The School Year Looms

Yep, I get it. It’s been well over a month since I’ve written here. This summer has felt pretty exhausting, really. It’s been busy, with every weekend jam-packed, it’s been a little anxious as each daughter has tried to make plans through uncertainty, and it’s been pretty melancholy as we prepared for what I jokingly call a “funeral/vacation combo” that we took, heading down to Savannah, GA, for my dad’s celebration of life followed by our (rescheduled from 2020) extended family (my mom, my five siblings, and their significant others and kids) vacation at a house at Lake Norman, North Carolina. None of it’s been all that conducive to writing.

But we’re shifting gears quickly at our house. First, if you are a parent of someone too young to be vaccinated or if you work in the schools, I am thinking of you! This is so stressful, and I feel so, so fortunate that my kids are teens who are fully vaccinated. Even though the variants are still scary, I keep thinking of how awful I’d be feeling if my kids or I were heading to an elementary school. I hope everyone stays safe and healthy!

Our house is a bit of a mess right now. Here’s a picture I took of the middle of our living room the other day:

It’s freakin’ chaos. The blankets and backpack and lamp were set down there days ago when we were doing some packing-for-college prep for M, and honestly, it just didn’t seem worth it to clear it away when we know she’s going next week. Then all the college guides and brochures are spread around from J doing some preliminary shopping, and yes, it is a mess, but I’m so glad that she’s actually willing to look at the college guides that I can’t bring myself to ask her to clean it up. Not to mention that J’s almost always making some new concoction in the kitchen for which the clean up situation is much more urgent. Not that I should complain about that, because her most recent new recipe was some sort of spicy Thai coconut marinated tempeh that I couldn’t stop eating, and it will be one of our dinners this week.

Umm, what else? M has been crazy-busy. This is a picture from the car while she was doing footwork in the rain.

She’s been working at JCC camp from 7:30 am until 4:30 pm, followed by a soccer-coach prescribed workout every day, both of which have been very hot activities. She’s also been packing and organizing and doing online training on things like alcohol awareness and consent to get ready for college and trying to fit in last visits with high school friends before everyone goes their separate ways. M will be heading to college next week, and if you think that I didn’t accompany typing that statement with some knocking on wood and a short prayer, well, you are entirely wrong. Please, please, please let her have a normal-ish first year at college.

Of course, we’ve been busy getting M ready, too. When she was off at Breckenridge and I was sending her craft supplies and snacks, Cute W ordered a massive tool kit for her. In preparation for college, he labeled each tool. Supporting handiness and DIY projects is definitely Cute W’s love language.

J, meanwhile, has been getting back into more workouts for volleyball, and her school practice season begins a week from Monday. Even though school won’t start until September, your life effectively isn’t your own anymore once those practices kick in. She just got her academic schedule and it is looking frankly a bit intimidating, but she was comforted when M assured her that her new math teacher is “a queen” and that the social studies elective vaguely rumored to be easy is, in fact, quite easy. Even better, she has several classes and/or lunch with close friends, so she’s looking forward to seeing people more often. Again, hoping things can be as safe and as normal as possible.

There is more to catch up on, of course, but I will get to it soon.