So Long, Summer!

Today my plan was to take my mother-in-law to the mall to go shopping. It was going to be an end of summer sweep through the mall to scour clearance racks and snatch up stellar bargains. When I spoke with Nana this morning she was feeling under the weather. Our spree is officially postponed. Tempting as it is to storm the summer sales solo, I feel I should take advantage of this unexpected day at home and have a little planning pow-wow. I was going to put this off until later in the week, and it is really tempting to procrastinate. But I should be good. I should buckle down. I should sort and file and clean and organize. I should plan.

This is very odd. Here it is the first week in August, and I have yet to do a single thing in preparation for our homeschool year. Typically, planning is my favorite part of school. In fact, come April or May, I'm usually planning for the following school year before we've even finished the current one. That's because I just love to plan. Typically. But this year has been anything but typical. Summer has been a blast, and all the travel and break neck speeds have been fun, in a very busy sort of way. Emma is growing by leaps and bounds and is learning something new every day. The boys had soccer camp last week, and I watched the boy next door in the afternoons, and we had friends visiting from out of state, and Hannah had several get togethers planned, and we went to Nana and Papa's farm. And, and, and. It's time for things to settle down. It's time for a schedule, and some routine. We need a plan.

I think one reason the homeschool room seems daunting to me is that last year's books are still on the shelves. Last year's art is still on the walls. Last year's papers are still stuffed in all the binders. But it isn't last year anymore. Even my recent jog through the school supply isle at Walmart wasn't enough to snap me out of my summery haze. I bought Dixon Ticonderoga pencils, five cent notebooks, fresh glue sticks, and even a little set of plastic drawers to house the paperclips and sticky notes and rubber erasers. I'm generally nuts for that kind of thing. It gives me an organizational tingle. But those little plastic drawers are still sitting empty in a lonely corner of the schoolroom. On top of a bunch of last year's stuff.


So, I'm off. With a mild case of enthusiasm and a mediocre sense of commitment, I'm about to settle in to formulate a plan. A plan for how to end last year, prepare for this year, and bid farewell to my friend, Summer. It's back to school time, and oh, how I am missing that shopping mall.