Tonight, the final night of summer holidays before my kids go back to school, I went for a run at dusk. I stuffed a $5 bill in my waistband, thinking that I would pass Leo’s Video store on my way home and grab a movie.

When I got to the movie store—a scrungy little hole in the wall with the cheapest rental prices in town—I found the movie I was looking for (Rendition with Meryl Streep) and went to pay at the counter.

Looking over the counter I saw a movie that I had rented the week before, and seeing it there reminded me that I had found the disc earlier that day under my bookshelf and had realized I'd returned the case but not the disc.

“Oh!” I said to the girl with candy apple red hair behind the counter. “I think I know why that’s sitting there! I forgot to put the disc in the case. I’ll bring it by in the morning.”

“Oh great!” she said, cheerfully, grabbing the empty movie case.

“And then do you think you could take it back to Rogers Video too?”
…………………………

This is one example of the many balls that start falling at the end of summer holidays when I have grown tired of the lack of structure, of waking up every morning to a child asking: What are we going to do today. (I don’t know? Why don’t you just color for 6 or so hours?)

I am so ready for my kids to go back to school.