It's End of Summer Cram Time

I am sitting at the lake, soaking up the sunshine. Minnows nibble at my feet, children splash in the water around me. The woods lie cool and green and inviting across the water. My head wants to fall back against my chair and my eyes would feel best closed but little people require a watchful eye and treasures of shells and rocks must be duly inspected.

I should be at home, finishing up school sewing and cleaning my filthy stove (tomato juice will boil over while canning!) and countless other projects that responsible moms keep after. But it's the last week of summer vacation, and while my children can't wait to head out the door for school and I'm just as ready to send them, I suddenly find myself wanting to cram every possible summer activity that we didn't do enough of into this one week!

So, between days of doing sweet corn and school enrollment meetings to attend and cleaning jobs that still need to be done and the inevitable laundry and other activities that can't be ignored, I'm saying, "A day swimming? Yes!" "Stay all day? Why not?" "A day shopping? Sure!" "Library? Ok!" "Picnic? Of course!" "Lounge around in PJs half the day? No problem!" Because the end of such liberty is coming and oh, to squeeze out every last drop of opportunity as the countdown to school and schedules and early bedtimes and morning rushes out the door begin!

It seems only yesterday (or at the very least, last week), that I was writing about dreading the end of school http://bethany-aboutmyfathersbusiness.blogspot.com/2015/05/school-is-out.html?m=1 And now, here we are, summer almost gone and all those endless days of possibility and opportunity have disappeared into memories to be sorted through and looked at fondly (or not so fondly, as the case may be) as they take their place in the string of years passing by.

Dirty stoves will still be waiting to be cleaned tomorrow, and some days we have to be responsible adults and help with sweet corn and wash and fold the piles of laundry. But today the sand and water beckoned and I said, "Yes!" In spite of cloudy skies and a messy house and school dresses half finished on the sewing machine, I gathered towels and toys and snacks and lounged the day away with my toes in the sand and squeezed as many minutes into my fondmemoriesofsummer file as I possibly could.

Like the little boy who snuggles in my lap today and says, "Mmmm, I like you mamma!" will so quickly change into the lanky teenager who disdaines his mamma's hugs, so these days of sunshine and sand and innocence will disappear into other phases of life, never to return. And what, I wonder, will leave the biggest impact on these lives that are mine to mold today? As summer draws to a close, I feel an urgency to cram the "fond memories" file to bursting!