A Heavy Heart

Bags of folders, notebooks, pencils, glue sticks and disinfectant wipes (do you ever wonder how growing up we managed to survive without disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer – it’s amazing the germs didn’t just kill us!). All these supplies can only mean one thing – summer vacation is officially over and it’s time for another school year.

So it is that I have had an extremely heavy heart all week. Samuel and I went to the school open house on Thursday to meet all of his new teachers and I left the building with a big lump in my throat. That lump later turned into tears as I thought about my little guy being gone for 7 hours each day. Sending Samuel to Kindergarten was hard, but at least I knew it was only for a few hours. Now he will be gone all day and I can hardly stand the thought without tears forming! I’ve decided I’ll probably just be a blubbering mess each year as school starts and I need to make sure I have at least a gallon of my favorite ice cream on hand to drown my sorrows!

One thing I’m really going to miss is all of us spending lunchtime together. At one point of my life this was the worst part of the day, but the past few years it’s been wonderful. The kids and I have all sat down together and I read to them from the Friend Magazine as they eat. I have really been distraught about losing this time with Samuel and then all too quickly each of the kids will follow. As I lay in bed the other night, not able to sleep, I had a thought pop into my mind and it has eased my worries. I realized that I could replace our lunchtime spiritual nourishment with an after school snack and story from the Friend. Maybe I will survive this new phase!

I’m gonna miss this guy hanging around the house all day!

Last Monday I asked Samuel what he wanted to do this last week before school started. He gave me his list and somehow we managed to squeeze it all in. We’ve had such a fun summer I’m going to miss those carefree action packed days!

As we bounced around from activity to activity all summer long I had the words of the song “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw streaming through my mind. We didn’t go sky diving, rocky mountain climbing or 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu man chu (words from the song and just in case you’re wondering I have actually seen Chuck go about 2.7 seconds on a little bull – it was very entertaining and a story for another day) but we sure did make the most of our summer!

A little snippet of this weeks activities.

We went to our favorite, Marv’s for lunch, a shake and little ninjas.

We had a picnic and swam with friends in our pool.

We went to the library and found a book on drawing fantasy creatures. Samuel’s favorite was the alien and if you look closely you can see my rendition of a fairy. Who knew I could draw anything but stick figures – certainly not me!

We made and flew all sorts of paper airplanes with information from another book we found at the library.

 

We spent time with friends at the river.

We did a little nature walk.

And fed the very aggressive ducks!

We played at the park

And had another picnic

We ate popcorn and watched the cartoon version of the Hobbit. Now Isaac is obsessed with drawing giant spiders!

Samuel and Bella wore out the slide at Sand Hollow.

We went to the Washington County Fair Parade on Saturday morning. We’ve never been to this parade before and I only knew about it because Samuel’s school had an entry and I received an email from the school.

There weren’t very many people along the parade route so the kids got LOTS of candy.

And to top the week off we took a long drive with Aunt Trina and Wes for a picture taking extravaganza. Their car broke down and we squished way too many people in the van. Our husbands sure are good sports! The pictures were adorable, but will have to wait for weeks to be edited I’m sure!

Good Bye Carefree Days We Will Miss You!!!