Well here we are again. Tomorrow is the first day of school. I'm exceptionally enthusiastic about this year for a number of reasons, the foremost being that I feel organized and uncharacteristically prepared for the first time in my history as a mom. I've spent the last couple weeks in the sort of nesting mode I only experienced while pregnant. But since my youngest starts kindergarten this year, I'm nesting differenlty--in a way that prepares me for their departure (i.e. kicking them out of the nest). I mean that both in jest and with remorse. I love my children and I love/hate them getting older. I feel tethered between wanting them to grow more independently (which in the short term feels like less work for me) while at the same time I want them to still need me. I like, for example, not having to wipe their bums yet I still want them to hold my hand by choice (once they wash it after wiping their own bum, of course). I realiz...