Summer is coming
to an end. It’s getting darker earlier. The air has changed. The “end of summer”
bugs are out. It’s an obvious shift. My kid
go back to school next week and while part of me is jumping for joy inside and
out the other part of me is desperately trying to hold onto these last days of
summer with them.
I’ve spent a
little over two months with my kids at this point. To be clear I have spent 7
days a week, 24 hours a day (minus the 8 hours they sleep if I’m lucky) and
countless minutes and seconds with my sweet, adorable (sense my sarcasm) boys
this summer. The other day I couldn’t help but think to myself “Okay toughen up
pansy. You only have two weeks left. YOU CAN DO THIS!” If I’m being honest,
which I am, my kids are pretty awesome but they are also pretty annoying.
Between all the bickering amongst each other and the constant whining and
begging for snacks a mom can only stay calm and normal for so long. That being
said summer with kids is like that guy you loved to hate. You know it’s not going to be easy but you
love it just the same.
Now that the
end is near I am having mixed emotions about it actually ending. It dawned on me the other day as I repeated
myself for the 5th time that it was time for us to leave the beach, that
this is the last summer they will be this age. I know every summer is the last
summer my kids will be “this age” but it really hit me this time. Next summer I
will no longer have a six year old who starts the summer off just ending
kindergarten and ends the summer confident and ready to enter into the first
grade. Next summer I will no longer have a three year old who just ended his
first year in preschool and is eager to begin his second year in the “big
classroom”. I will have two boys a year
older, a year wiser and a whole year changed from who they are this year. It hit me that summer is like childhood, ever
fleeting. This has been a great summer.
A summer filled with memories with family and friends. It’s been a summer
filled with beginnings and endings and I think it’s only appropriate to say
farewell.
A Farewell
to summer,
It’s so hard
to say goodbye to a season I love so much. It’s hard to say goodbye to the smell
of barbeque grills from near and far. It’s hard to explain how much I will miss
the sounds of kids riding bikes, catching fireflies, making S’mores and running
through the neighborhood yards. I will miss the lack of a schedule. I will miss
sitting down with my kids for a relaxed breakfast that consisted of them
throwing food, me telling them to stop and all of us somehow laughing despite
the chaos. I will miss the days we spend down at our lake. I will miss the
5,006 times they asked me for a snack and the 4,998 times I actually said no.
I will miss
the times they were able to spend with their cousins swimming and laughing
because I know how much I loved that time as a kid.
I will miss
not having to worry about bedtime but instead allowing them to catch just one
more fish, or make just one more S’more, or catch just one more firefly.
I will miss
it all. So I say goodbye to one of my favorite seasons. I say goodbye to
summer. Next year I will once again greet you with open arms. I will have two
boys who are a year older than they are now and I know we will make great
memories like we did this year. I’m never ready to let you go but I am always ready
to see what you have in store for me next year.
I’m not dumb
enough to think that all ideas of joy should be based on summer but I am
smart enough to know that every idea of summer should be based on joy.
