This has been a great summer. With my extended maternity leave and Scott's typical teacher's schedule, we have been able to spend a lot of time as a family, doing many fun things. Now we are in September and everything is about to change. A couple of years ago, Michigan adopted a law requiring public schools to start after Labor Day. This sounds fine, but this year, that law is causing me a great deal of anxiety. The Labor Day weekend has always been one last sneak at summer. School would start... but one last holiday weekend of grilling, beaches and sun was a good way to ease into the routines of fall. Now that ... this... final weekend of summer is very tense. It is a very demarcated point between the two seasons. Monday is summer. Tuesday is fall. Monday, Scott is here and the family is all happy and relaxed. Tuesday, it's me and the kids until late afternoon. And then there's Saturday when I go back to work (well.... probably not until next Saturday since I have not sent out my letters yet to announce the end of my maternity leave. Oops. Not that I am avoiding anything...)
Is it all that bad? No. I am really trying to look at the positives. Football, cool weather, turning leaves, cider and donuts, new activities for Ella... it is not that bad. And if the change were to occur on any other weekend, or if I were not still on leave, it would not bother me as much. But a holiday... just makes me feel like we have to make the most of it before summer is snatched away. I found myself saying to Ella tonight, "Tomorrow, we have one last day..." and then I stopped myself, desperately trying not to project my anxiety onto her. She will have a difficult enough time with Daddy being back at work, if the last week, when he was in the classroom for 3 days and she was beside herself, is any indication.
So tomorrow, I will try to get things done that need to get done, breathe, have a fun day and not get too mournful of what was probably the most carefree summer we'll have in a very long time.
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