Lined up and ready to go. |
Then
summer happened.
We
adjusted to lazy mornings spent in PJs, hours each day of playing outside, a
week-long visit from cousins, another week spent at the ocean, trips to the
beach, hot afternoons at the pool, visits to a variety of ice cream joints, and
later-than-normal bedtimes. There was still bickering, to be sure. My work and
home chores to-do lists have grown long, and it will take me many days of the
kids at school to catch up.
But
this year was as close to summer bliss as I’ve been since I was a kid.
Alas,
this morning I will drop my children off at school and come home to an empty
house. I have packed favorite foods into new lunchboxes and zipped up the
backpacks for the first time in two and a half months. I have started
prioritizing my to-do list and hope to tackle an item or two today. But my mind
will undoubtedly wander often to my children, as I wonder how their first day
of the school year is going. Are they nervous? Are the other kids being nice to
them? Are they being nice to the other kids? Are they happy?
The
littlest one is excited to return to preschool, where she will be one of the
“big kids” this year, where she knows the routine, the lay of the classroom and
playground, and where she adores the only two teachers she’s known. She has
been asking me every day for a week or more if she gets to go to school today,
and this morning she will finally get the answer she wants.
The
older two start first grade today, with a new teacher and endless new things to
learn. My daughter is nervous about being in a new classroom with a new teacher
and a longer day. But they’re both excited to be with their friends again and
to return to art class and phys ed and music and chocolate milk at snack time.
At drop off I expect to see other nervous kids, along with parents who will
range from tearful (with the knowledge that this day marks one more year of the
they-grow-up-so-fast movement) to giddy with joy (at having regained some
freedom in their days).
We
filled the last week of summer vacation with plenty of fun. We camped in the backyard. We picked as many berries – the season’s everlasting blue and the
newly ripened black – as we could. We rode bikes and went swimming, roasted
marshmallows and played mini-golf, visited with friends and soaked up all the
sunshine and fresh air and unscheduled time we could.
We’re
all hoping for more summer, a few more days of hot sunshine and cool water to
jump into, a few more berries picked fresh for breakfast, a few more hikes and
bike rides. But it won’t be the same as summer vacation. So, it’s a good thing
we filled up with the sweetness of summer while we could.
Today
begins the weekday shuffle of getting everyone up and out of the house early.
Soon we’ll have soccer practice and dance class and homework to add to the after-school
schedule. I
guess it’s fitting that this morning the sky – so bright and sunshiny yesterday
– is gray and raining. It suits my back to school blues.
Original content by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul, posted to her Blog: Writings from a full life.
Original content by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul, posted to her Blog: Writings from a full life.