From my spot on the lawn I have done the math.
We have just three weeks of schoolwork left before summer vacation.
I almost regret the nearing of the end of this school year. Don't mind me, it's just my bittersweet acting up again. You see, next year Madeleine and Sarah will begin logic curriculum. My babies, those creative nutty bookish sweethearts, are ready for more advanced studies whether or not I'm ready.
Isn't this the way of motherhood? Just when I'm all snuggled down with infant Salvador and ubercontent with my rocking chair teaching style, he's ready to wean and the big girls are ready for their own desks, [classical] educationally speaking.
Ah, well, at least I still have Grace and Laura to torture. I mean, to read aloud to. You know what I'm talking about even when I dangle my prepositions, don't you?
And then will come Salvador with the Tonka trucks and the We Help Daddy texts.
The thought, the mere thought, of him starting school is enough to make me lose control of my tear ducts.
I'm preparing for empty nest syndrome and I like to get a running start. That's all.
From whence does all this melancholy and melodrama spring?
From looking at the short list of what must be done before our whirlwind summer can commence.
Ah, well, at least I still have Grace and Laura to torture. I mean, to read aloud to. You know what I'm talking about even when I dangle my prepositions, don't you?
And then will come Salvador with the Tonka trucks and the We Help Daddy texts.
The thought, the mere thought, of him starting school is enough to make me lose control of my tear ducts.
I'm preparing for empty nest syndrome and I like to get a running start. That's all.
From whence does all this melancholy and melodrama spring?
From looking at the short list of what must be done before our whirlwind summer can commence.
It's a pretty short list: A little geography presentation, a little Constitution recitation, a little long division. And then let the school holiday begin, coinciding tidily with the end of my stint of teaching exclusively elementary school and preschool students.
I'm not ready, my father said to me when I announced my engagement to be married fast upon my graduation from university. (Maybe it was slightly before, but that's hardly the point.)
And now here I stand at a hardly comparable milestone with the same reaction. I'm not ready.
Of course life doesn't give me a warning, a "ready or not" chant during which to secure a better hiding spot. (Living in the moment might have its drawbacks when one is gobsmacked by the future.)
So. For the summer. We are hosting family, camping, taking a road trip or two, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, gardening, riding ponies, sending children to theater camp (Melodrama! I kid not.) and church camp and art camp and then taking a deep breath before we jump in the deep end. Again.
It reminds me a little of the time Madeleine (now 12) was about to lose her second baby tooth. She must have been five and the first tooth had come out just a month or so beforehand. As she approached me with the news of the wiggliness, her baby self said very soberly, "Mom, I don't want you to freak out or anything. It's bound to happen."
Yes, Miss Madeleine, it is.
What are you planning? What milestones do you pass this season?
6 comments:
After seeing that picture of our two little love birds, I plan on downing a stiff drink and lying down with a cold rag over my eyes! Just for a moment though, because time flies far too fast for my taste.
Goodness gracious.
ONe day this week I will try to write down the milestones coming this summer....this morning it would make me cry.
Have your heard of ACE? the classical charter school in Cottage Grove? we transitioned from homeschooling to there this year and have been very pleased.
Yes! We have friends who have loved ACE. I am so glad you are enjoying it.
Preparing for empty nest syndrome already? It comes soon enough, I suggest you don't do THAT math...
We too are wrapping up the school year and looking forward to our summer. It is the summer of weddings. But unlike last year, these weddings are just friends, none of my children!
Blessings, Debbie
I like your style with getting a head start on the future - I mean, that's my style too, but I do tend into the worrywart side of things.
I was just telling my best friend that I think I don't like summer. It's just so BUSY and there are so many things GROWING (not least of which are my children) and there's so many many things to do. I would rather have winter, keeping warm inside with a book and not worrying about what the garden is doing.
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