Last Outing Before Schools End

"You have been running, Jo. How could you? When will you stop such romping ways?" said Meg reprovingly, as she settled her cuffs and smoothed her hair, with which the wind had taken liberties.

"Never till I'm stiff and old and have to use a crutch. Don't try to make me grow up before my time, Meg. It's hard enough to have you change all of a sudden. Let me be a little girl as long as I can."

~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

*****

Last week was the last of the school year. Now, summer stretches out in a grand 12 week span before us. To the little ones, it seems a vast amount of time and autumn is a barely conscious thought on the most-distant horizon. To my soon to be middle schoolers, the length of time is decent enough but they are learning to expect that it will go by quicker than they wish. And to me, now a mama of many, I know all too well how fast it will be over. The fall will arrive in a flurry of gold and brown and my babies will be traipsing off to the bus again - this time, with little Benjamin, who turned five this May. Sweet Rose will be home with me just one more year.

It is a bit bittersweet for me. This chapter of life in which I always had a baby at home will very soon be over. While I am happy to think of the changing seasons and the opportunities that such changes will bring I know all too well how much to cherish these last days of babyhood. Because, despite how ready I think I am to embrace the changes and chances, I know I will miss these quiet hours. 

I greatly enjoy my outings with the little ones while the big kids are in school and our last little trip before school got out was such a fun one! We visited a local nature sanctuary and enjoyed walking in the woods, throwing rocks in the creek, listening to the insects and birds and the wind in the trees and finding all kinds of pretty flowers. We saw butterflies and moths and one wild turkey. 

It's been a hot, rainy and humid spring so far. A spring of visits to the playground, making castles in damp sand and splashing in the lake, of milkshakes from McDonalds and hamburgers on the grill, of wading pools and squirting each other with the hose, of peanut-butter-and-jelly picnics on the deck, and late night baseball games "under the lights", watching the big boys and cheering and clapping with each run they make. We've even had hail more than once, and tornadoes not far from here! Exciting times! 😁

How grateful I am for time to watch my children be little, a little longer. 

*****

"In things best known to you finding the best, or as good as the best, in folks nearest to you finding the sweetest, strongest, lovingest, happiness, knowledge, not in another place but this place, not for another hour but this hour." 

~ Walt Whitman