Back to School time

Summer is winding down. My kids are back in school. My oldest is a junior in high school, worked all summer, and bought himself his first vehicle. He's driving to school every day now. My middle son is in 6th grade, the last year in elementary school where we live. My baby is in first grade which means he finally goes all day this year.

I'm shocked at how time flies. I shouldn't be. It's always been this way. But something about this time of the year and the changes it brings is always kind of jarring to me.

It was a good summer that flew by faster than usual. I kept myself busy in my garden and now I have lots of preserved food to show for it. More than that, I had fun.

We didn't have the money for big vacations this year except for our camping trip to Pokagon State Park. My husband, in his first year as an assistant scout leader, went to summer camp for a week with our 16 and 12 year old sons. And my 6yo son played daily with his buddy who lives down the street.

It was a laid-back and simple summer that I thoroughly enjoyed.

So school started last week. The kids are back in school, but it is too early for them to start calling in subs, so I have time at home to myself each day. I need to get the house straightened up after a summer of having everyone at home all the time. They'll be calling me to work soon.

Camping at Pokagon State Park

Last week we went camping in Pokagon State Park in the northeastern corner of Indiana. We had never been there before so it was an adventure for us. It turned out to be well worth the long drive to get there.

We hiked through marsh (seen here) and I identified flowers I'd never seen before in person. For example, notice the water lily:

We also went to their beach. Although the weather and the water were a little cold that day, you can see that my kids had fun. Here's my 6yo playing in the sand:

But of course, the best part is always the camping. We'd reserved our campsite online using only a basic map so we weren't sure what we were in for. Generally, we had a good site. It was the middle of the week so the campground wasn't terribly busy and the people who were there tended to be families with kids like us. We were within close walking distance of the facilities that included flush toilets and showers (a new luxury in our family's camping experience). We were also close to the camp playground so that the boys could go play on the playground while we fixed dinner. They were far enough to be out of our hair, but close enough that we could still see them and wave them over when dinner was ready. Each day was rounded out by the obligatory campfire and smores. Here's my 12yo playing guitar one evening at the fire ring:

How was your summer?

I can't believe it is here already - the last weekend of summer. We start back to school next week. Today I have to take Little J by the high school to pick up his new schedule for this year. Then I have to take all the boys to Target to shop for school supplies. This year all 3 boys will be in school as D is starting kindergarten. Woo hoo!

Earlier this week I took D to a kindergarten orientation program at his school and while there I ran into several teachers who are setting up their classrooms and preparing the first couple of weeks of lessons. Everyone asks the standard question: How was your summer? The standard answer: Too short.

I was thinking about the longer, more truthful answer to that question. How was my summer?

Well, the first part was miserable. After about two weeks of vacation I was climbing the walls. I was stuck here in the house most days and because I don't work in the summer, money was tighter than tight. I did manage to take the boys to the pool a few times and we did some little things, but it was very much a dry spell. I stopped going to church because most of the services were lay-led which (sorry to be honest) usually don't do much for me and I often feel that it isn't worth the gas money to drive 35 minutes to church and 35 minutes home again. And my UU Christian Circle was not able to meet this summer. I felt so isolated that I really could have used a couple of meetings to connect with people. I felt like I spent the first 6 weeks or so of summer standing at the door with a broom in my hand beating back the demon of "depression" who refused to leave my house.

Then by mid-July things took a turn. I became incredibly busy. Even though we really didn't have the money (a recipe for stress, by the way) we went on our vacation to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pigeon Forge, TN, and Gatlinburg, TN. We were there for 5 days and even though we didn't have much money to spend, we had a great time. We spend so much time going through the everyday rat race of work and school routines that we sometimes lose sight of simply living our lives. Taking a vacation - even a cheap, small-scale one - reminds us of the things that are really important.

Well, we came home from vacation in time for my brother's housewarming party. He and his wife just moved into a new-to-them house with their two kids so they invited all their friends and family to celebrate. It was a great time, a great house, and a rare opportunity to connect with other people.

Between vacation and the housewarming party, there was barely enough time to get the laundry all caught up before band camp week. Little J had band camp all day every day at the high school. I also had band camp as one of the "band moms" in charge of feeding the kids. I did it as a volunteer and got absolutely nothing monetarily out of it, but I did it to be more involved. I have to say it was, maybe, the best time I had all summer. It became less about the band and the kids and more about me having fun playing and making friends with other moms and dads. Most of the time we were there, the band was either outside practicing or somewhere else in the high school practicing music. I spent most of my time with the other parents either preparing the food or decorating. At the end of the week we even had an ice fight where we chased each other around with ice. We acted silly and laughed, we got excited about the decorations and music. We wore silly pirate costumes one day and bikini t-shirts another. We had fun. I was actually sad to see the week end even though it was totally exhausting. There is always next year.

Then as soon as band camp week was over, we had our annual local town fair complete with parade (in which the band marched) and a 3-day carnival at the town park. I volunteered to work in one of the tents sponsored by the band parents' association. This time I got credit for my work that will help defray the cost of Little J's band fees. But I also had a lot of fun. In addition to hanging out with the band parents again, I was in a location where I saw all kinds of people I know as they walked past our tent.

As the fair came to a close, I was left with exactly a week before school starts. Time to stock up on pencils and notebooks and practice going to bed earlier again. My job search has once again reared its head and it looks like I will be subbing again this year as I was not lucky enough to nab a real position yet. But I am trying not to let it get me down and to stay positive for the future.

So how was my summer? It was a summer of extremes. The first part of the summer was terribly isolating and lonely. The second part of the summer was frantically busy, but full of connections that fed my soul. I can learn from this and remember it next summer when I'm faced with 2 1/2 months of isolation. In May when school ends, I need a couple of weeks to relax and unwind. But by mid-June I need to find ways to get out there and be with people. Late summer is easy because there is always the band and fair stuff. I have to figure out something to occupy my time from mid-June to mid-July. I'll take this memory with me into the new year.

And I'll still tell people my standard answer: "Summer was too short."

Wildflowers in the Smokies

Different people like different activities when they go out in nature. My "thing" is identifying wildflowers. I could spend hours in the woods looking for flowers to identify. On our recent trip the the Smokies, I took along my camera to capture the flowers' images. I haven't identified all of them (yet), but I thought I'd share with you the ones I am pretty sure I've identified correctly.

This first one is Crimson Bee Balm (also known as Oswego Tea) which is prolific in the park. The bright red jumps out at you from all that green.



This next one is a little blurry (my camera isn't great), but it is a decent picture of what I think is Turk's-cap Lilies. The color was very distinctive and that, along with the curled-up shape, made it fairly easy to identify.



This striking blue flower jumped out at me. At first I thought some of the petals had been ripped off by an animal or another hiker, but I discovered that this flower actually only has two petals. What was even more bizarre was that this flower, introduced to America from Asia, has blooms that only bloom for one day. This one happened to bloom on the same day I took my hike. It's called the Asiatic Dayflower.



Finally, this is a photo of a Thimbleweed. Although the photo is a little blurry around the flower head due to the glare of the sun, I was able to identify it in person and am fairly certain about its name. The flower seemed to shoot right up out of the foliage which was on the ground.



I have more pictures I'll share in a later post. I've probably given enough for now. My husband has posted two different posts about our vacation on his blog at A View from the Crossroads. Go there to check out a picture from their whitewater rafting trip.

Vacation

OK, I'll admit I had an ulterior motive for disappearing for a few days. We took the family on a little vacation. Guess where we went...



Yes, we have just returned from Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Over the next several days I plan to make several blog posts about various aspects of the trip. We packed a lot into only 5 days. Stay tuned.

And by the way, I am still not finished with Harry Potter! We've had so much fun vacationing that we haven't had as much time to read as I'd hoped. But I'm working on it.