If your kids study in a science school with a grade cut-off of 85, you would totally get why I’m rejoining. I tutor my kids, help them with their assignments and projects, and I follow up every little tidbit of class update for both my boys.

As the one actively involved in the running of my children’s education, I also get the corresponding headaches and high blood pressure that are the consequences of being too familiar with teacher idiosyncrasies or unreasonable school policies.

Don’t even get me started on the errors in the textbooks. But no, no, no…I’m stopping myself with the ranting right here.

Today is the unofficial end of the school year so I’m writing only glad tidings, such as the summer break that’s fast approaching. I’m so happy I could run from work to home and back, chest pains from chostochondritis and all. Haha!

As this school year ends, I take a quick look back at how it fared for my kids.

* Lennon passed the rigorous three-part tests for STEC and began Preparatory, while Dylan entered fifth grade.

* Lennon regaled me with his timeouts for various reasons: talking, shouting, standing on the table, laughing, and playing with his classmates during class. He tells it with such flair you can’t help but not be angry.

* Lennon memorized the Green Eggs and Ham book by Dr. Seuss, and recited it to anyone who will listen at school and at home.

* Dylan joined the Math quiz bowl and became the only fifth grader to land in fifth place. The other placers are all Grade 6 students representing schools in the Lapu-Lapu City Division.

* Dylan made up one of a two student-team that competed in the Math Teachers Association of the Philippines (MTAP) contest. His team placed second during the written eliminations exam and first in the contest proper.

* Lennon’s Preparatory class won the dance contest for the Preparatory-Grade 3 level, while Dylan’s Grade 5 class also won the dance competition for the Grade 4-Grade 6 category.

* Dylan’s whole class failed to get a passing score in MSEP (don’t know what it means but it’s a subject taught in Filipino, as if that isn’t hard enough) at the Regional Achievement Test (RAT).

All in all, it wasn’t such a bad school year. If I have to look at it in one positive light, at least they get to go to school for free. Hehe

Despite the school and its many failings, my sons at least continue to learn on their own because they read extensively.

And while I have given up hope of Dylan ever doing good in any subject taught in Tagalog, I’m happy because he excels in Math, Science, and English (and in that order).

My Lennon, well, he defies description.

Just yesterday, he made me laugh so hard, when he said he believes he nailed his Reading and Language exams and (gasp) got perfect scores in both. I know him well enough not to fall for that one, though. He has been known to bungle tests by underlining instead of encircling (defying instructions), and one time totally missing out from answering one page of the exam.

Today, Lennon’s yaya — who had to bring something inside the classroom while the test was ongoing — told me that my son took his tests with the extra pencil tucked behind his ear. The teacher told her that was how Lennon had always taken the exams. That’s my Lennon, always managing to surprise.

Once, shocked at seeing him on all fours digging in the dirt with a toothbrush, he told me calmly that he was looking for fossil.

His endless chatter once drove his kuya and me close to tears, and when we begged for a little quiet time he asked why when his mouth was not yet tired from talking.

He could talk up a storm about anything under the sun, but three topics stand out: insects and bugs, Jesus, and the computer game Warcraft.

Where does he get inspiration for his questions? Why, from the many books he is reading, of course.

The favorite today is “The Big Bug Book” and he now knows more about insects than I do. I’m always careful when he asks me questions about them because just any answer results in his whipping out that book and turning to the page that proves me wrong.

If there’s one thing I’m happy about this school year, it’s that my Lennon has become a reader, like his dad, big brother, and me.

It finally became too much walking from one shop to another and falling in long lines with other kids for 1 piece of candy, leaving stores empty-handed because all the treats are gone, or mind-boggling still is being told to return at a particular time in others. At home, he could have his fill of sweets but doesn’t even want them.

At the far end of an outrageously long line of kids waiting to receive treats, he asked me whose idea it was that he go trick or treating.

We laughed at him because he had been anticipating the event ever since he learned about it last year from his friend Andre, and, several days before Saturday, he had been telling me tips for Halloween that he learned from Cartoon Network including one that instructed him to prepare his bag of tricks.

Lennon gets a candy during trick or treating at SM City Cebu.

When I told him that he of course begged to go trick or treating and even specifically asked me to bring back costumes for him and his big brother Dylan from Manila, he replied that he was not joining another one ever again.

The trick or treating at SM City Cebu last Saturday was chaotic; they just let loose the little demons in there. I guess though that was what made it fun, in an irritating kind of way.

There were times when we would be the first to go inside shops participating in the trick or treat activity, but suddenly get surprised by a million (they seem that many) kids swarming in from out of nowhere and even beating us to the treats. They’ve perfected the art of conquer and loot; we first-timers didn’t stand a chance.

Dylan and dad.

It was Dylan’s first time to go trick or treating, too. In his 11 years of Halloween celebration, we’ve never seen the need to dress up and hassle some salesgirl for treats. But my Lennon wanted to experience all the kid’s stuff he sees or hears about.

We finally decided we’ve had enough when, at a shop with the trick or treat sign, we were turned away because it was not 12 yet. Huh? The trick or treating was supposed to run from 11 a.m. to noon. Some stores were also as confused as us about the activity. First timers, probably.

Also worth mentioning here, although it happened in October, is my Lennon’s first camping experience. Barely recovered from dengue, my Lennon, after two weeks of being absent from school, got the go signal from his doctor to return to class on a Friday, which happened to be a camping activity.

Lighted candles and bonfire.

They put up tents on campus grounds. Lennon brought one, too. When it rained, the kids ran to the tents and sought shelter there.

His classmates recited poems and sang songs, which Lennon knew nothing about. I told him to just go along with the others in his group. Parents brought more than enough food for all those who attended the activity.

A bonfire serves as the finale to the camping activity.

At dusk, the teachers made a bonfire and the kids formed a circle around it. They lighted candles and sang a song.

This segue to camping is really so I could put the pictures in. I just found the photos I took of the camping activity, and some have turned out really okay so I’m putting them here.

Or if I finish ahead of him, I go out with drink-starved friends and see how long I can stay standing after guzzling bottle after bottle of below zero beer.

Hanging out with friends and enjoying the below zero beer at Formo.

All the stresses and cares of my week drop away and I savor these moments when I can sleep as late as 4 a.m. without having to think about work or the children’s assignment.

On this longest day of my week, I give in to the temptations of mojitos, frozen margaritas, caffeine, gelato, fatty food, sleep deprivation, and malling that oftentimes ran up to several hours and result in sore legs and feet.

From sleepless Friday nights, my Saturdays continue on to sleep-deprived mornings and afternoons when my husband and I and our children hit our usual destinations, usually SM, Ayala, or Parkmall. Sometimes, we surprise ourselves by deciding on the beach or some other complicated destination.

Having fun on a lazy Saturday.

At our chosen mall, my kids — with help from my husband and me — blow off a few hundreds on Timezone. Or we give in to our intellectual craving and hit the shelves of National or Powerbooks; Lennon’s recent favorite author is Dr. Seuss while Dylan is showing interest in, of all things, comics. But since he had already gone through all seven Harry Power books, four Twilight books, and nine Series of Unfortunate Events books, aside from a few in the Hardy Boys series, I forgive him.

Choosing a lunch or dinner destination is an adventure in itself that requires a complicated discussion on the kind of food available in a particular place, the degree of deliciousness we give to the menu, six-year-old Lennon’s absolute abhorrence for pork and beef and 11-year-old Dylan’s hate of fish, and sometimes end up in all of us settling for a fast food joint.

Gorging on gelato at Gelatissimo.

We cram most chores that can’t be delegated to the help, like paying bills and doing grocery (thank God for SM which allows us to do both in one place), on late Saturday afternoons. We know we’ve had enough when we’re already complaining of painful backs and tired legs, and we hurry through last-minute stuff so we could head for home.

My Saturdays wind down with tv or a good book and transition to running Sundays, when my husband and I join fun runs (there seems to be one for every Sunday of the week) or do long runs in their stead.

I love my Saturdays; they prime me even for the worst of Mondays.

It’s just that my last entry here was such a long time ago, there seems to be no way of picking up from where I left off. It is such a burden to explain a year’s absence that I’ve decided it’s better to start from scratch.

I run because I want to stay slim and fit for as long as I’m able.

But what’s three years when you have a million more things to write about and, more importantly, time to do it. My children are growing up fast, my husband and I are handling or starting projects, I’ve recently taken up running as a hobby — I want a place to sort them all out and a blog is as good as any.

I’ve also taken to heart the advice of professional runners for newbies to start a blog where they can keep track of their progress, share fitness, nutrition, endurance, and gear tips, plan runs together, and support each other.

Falling into running has been of the good accidents of my life. I’ve never gained a single pound, even after two children, but I haven’t been fit for a long time, either. When an illness prompted my husband to go run, I’ve taken it up, too, as a way of supporting him, but it had been fun and beneficial to me, as well.

My memorable first run happened under the 5K category of the Milo Marathon Cebu City elimination run last June.

From just running for fitness, my goal has changed.  I plan to finish even just one marathon — the whole 42 kilometers — in my lifetime.  If I can do more, that would be good, but I’m gunning for just one.

I’m envious of Cebu’s running fixtures, among them women runners like Mary Grace delos Santos, Madeline Carter, Haide Acuña, and Donna Cruz-Larrazabal, who make running the 10k or 21k look so easy, while I’m panting and red-faced from my 5k. I want a place to brag about my children, too. How well-behaved and intelligent they are, and  polar opposites of one another.

Me and my two boys.

Just recently, my 6-year-old asked me: “Once I’m a teenager, I can go home at night, right?” It surprised me that he was thinking that far ahead; I should be, too. Then it hit me that I have another son who’s exactly on the throes of his teenage years. I should already be ready.

So, I’m reassessing my life and rethinking my strategies, and this is the place where I’m gonna do it.