Nostalgia

I'm struggling a bit today as this particular summer is drawing to a close. I read a blog post the other day saying that people were jumping the gun here and that August is still summer, but the writer doesn't have children. My daughter had band camp at school this week, in addition to her freshman check-in to get her schedule. We spent last evening at the high school seeing a demonstration of what the kids learned this week. I was never in marching band, but my husband was, and he said they made an impressive amount of progress in one week.

This coming week my son has 6th grade orientation, and then in just a little over a week I'll have a child starting high school, and another starting middle school. There have also been some yellow leaves on our deck. So whether or not the calendar or the natural cycle are in agreement, our summer is almost over. The close of this summer feels like the end of one stage of our lives since we won't have any children in elementary school any longer. I'm feeling nostalgic and struggling a bit with all of this.

I love autumn and the cooler weather, plus this year I've got a new book waiting for me, October Dreams II, which I got for my birthday but have held off on reading until the right time of year. But not even the allure of autumn or the book are making me feel better about this summer ending this morning. I also found out this week that my husband and my daughter won't be home on Halloween this year. They're going to see the Winery Dogs (who I will always call the "Reservoir Dogs" in my mind) in concert on Halloween night. So even that's going to be different.

I'm worried about having less time together as a family once school starts up. My daughter is doing an advanced academic program so she'll have lots of homework, plus part of marching band is playing at the games. So there will be many evenings when we won't get to have dinner together, or even really see her. My husband and I were talking about it this morning and he reminded me that we've almost always sat down to dinner as a family and we've made time to be together all these years. He's right, and I don't regret how we've spent our time as a family (though I still wish I had figured out how to work part-time while my kids were little), it's just thinking about that time drawing to a close that's making me sad.

My cousin is heading home tomorrow, provided that the dealership is able to figure out why his van won't start. I've been holding my own on my second 10-day challenge by not gaining weight. But I also haven't been losing any. I'm hoping that starting tomorrow when we're back to eating regular meals that my husband has prepared that I can start making some progress again instead of sitting flat.

Now, I'm going to try to get out and enjoy one of the final days of our summer. My family is all home and together. We have some chores and probably a little shopping to do, but we should be able to do it together, for a little while longer.