As summer ends- random musings...

As the sun sets and the noisy chorus of katydids begin their evening tones, I sit on my pretentiously named lanai and muse about the ending summer break. Traveling, company, camps, and lessons…it was less of a break than I hoped for, yet…lunches didn't need to be packed, setting out clothes wasn't required, and the "mom taxi" took a breather, mostly.

I am officially "Floridian" now - blood so thin that sitting outside, fan on, in the middle of the summer days doesn't phase me…so thin that waiting in an overly air conditioned airport for four hours sent me into the gift shop for a sweatshirt by hour two. When we moved here, on the first day the temperature dipped into the lower sixties, I spotted a woman in a parka jacket. I was donning shorts and a t-shirt and laughed before suddenly realizing that I might be just like her someday in the near future! It took the better part of four years, but now I am -  Albeit I don't have a parka, but I can be spotted in long pants when the temperature falls into the 70s and a long sleeve shirt in the 60s. Yep - cold wimp, but hot strong!

This is, most likely, the last summer that my eldest two will be shorter than me. My daughter looks me eye-to-eye and my son isn't far behind…of course, I am a bit vertically challenged and always assumed they will all grow taller than me. It is also the last summer that all my kids were under high school ages and not driving. Next week, my eldest will officially be in high school and in November, behind the wheel with her learner's permit…wasn't I just cleaning poop art from the walls last month?

Next week, the streets will be speckled with yellow buses, bringing children to and from schools…backpacks will be out of the closets and on kids' shoulders, all brimming with books, notebooks, pencils, and lunches. Strict bedtimes resume and the mornings will once again begin with the struggle of waking the teens and getting everyone out the door. I call this herding cats, as it feels equally successful. However,  at 8:30am, the car doors will open and I will enjoy the twenty-five minute ride home alone…my bliss…until noon rolls around, that is. To clarify - their school is a hybrid homeschool, so these three hours are only on Mondays and Wednesdays - the rest is all up to me. Yet, in those six hours, there is no need to quiet children for their at-home and working dad, no instruction to give, no arguments to break up, no interruptions while cleaning, and no one to barge into my bathroom time!

Thus begins the 2018-2019 school year…

Yep - about sums it up!