goodbye summer…we will miss you

My house is silent aside from the hum of the dishwasher and the washing machine. The kitchen has been cleared from school-supply wrappers and the syrup dripped all over creation from our special back-to-school breakfast this morning. Hair has been curled and braided, pictures have been taken, the school has been snuck into to gaze through the classroom door windows at my children…all nestled in happily with their friends.

And I sit here all by myself reflecting on our summer.

It’s easy to get caught up in all the things left undone:

My “Blurb” book is still in the same stage it was two years ago.

Only five pages of my book club book have been read.

Only one apron got made as part of our “summer sewing adventures.”(but I must admit it’s a pretty cute one…or is it just that girl wearing it?)

Elle and I found that “shirring” on a sewing machine is sure as heck not as “easy-peasy” as they make it sound on the internet:

I discovered that playing a hymn with three flats is WAY trickier than I ever imagined, even with every flat circled.

And for the first time, a good half of our summer goals have flopped (a bunch of people asked about summer goals that I never got back to…click here or here for more info. on that).

BUT I’m going to choose to dwell on the good stuff instead:

Lucy can wear flip-flops.(hallelujah…that’s a really, really big deal for us)

Max can ski on one ski.

Elle, my child who has been scared to death of water sports, murmured under her breath that maybe she would try wake-boarding (not her fault that precisely at that moment the boat broke…)

Claire only got one batch of big cold sores, and emptied the dishwasher about 63 times.
Grace has become water-sport central…everything from wake surfing to skiing to wake-boarding.

Lucy has the best speech therapist who puts up with having a big audience:

We got to have some fun sleep-overs with cousins:

Elle (and I) have the best friends ever.

This Mom on the left below had all of us “First Grade Moms” and our daughters over for dessert and a slide show of all those girls progressing through the years together when they graduated from sixth grade.
How I adore all these women! …and now they all headed out for Jr. High this morning.

How did all those first graders grow up so darn fast??

Elle asked me last night why I’m not lamenting that everyone was starting school again and begging everyone to please slow down on the growing-up thing like I usually do. It made me realize things have been too crazy to even get started on all my whining about that this year.

I guess I’m just so happy for them to have each other at school…I can picture Elle and Max bumping into each other in the Jr. High hallways and giving each other that little grin that they do. I can envision Claire and Grace sitting in their classrooms with that same glow of excitement they had this morning. And Lucy, (who the bus has dropped off from school since I started this)…she’s in such a great situation with her school…it’s exactly where she needs to be.

Yes, even though Max got embarrassed when I draped my arm around him at the “back-to-school” night the other night and my kids are growing like weeds, life is good.

I’m sure it’ll hit me how sad I am to have them gone in a couple days, but I have stacks and stacks of stuff to get to on my desk to keep me busy until then!

Goodbye summer…we sure loved you.