we already think it is summer...but it's not

It happens the same way every year.

We get to the last few weeks of school and school life as we know it falls apart.

The children are dressed in pants that are too short, too tight with holes in the knees.

Lunches become a hodge podge.

(What child wouldn't want a hand full of pickles and green olives for a mid-day snack?)

Homework gets lost in the fray.

 (What do you mean you stuck it under your bed and it's not there now?)

It's as if our ability to organize ourselves is in direction correlation with how sunny

it is outside. And this weekend the sun was shining bright.

Both Scott and I thought the other one had set the alarm last night and

I woke up in a panic at 7:45...we had 20 minutes to get ready.

I was flinging sandwiches in baggies and yelling things like,

"Shoes on! Waffles done! Brush teeth!"

For some reason I feel if my sentences are shorter the children will respond quicker.

Mommy morse code does not work.

The children had a glazed over look as they piddled around getting to the table.

The problem is that it felt like summer this weekend.

We slept in Saturday morning and then we met Brett and Jenny

(my sister and brother-in-law) and Drew at the Flea Market.

We scoured the stalls for treasures and almost everyone got something.

Then getting back home we had our friends, Katie and Jared, come over.

They brought their boys, Elias and JT, who used to go to school with our boys.

The air was electric with the joy of the reunion.

We had pizza and s'mores and finished out the night with mugs of coffee.

We parents sat our by the fire for hours as the kids played dodgeball

and hide and seek and finally retired to some video games.

The kids weren't in bed until almost midnight.

And this was sheer foolishness on our part but we were feeling summer in our bones, too.

And this morning....this morning we paid the price for it.

I don't stay up until 11:30 anymore let alone let the children.

I can barely keep my eyes open as I type. But it's too late for me to go back

to the school year schedule of early mornings, prepped backpacks and school uniforms.

I've tasted summer. Only one more week of making bag lunches

and then I am off duty for a good 2 1/2 months.

It is all I can do to make it through to Friday.

The kids get out of school at the end of the week and we are itching

for swims in Grandma and Grandpa's pool and lazy sleeping in mornings and

slip and slide in the back yard.

All I can say at this point is,

"Hurry up, summer! You can't get here soon enough!"