Lesson: If you've had almost no sleep the night before, your kids will be up and raring to go before 7 am.

This is the one that started it all. I'd been up nearly all night one night recently with a case of food poisoning, and by the time morning rolled around I was exhausted and feeling weak, and wanted nothing more than several solid hours of sleep. So what happened? Well, since it's summer, the sun came up before 6 am. And since I have young children (and especially, perhaps, because I have boys), they were up almost as soon as the sun was. Now, we have a rule in our house ... as long it is light outside the boys are allowed to get up IF they play quietly. If they start making noises and waking other people up, they get to go back to bed. It's a good theory, but is really lost on my children. Telling them not to make noise is like telling them not to breathe. It just ain't gonna happen. Such is Mommyhood. So, I got up, but I got up thinking about Murphy's Law (you know ... the one that says if something can go wrong it will), and the lessons I have learned and am still learning in Mommy School. What better name for it, I wondered, than "Mommy School"? After all, it is nothing but on-the-job training from the minute you are first handed your little bundle of joy. You never learn it all, you just make mistakes and try again as you go along. "Wouldn't that make a good book?" I wondered ... the "Lessons I Learned in Mommy School"! Ok, so I'm not writing a book, but maybe this is a way to remember all those little lessons for myself, and maybe I can entertain someone else along the way. Welcome to Mommy School!