It's late on Tuesday night and by the time this posts it will be the first day of school.
The glory days of summer will have already begun to fade into routine and new binders and the smell of freshly sharpened pencils. Backpacks will come home filled with endless class syllabi to be signed and returned, lists of additional school supplies to buy and the good old trusty health forms that have to be filled out for every child every. single. year.
I know schedules are great and all, but I am in mourning.
Summer is too short.
August 5th?? 112 degrees? I'm pretty sure that's still summer.
I haven't even downloaded half of the pictures I took this summer let alone internalized all that we have done and talked about and learned.
But time continues to march on, gosh darn it.
After so many late nights stretching through beach-nights and deep-conversation-nights and late-into-the-night-car-ride-nights, late walks along beautiful winding country roads lifting up our faces to soak in the brilliancy of the stars against the velvety black sky away from the city lights that hog up all their glory, we are all going to feel like we got hit by a truck when our alarm clocks pierce into our slumber so early.
The traditional first-day-of-school rainbow pancakes will be rolled out (Lucy has reminded me 36 times that those are a "must" on the morning agenda), and these kids will be marching, flushed cheeks from the "oven" we call home into freshly stocked classrooms all ready to greet them.
Lucy is prepped with the beginning of her knowledge of the illusive "x" equations she's been extra worried about (that's what she calls times tables) thanks to her older sisters who taught her the basics on one of our car rides. She was worried about getting her "beauty rest" (her words) tonight so she would be ready to march into third grade tomorrow.
(Try to beat those run-on sentences, I dare you :)
Claire will rule the school in sixth grade and is trying to hide the fact that she's kind of excited because this is the first year our school is changing classes for kids between subjects (like middle school).
Grace will be heading into HIGH SCHOOL as a Freshman and is so nervously excited. We rolled back into town just in the nick of time for "Freshman Academy" last night and she came home all aglow that she could find her classes lickety-split.
Elle just got back from some thwarted plans for a bonfire by the lake which turned into In-and-Out with so many kids who will join her as SENIORS tomorrow. She came to me with tears in her eyes and told me she just doesn't want school to start because that means it will end. I remember feeling the exact same way when I was a senior...wasn't that just yesterday? I told her I had just re-read
this post that reminded me that sometimes you don't know that what's ahead may be even better than what you think is so awesome right now.
And Max, well, Max is just biding his time until he takes off as a freshman in COLLEGE in a few weeks after he finishes working his tail off to earn some extra money. He can hardly wait he is so excited. He just came home from saying goodbye to one of his friends who will leave on a mission tomorrow and is getting his own mission papers ready to turn in.
And to that I ask myself once again, "how in Heaven's name is this all possible?"
My babies are growing up.
Still.
I think I will take a spoonful of my own medicine from that same post I told Elle about (
here) and remember I just keep liking this motherhood gig
more the more these kids grow up. So I better enjoy the ride...even if it's the one where school starts in the beginning of August on a hot summer's day.