Back to School: 2019 Edition

In many ways, heading back to school can’t come soon enough. After a summer at home, filled with fun activities, there comes a time when everyone just needs to get back into a routine and have a return to normalcy, if for nothing more than a return to peace and quiet at home. In other ways, of course, it’s shocking that this year we’re sending out a Sophomore, 6th grader, and 1st grader, and you wonder how it is they all keep getting older . . .

It was a fun summer. Since the end of school in mid-June, we have done the following:

• Headed to Washington DC for a week
• Gone to Lancaster, PA
• Visited New York City
• Stayed in Pennsylvania for a week
• Gone to horse camp
• Gone to fiddle camp
• Had swim lessons
• Taught swim lessons as a first job
• Started up sports for the first time (cross country)
• Gone camping with the cross country team
• Gone on pioneer trek
• Renovated the front of our house
• Landscaped the front of our house
• Renovated our wood shed
• Stacked 3 cord of wood
• Prepped for classes for the coming academic year
• Decluttered most of the house

When you line it all up like that, it’s no wonder it’s felt like a very busy summer. In an ideal world, we’d all be heading into the school year feeling rested, relaxed, and ready to take on anything. In reality, I think we’re feeling harried enough to the point where we’ve actually convinced ourselves that the school year will be a nice break from the summer. Experience reminds me this isn’t the case, of course. But it takes some time to really have this set in.

The first day of school changes as a parent over the years. I still remember going with Tomas to see Kindergarten for the first time. How he got to get on a school bus for his first time, and how excited he was to explore it and be so grown up. I always waited with the kids for that first bus that first day. Today was particularly busy, and Tomas needed a ride to the high school early, so it didn’t happen this year. I missed it, and I think I’ll do my best to not miss it in the future.

I’m sure it’ll be a busy year. DC is at the middle school now, and MC is now taking the morning bus on her own. Tomas’s schedule is all over the place. Keeping track of all of it is almost a full time job in and of itself. But for now, it feels good to get them all back into a routine, and I’m looking forward to not having to worry about wildly different schedules from week to week, with kids leaving for days at a time to go on camps and expeditions.

It definitely helps that this means we’re coming into my favorite stretch of the year. September through the beginning of February is pretty much the Best Thing Ever. Yay for being done with summer!

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