I don’t know if it’s being in my forties or this particular month, but everything I do these days lends itself to a feeling of experience, a deep knowing that this too shall pass, even while living each moment afresh.
Esther and Joshua left for college on Friday. They have stops with family and visits to monasteries to break up the long drive to Thomas Aquinas College in California. We had a family bagel send-off like last year. Because of the pandemic we ate our bagels at home instead of in the restaurant, but it was similar. Everyone ordered the same bagel except me. I’m on a chocolate protein shake kick these days and always drink that for breakfast.
Esther and I had worked on her room enough the night before that I knew what clothes were destined for goodwill and which for storage. She has the room that Mom had. Finding again the knick knacks and photo books that celebrate Mom’s life reminded me of cleaning the room after she passed away. Of course, I wasn’t mumbling questions about why she hid a box of cereal behind her lamp on the nightstand or the misplacement of nail polish remover, though Mom did have that secret stash of chocolate in the top drawer of her dresser. It was a continuum of send offs. I know there are more to come, and I’ll miss the day when Esther doesn’t come back from college because she will live somewhere else. How will I manifest my acts of service love language when everyone moves out? Maybe I’ll live from visit to visit from my children and grandchildren.
School is starting up for the rest of the kids. Sophia starts her senior year late and online. Her dual-enrollment college courses lend themselves to online study, so I’m not as worried about her education. Zoom classes were hard on my little ones last spring, but Sophia thrived in the absence of high school teen drama and the comfort of being at home.
Texas has decided not to close the Christian schools so the other kids will have class as normal, and I’ll be joining them to teach my math classes in person. The buying of lunch boxes and backpacks and pens and paper lacked the thrill of the crush of tax free weekend. I bought early to avoid possible public contamination, but when I drove by Target yesterday, it looked like every spot in the parking lot was filled. The rest of the city is gearing up for a new school year too whether in person or online.
Some years we work on the summer reading projects early, and sometimes like this year the posters are finished the day before school starts. These summer projects all blend together in my mind. The half finished posters and the Lego models laying on the kitchen counters are timeless book reports, pictures that could be from any year but belong to this one.
It might be one hundred and nine degrees outside, but school supplies and summer projects bring back the memories of the cool crisp September mornings and standing outside to catch the school bus. Book reports and new school clothes have been a part of my end of summer for almost as long as I can remember. My excitement for the kids’ new classes now is added to the excitement of going back to work.
Math has always been a passion of mine indulged in with tutoring or studying through all the years since graduate school. Cracking open a pre-calculus book feels natural as does the lesson planning. There is such a joy and a peace for me working through problems that have solutions and seeing order in a world that seems chaotic. I remember the thrill of standing in front of the classroom sharing my love for mathematics with others and long for the days of teaching to begin again.
The first couple of weeks of work will be a huge adjustment. I won’t start the part time schedule until after a week of teacher in-service days and a week of upper school orientation. There’s been other weeks in our family life when I was deep into a project and the kids ate pizza for seven days straight. With Sophia’s help dinner will have more variety, but whatever it looks like, these first few weeks shall fly by.
The hurry scurry of going back to school will pass and we’ll be off to yet another new normal. School may look different with social distancing and masks but in so many ways it’s the same. Even the sending off of children to college and the reshuffling of the household are a common part of life. We are alive to experience it all and thanks be to God we are all healthy for now.
The feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos was yesterday. To me the end of the life of Mary the Mother of God marks the end of the year. The feast of her birth is right around the corner. It’s a good time to start life anew, a time of new beginnings.
Esther and Joshua left for college on Friday. They have stops with family and visits to monasteries to break up the long drive to Thomas Aquinas College in California. We had a family bagel send-off like last year. Because of the pandemic we ate our bagels at home instead of in the restaurant, but it was similar. Everyone ordered the same bagel except me. I’m on a chocolate protein shake kick these days and always drink that for breakfast.
Esther and I had worked on her room enough the night before that I knew what clothes were destined for goodwill and which for storage. She has the room that Mom had. Finding again the knick knacks and photo books that celebrate Mom’s life reminded me of cleaning the room after she passed away. Of course, I wasn’t mumbling questions about why she hid a box of cereal behind her lamp on the nightstand or the misplacement of nail polish remover, though Mom did have that secret stash of chocolate in the top drawer of her dresser. It was a continuum of send offs. I know there are more to come, and I’ll miss the day when Esther doesn’t come back from college because she will live somewhere else. How will I manifest my acts of service love language when everyone moves out? Maybe I’ll live from visit to visit from my children and grandchildren.
School is starting up for the rest of the kids. Sophia starts her senior year late and online. Her dual-enrollment college courses lend themselves to online study, so I’m not as worried about her education. Zoom classes were hard on my little ones last spring, but Sophia thrived in the absence of high school teen drama and the comfort of being at home.
Texas has decided not to close the Christian schools so the other kids will have class as normal, and I’ll be joining them to teach my math classes in person. The buying of lunch boxes and backpacks and pens and paper lacked the thrill of the crush of tax free weekend. I bought early to avoid possible public contamination, but when I drove by Target yesterday, it looked like every spot in the parking lot was filled. The rest of the city is gearing up for a new school year too whether in person or online.
Some years we work on the summer reading projects early, and sometimes like this year the posters are finished the day before school starts. These summer projects all blend together in my mind. The half finished posters and the Lego models laying on the kitchen counters are timeless book reports, pictures that could be from any year but belong to this one.
It might be one hundred and nine degrees outside, but school supplies and summer projects bring back the memories of the cool crisp September mornings and standing outside to catch the school bus. Book reports and new school clothes have been a part of my end of summer for almost as long as I can remember. My excitement for the kids’ new classes now is added to the excitement of going back to work.
Math has always been a passion of mine indulged in with tutoring or studying through all the years since graduate school. Cracking open a pre-calculus book feels natural as does the lesson planning. There is such a joy and a peace for me working through problems that have solutions and seeing order in a world that seems chaotic. I remember the thrill of standing in front of the classroom sharing my love for mathematics with others and long for the days of teaching to begin again.
The first couple of weeks of work will be a huge adjustment. I won’t start the part time schedule until after a week of teacher in-service days and a week of upper school orientation. There’s been other weeks in our family life when I was deep into a project and the kids ate pizza for seven days straight. With Sophia’s help dinner will have more variety, but whatever it looks like, these first few weeks shall fly by.
The hurry scurry of going back to school will pass and we’ll be off to yet another new normal. School may look different with social distancing and masks but in so many ways it’s the same. Even the sending off of children to college and the reshuffling of the household are a common part of life. We are alive to experience it all and thanks be to God we are all healthy for now.
The feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos was yesterday. To me the end of the life of Mary the Mother of God marks the end of the year. The feast of her birth is right around the corner. It’s a good time to start life anew, a time of new beginnings.