The Waning Days of Summer

I don't want to depress you, but am I'm the only one who has commenced whining about summer winding down? School starts for me on August 16. Gulp. That's less than two weeks, folks. As a matter of fact, it's *ten days*. The real sobbing will start in earnest any day now :)
It's not that I mind going
back to school. I enjoy my job. It's just...I enjoy summer more ≤g> The lazy days of doing what I please, when I please. The mornings of waking up naturally, when I feel like it. Because I'll let you in on a little secret--I despise alarm clocks. Especially the ones that wake me up at six AM. Ten o'clock is a much more civilized hour for morning to begin!


I actually start to get a little panicked on June 21 because I know the days are going to start getting shorter already. And then it's the fourth of July and everyone knows that after the fourth the rest of the summer flies by. So far we've had something on every weekend this summer. We're free next weekend so we're--yep, you guessed it--planning a trip. It's hard to sit home and relax when each day feels like a ticking clock marking off the minutes of my freedom.

There seems to be too much left to do. Convertible rides to take on warm breezy days. Picnics to be had by the side of a lake. Boating on hot afternoons. Dips in a pool with a cool icy drink on a nearby table. Romps with the kids in the backyard.



Okay, somehow this isn't making me feel any better about it being August already! How about you? Do you still have big plans waiting for the remaining days or summer? Or--are you counting the days until the kids are back in school and your free time starts again?

Waning Summer and Rising Panic

I know. Summer’s short all over the world, but when you live in a place like Minnesota it seems particularly fleeting. We have a lot of outdoor living to cram into the three very brief months. So every August, or at least since my oldest child started in kindergarten thirteen years ago, it’s been the same thing for me. I panic. My mind buzzes with all that I should have been doing in June and July. Summer’s coming to a close and I haven’t done as much as I’d wanted to do with the kids or on house and yard projects.

This summer’s been a particularly difficult one for me to cram things in because I had a book deadline and a daughter with one foot—who am I kidding?—one leg—oh, all right—all but her little pinky finger firmly out our front door. Now I’m faced with only one week before my son heads back to junior high and my daughter prances off to her freshman year of college.

I have to admit, that looming college thing makes these remaining few days all the more bittersweet. With my daughter wanting to spend every last minute she can with the friends she won’t see for several months, I’m all but chopped liver. I’m afraid the only time I can hope to share with her will be short and hopefully sweet. Maybe one more family dinner with her favorite meal or at her favorite restaurant. Possibly one more shopping excursion for those last minute dorm room supplies.

So I’m at a bit of a loss. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to make this last week at home with my college-bound daughter special? How can we send her off with a smile on her face and courage in heart?

Time with my son will be less harried. Although he heads back to school next week, we'll have several more weekends before the weather turns nasty. Still, I'm curious. Does anyone else share this same end-of-the-summer panic, or am I'm an obsessive loon?

What are some things you make it a point to fit in over summer, with or without kids?

Helen