Fleeting Summer Moments

 
It's been a good summer, filled with a whole host of fun activities (swim team, craft club, boys' club, boot camp, cupcake selling, lemonade stands, church camps, high adventures, etc),  but now those summer activities have ended. Our vacation is over.  The school supplies are bought.  Their new shoes and backpacks are tucked away in their closets.

Although there are still a couple of weeks before school begins again,  I can hear the kids' conversations turning more and more school oriented. 

"I wonder who my teacher will be." 
"I hope so-and-so is in my class." 
"I wonder if we'll get to eat the early lunch." 
"What outfit should I wear on the first day?"

No one mentions anything about homework or having to wake up early.  Right now it's all about the fun and social aspects of school. 

As we get closer and closer to the advent of the new school year though,  I am struck with the fact that I have very conflicted feelings about sending the kids out the door to school this year.  On the one hand, I can't wait to get back into a  routine again that involves kids falling asleep before 10:30pm and me accomplishing tasks without getting interrupted 63 times a minute.  But on the other hand, there's no two ways around the fact that I'm really going to miss them when they're at school all day! 

Sure, they keep me up late at night, make gigantic messes, and squabble like no one's business. 

But they also randomly write me sweet notes for no reason, play together for hours on end, try to surprise me with breakfast in bed on an almost weekly basis, and fill our home with a lot of laughter. 

All that with the knowledge that at the end of next summer we'll be dropping off Spencer for his first year of college and I know all too well that happy carefree moments like these are fleeting....

and I intend to embrace every one of them that I can.