Marie, my sister was Nannarel, I was a famous musician. I died 12/05/1791. The end. Any questions?" I just love my boy.

Since then, I have been turning the house upside down looking for library books. The herd is generally pretty good about keeping track of them-it's Oscar. He has a habit of stashing them away -but forgetting where. This behavior goes back a few years. There was a time when no book was safe in our house. Oscar, if left on his own with one, would shred it. I had no choice but to keep them tucked safely away-allowing them to be viewed only under strict supervision. He has now taken it upon himself to be the book supervisor...I don't have the heart to tell him that he had been the reason for hiding them in the first place.

It is just a crazy time. My stress level seems to be going up as the days count down. I still have I.E.P. meetings, Zoe's early intervention evaluation, and cupcakes to bake for fifteen or so kindergartner's. I still haven't found where I stored all the summer clothes...and library books? Well, it won't be the first time that I returned books in September..Speaking of September...only one hundred and fourteen days till school starts up again..I don't know if I'll make it.