Reflecting on a summer gone by......

Well, here I sit. Summer is over. I have been to school for 2.5 weeks now and the beginning of the year is now over. We are 5 days into school now, and pretty much everyone is getting use to the routine.

So far in the last five days of school we have had several lost children, both on the bus and within the school. We have had "Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease", Chicken Pox, two "pee pees in the pants", two classroom pukers, one "wanderer", 3 kids suspended (twice) and

... one broken arm.

Over the summer, I had time to reflect on my now "peaceful" life at home. It took a very long time to get use to the quiet routine of no kids, no grampa, no dog, no wedding preparations, no company. But after a while, I started to take the peace for granted. I walked about the house, admiring my plants, I sat on my deck and watched the birds at the feeders. I watered the gardens, counted my frogs... watched afternoon TV and snoozed. I traveled when I wanted, I socialized when I wanted... I sat alone, when I wanted.

When the time came to go back to school, I looked forward to the routine of getting up and getting moving. I relished the thoughts of eating my lunch with my friends, and enjoying the fun and quirky lunches I make, that I only eat at school. And, as expected, work was full of busy productive days... with wonderful people I consider friends... all catching up with each other after not seeing each other for a couple of months.... There is such a nervous excitement in everyone.. the week at school before the kids come. Everyone is high on the smell of new notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils. The laminator rolls full time, coating everyones' posters and word strips... little cute shaped name tags and file folder games.

Now.. that week is over, as well as the first week of school. The glitches are smoothed out, and the lost are all found... the unknown are now found out... and the days are speedy by. Although there is absolutely no routine at school, there is a sense of routine, in the non-routine. And now .. the summer is over.. and I wonder where it went!