Summer into Fall

Summer is over. It seemed like 10 minutes or so. Really, follow my logic. It is true that time goes so much faster when you get older. I mean, if you do the math...... When you are 5 then a summer is 1/20 of your life. That is a lot of life. When you are 43 then it's only 1/172 of your life. In the life of a mature person (at first glance I appear mature) that is like a blink of an eye if it were a day. To a kid 1/20 would be an hour and almost 15 minutes. To me 1/172 is like 8 and a half minutes. That's nothing. And considering that it felt like "nothing" we did a lot.

When summer started my intention was to do enough that the kids weren't bored but not to over schedule so much that I was going crazy. Yes, that was my intention. I scheduled 4 camps for Sophia and only 2 for Coulter. He's 4 and he and Kees who is 3 are playing quite well together right now. I don't want to burden myself with playing with Kees. Yikes!

We had 12 weeks so 4 camps didn't seem like too much. So that was my plan, camps and a few family trips. Early in June a friend invited us to her beautiful home on Whidbey Island. You can't pass that up. We had a yard sale one Saturday in June. Then we planned a family trip for almost a week around the 4th of July. My uncle came from the east coast to celebrate his birthday at my mom's house so that meant a weekend trip. It was good fun and a mini reunion. We had our second annual Pool Party on one Saturday. We always go to the San Juans for a week in August. And that is even more awesome then it sounds. I went to visit a friend in California for a long weekend. Toss in an over night with girl friends. My husband and I stole a weekend away with just the two of us at the end of August. And most recently, my brother and his wife took the kids to the beach for a weekend and Bob and I just stayed home. In between all that toss in nightly swimming, swim lessons, days at the park, dinner with friends, bike rides, a few sleep overs and some play dates. So which of those would you cut out? Think about it for a moment. Which ones? Exactly, you can't. Each thing is different, fun and something that we've either wanted to do for a while or wouldn't come up again.

So toward the end of our summer I felt like I was in the middle of a major work out. I was working hard to make sure we were on time to everything, dressed in the right thing, packing the right stuff and being certain that the kids had any and all things they might want or need. That is my nature. If one of my kids needs a band aid, I have it at the ready. Don't even get me started on my "going to the park" packing. I'll just say this, it involves a tent. If we are going in the car for more than 15 minutes I am sure to have snacks, drinks and depending on my mood, a movie. But for some reason that all changed mid August. I wanted to sit still but I didn't want to miss anything. ANYTHING! And that is really a first for me, the sitting still part. A couple of times I was able to just get in the car and go. Did you know you can buy drinks and snacks almost anywhere? Really, there are these great little stores all over the place that have gas, food, drinks and much more. You would think that I just survived in Death Valley for a week the way I fret about getting ready to get in the car. Even I saw that it was nuts. So I was able to calm down and just enjoy the last few little trips and weekend events. I sure hope this lesson lasts until next summer. I know that it isn't going to get any slower or less busy. To the contrary, as the kids get older, they will have more obligations and we will have less family time. How can that be? I am trying to get mentally prepared for at least the next 20 summers. That should get Kees through college. Who knows, by then Sophia could have kids and then I'll probably have them for summers. This kid thing is really involved, isn't it?

I am glad the fall is here. I need a few cooler days, some weekends at home and maybe even some rain. Oh, and for the presidential election to be over but that is a whole other rant. The kids are all in school, routines are starting to develope and I have a few minutes to breath every now and then. I can feel my heart start to slow and can complete some projects that were put away in May. Tomorrow all the kids are in school until noon so I am going to enjoy fall. I am going to drop them off, pick up a cup of coffee and enjoy a nice cool morning and the fact that the only thing planned this weekend is an ice cream social at the boys preschool. It's close to home so I don't have to gas up and by it's nature I don't have to pack snacks.