Typically come the middle of August I am so D.O.N.E. with summertime and kids and gardening I am ready for fall to begin and routines to start and kids to head off to that wonderful place we call SCHOOL each and every glorious day.
But that has not been the case this year.
Summer is going way too fast for me. The kids go back in just over a week?! Didn't we just get out? What the hell?
I think it is because Larry is back that I am wishing summer would last just a wee bit longer. With him gone the days and nights were long and lonely. The to-do list daunting. The kids, exhausting. The house and yard: overwhelming. Back to school, ho hum. Back to juggling it all solo. Blah. Well, that is all changed now.
Since Larry has returned, I feel less "tired" everyday, even with the kids all home. We have entertained more in the past six-seven weeks than we did in the seven years we have lived here! Get togethers, dessert parties, winery, outings, walks on the greenbelt, BBQs...and while I am feeling a bit exhausted by the sheer number of commitments on our calendar at the moment, I am also loving it! Sitting outside enjoying the warm weather, firing up the BBQ, sleeping in, lazy days...
Pretty soon we will be back to homework and early morning wake-up calls, lunch making the night before, and shuttling kids to and from school. I'm simply not ready to give up on all this just yet, dammit.
Now, I will admit that I am looking forward to some peace and quiet so I can get more writing done during the day...it is hard to concentrate when they interrupt me constantly in here. AND, I will be more than glad to see the constant stream of food depletion plugged up...the endless "I'm so hungry!" will no longer be heard from 9am until 5pm. Thank God.
In the meantime, we have done all we needed to do before school starts. The kids got their backpacks and binders. I stocked up on pencils, pens, and lined paper. The counters are full of jars of freshly sharpened pencils, new pens, and markers. The boys got their hair cut and they have enough clothes to weather out the last of the warm temperatures.
This weekend we are cleaning and preparing for my mom to arrive in about five days. Next weekend we will have my brother and sister-in-law over for dinner on Friday and head out to the winery on Sunday for the last of the music festivals of the summer...and for Labor day we are inviting our neighbors over for dinner. I still hope to get a few more little "get togethers" in before we start wearing sweaters...not that we can't still entertain when it is cold, but there is something so nice about warm weather and flip flops.
I'm not even tired of my garden yet. Quite the opposite, another first. This year I am planting a fall/winter garden with kale, collard greens, swiss chard, turnips, beets, lettuce, beans, onions, and parsnips. I'm hoping for some fresh veggies all through winter (fingers crossed, this is all new for me here in Idaho) and a few goodies come spring as well when it is time to start again.
In the meantime, I guess I have to come to terms with the fact that summer is almost over and we will be enjoying autumn in Idaho very, very soon and while I love ALL the seasons here SO MUCH, I wish I could cling to summer for a little bit longer.
Comments