I'm back with a little "Remember when..."

After an 18 month hiatus - I'm coming back.

I'm jazzed and loaded with material, and rarely short on opinions, which I hope will help lift you up as a mom, give you a place to share struggles, and remind us of the moments that make us proud and make us laugh. Today, school is on my mind.

At our home, we still have an elementary student, high school student, and we have our first child nearly finished with her freshman year of college. It's been a whirlwind and time is flying faster than when they were just toddlers and kindergartners. We're down to the last five weeks of school and the field trips have begun. Oh the outings they take to the prairie town, to the hospital, the park, roller rink, bowling, museums, and for my son today - a convent. I can't wait to pick him up after school today and hear what he has to say. I don't think I'll tell him the story of how his sister was conceived in a convent. That's a story for another day.

I think back to my grade school days and the field trips we took to the Tulip Festival, the fire station, and a restaurant. My high school days and plaid skirts, cruising around town with the windows down, and skipping first period for McDonald's breakfast. I think back to my freshman year in college and late nights, dorm room antics, and sun tanning covered with baby oil as soon as the sun came out and the snow was gone. All those extras outside the classroom helped us grow up and created memories we still have.

Have you looked back on this year your kids have had? How have they grown? Though so many things are different today for students, what has been the same for your kids that you experienced?

My high school class is preparing for a 26 year Class Reunion, yes, 26, we missed having a 25. As the preparations are going on, classmates have been posting pictures and even scanning in the yearbooks of the past for us to laugh at, have those OMG moments, and discover how much some look the same and how different others look now. Thankfully, the big hair days are not so big for most of us. My children are getting a glimpse of my high school days and having the "OMG that was my MOTHER?" kind of reactions. That's what I get for being friends on FB with them.

Even though the world keeps changing, technology becomes more outlandish and amazing, some things I think may always be the same. We'll raise our kids, shuffle them through their school days, and then go back and relive them with our classmates one day.