Summer Blues

It's worse than the flu, or a cold, the summer blues have afflicted our house.  Everyone is lethargic, snippy, and mad most of the time.  The idea that summer will be over in two weeks has hit everyone very hard.  The sudden change in weather, while wonderful, has not helped.

I can't say it hasn't been on my mind.  It's hard to believe that both boys will be in school full-time, but the mom in me has been pushing it all to the side in order to take care of everyone else.  The six-year-old wants to know where his classroom is and how to get there and what he'll ride and when he'll eat lunch.  The nine-year-old is anxious to see who his teacher is and if he has any buddies in his class.  He knows he'll be in the modular classrooms this year which are air conditioned but wonders where the bathrooms are and if he has to wear his coat every time they have to go outside and back in.

I wish I felt better that once school got rolling we will fall into a routine and it will all work out.  But I know that this year that is too much to to hope for.  I went to one day off first grade and announced that I was not going back.  My exact words were, "No one told me I had to stay all day, they made me eat lunch there, and we didn't get a nap!"  Considering the six-year-old finally got on board with Kindergarten in April, I am in for trouble.

I don't remember having a particularly rough transition into fourth grade.  I was never eager to start the year however I remember it being a tough year socially.  There was that sudden awareness that you were not cool or the pressure to change something about yourself so that you could be.  I'm not sure if it runs the same for boys but I do know that this will be the year they finally introduce grades.  As well as test, and projects, and "the binder".  The kids were all talking about it at the end of the year already.

So it's going to be a challenging year all around.  I'm already trying to think of ways to combat the Summer Blues from leading into the Fall of Despair.  I'm reading the second book of a trilogy where a witch and a vampire mate and find themselves with child.  (No comments from the peanut gallery! I know many of you assume this is our family biography.)  The witch is lamenting about whether or not she will be a good parent and the vampire tells her that children need three things -
"All that children need is love, a grown-up to take responsibility for them, and a soft place to land."

No truer words were ever spoken, even from a vampire.