The Countdown

She’s back! We’re all under the same roof, even though not everyone wants to be here. We feel more like a family than a bed & breakfast. And now the countdown starts.

Usually my countdown starts as soon as the kids leave for camp. I have only a certain number of weeks, days, hours responsible only for myself before they return and my life has to semi-revolve around what they need from me. So even though my time is my own and I can relax, there’s an end in sight that ticks away in the back of my mind.

This time, that wasn’t the case. There was no sense of “only x amount of time until…” Maybe because one was home and the other called every day? I’m not sure. But I didn’t face the end of each day with a sense of “never again” or “one less.”

But now that everyone is home, laundry is beginning. Summer homework is beginning. Plans for short trips are beginning. And suddenly the summer has a countdown...

...a countdown until the birthday trip

...a countdown until the birthday

...a countdown until the college visits

...a countdown until band

...a countdown until the summer job ends

...a countdown until college

What was once a long stretch of summer is all of a sudden parsed into short bursts of activity, punctuated by even shorter times of nothing. And I suspect my attempts at sitting back and letting things happen as others want them to will fail miserably going forward. Because now there’s no time for procrastination and I’m much better at following my own idea of a schedule than anyone else’s.

Going to be a fun few weeks!