We have been in a reluctant limbo–the four of us here in our little family. We are clinging to summer and yet, in just a matter of days or a couple weeks, we know that another school year will start up and Fall will be showing her colorful face. We’ve been this way before, we’re old hats, we know how it goes. This morning, I woke to the sound of rain and a rare, gray, rainy, mid-August day. It just isn’t normal for us to have rain this time of year and I cannot help but acknowledge that it is a little portent; a warning, that another summer is nearly gone…
Just this past weeks, the envelopes and calendars from the schools and the district started to arrive in the mail box. Meanwhile, I’m still stepping over wet towels and dripping swimsuits when I go into a bedroom or bathroom upstairs. I am still picking and preserving blackberries and other summer fruit in my “spare” time, for goodness sakes. My kids are feeling ambivalence and reluctance too. Gone are the days when they were young and eager to get back to school, now they sort of drag themselves toward the inevitable (probably a portent of the adult world and working days soon to come). My eldest daughter, who will be a senior this year, seems to be especially ambivalent. Part of her is already focused on life beyond high school and since she really only needs about 2 more credits to graduate, this year seems almost a farce, but a bittersweet chance to be with friends and teachers for the last time.
The cool, rainy breezes this morning remind us that there is just no stopping it–another school year, another autumn is on the way. And, for my little family, only a couple more of these left before my chicks have grown and flown the coop. Unlike my younger self, with bored and rowdy youngsters under foot, I am NOT eager for another school year to start and the teens to head back into the classroom. They are finally become almost tolerable roommates and I have felt myself clinging to every conversation and interaction this summer as I can see the writing on the wall (or the calendar…)
Also: If It Wasn’t For Teens–I’d Be Technologically Challenged
Where Are All The Towels Going?