Endings and Beginnings

Just when I’m getting into the groove of summer, it’s back to school time.  While my daughter’s Teen Vogue magazine says that my Capricorn horoscope is "buzzing with excitement for back-to-school planning time”, my general feeling is that I’m not quite ready yet. Sure, I do crave the routine that the school year brings, but I also love the spontaneity of summer . . . sitting out on the front porch drinking my coffee in the morning, visiting with my kids in the middle of the day while I take a break from work, or heading up to our cabin for a long weekend.

I do love the carefree days of summer. I think the other thing that makes this summer coming to an end more difficult, is that I know I’ll have to say goodbye to Kenzie again as she heads back up to school. She’s close by, but always too far away for this Mom. And, then there’s Taylor. He just got his driver’s license, and is already asking about how much freedom he’s going to have now that he can get behind the wheel on his own. Oy! Just another thing for this Mom to worry about . . . and to reflect on.

It’s amazing how our time as parents flies by so quickly. I think it’s because we see our memories captured in the “big” milestones . . the day they were born, the day they started walking, the day they went to Kindergarten, the day they graduated high school. But, I will try and breathe it all in and continue to take each moment as it comes, as a blessing from God that we’ve been able to enjoy everything that comes with being a parent. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t let out a huge, heart-felt sigh or get watery eyes when Kenzie packed up her things and Taylor got behind the wheel to head out on his own. It’s those bittersweet moments that remind us just how blessed we are.

Practicing Joy

In the grocery store line yesterday morning, I was compelled to indulge in a guilty pleasure, and purchased an Oprah “O” magazine. The front cover spoke to me . . . it was “The Quiz Issue”. I’m a sucker for quizzes, so I brought it home and enticed Kenzie to take a couple of the quizzes with me. 
The first one was called, “Where Do you Find Joy?” and had us draw a timeline of a typical day, mapping out how much time we spend doing things, like working, cooking, cleaning, sleeping, etc. The next part of the exercise was to answer questions about things you love to do. You had to fill in the blank and answer questions like, “I could blow an entire rainy afternoon _________”, or “When I was a kid, I used to love ______”. We were to write the first thing that came to our minds, and it was a pretty easy exercise. Don’t we all know what we love to do? 
The next step was to redraw our timeline for a typical day, and sprinkle in some of the answers from those questions. This was very exciting to me because I noticed where there were small gaps in my day when my energy was low or in the evenings when I wasn’t getting anything productive done (the show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives comes to mind), and used those as places to fill in my “love-to-dos”. Some of them included taking a walk, spending time catching up with girlfriends, and drawing. 
When it was time for Kenzie to add in her “love-to-dos” to her list, she sort of looked at me blankly. I asked her if she was having a hard time fitting her loves into her schedule, and she surprised me by saying that she already does 9 of the 10 things on her list most days!  (When she was a “kid”, she used to love playing with her Barbie dolls . . . doesn’t do that anymore!) 
This got me thinking about how I’ve let my monotonous routine dominate my life. How lovely would it be to take 15 minutes out of my day and sketch the mountains or 30 minutes for a walk around the block . . . just because. What do YOU love to do that you aren’t doing because of a busy schedule, or just because it’s not currently part of your routine? Do one today!