Summer Success

All four kids are off together on an adventure. Biking through the neighborhood, stomping through the woods, and stopping at a nearby park. All endeavors are nearby so that Grace doesn't have to bike too far. Every few minutes I hear the door slam signaling their return home for another bathroom break, glass of water, or just a few minutes out of the heat.

I take my book and my music out on the back patio to try and soak up a little sun and solace. I am having a hard time concentrating on my book with the constant activity flitting around me. Birds zip in and out at the feeders and bird bath. Airplanes fly overhead taking in the lake's coastline on their way to the major golf event in our area. A plethora of dragonflies and butterflies dip and zip and flutter over the flowers next to me.

Soaking in all this beauty a feeling of melancholy splashed over me in a big wave. I'm not sure where this sadness comes from but it leaves me soaked. I find myself missing the present that isn't even the past yet.

I look back on the past few months of summer and wonder where the time went. How is it possible that this golden summer has passed us by so quickly? How many more summers will we have like this one? My kids are not exactly "little" kids anymore. Thinking of how quickly they are growing leaves me aching inside. I want more summers like this one. Many, many more.

There is not much of summer left. The days get cooler and the nights are downright cold. We stock up on wood for the coming fall and winter and even consider a fire at night after a chilly couple of hours at football practice. Soon summer and it's warmth will just be a memory. Soon all of my children will be in school, all day, and our time together will be short and hurried and just not enough.

Not that summer was filled with nonstop laughter and fun and smiles. There were definitely times this summer when I would angrily think to myself, "I can't wait for school to start!" Though most times, even though I was thinking it, I wasn't feeling it. Even though I was at my wit's end, and I had had enough of the fighting and whining, I still wanted our summer to last forever. Deep down I don't ever want school to start.

As quickly as it went I can't be disappointed by this summer. The weather was hot, we had time to relax and unwind, we took a few trips, and we went to all of our favorite places. It was a near perfect summer.

Still, we spent these last weeks trying to eke out as much of what's left of summer as we could.

We do things we've never done before. We go to a balloon festival, the kids and I. We watch as the balloons fill up with warm air, getting big and puffy and straining at the seams. They pull at their ropes that tie them down, aching to make their escape to the sky. Huge blasts of fire light up the balloons and we ooh and ahh. We are disappointed to learn that the balloons will not be taking off into the air. It is more like a lantern show. The balloons lighting up with each countdown. 

We walk right next to the balloons on the way to our car, the massive, colorful creatures looming over the top of us as we leave. More fire is shot into the balloons lighting them up and casting a warm glow. I can't help but think that this send off is far better than watching them take to the air until they shrink out of site. It's best to have big, bright, vivid, warm memories to recall. 

I comfort myself that even though our summer is ending we will have plenty of big, bright, vivid, warm memories to recall.