Back To School

The boys are back to school in-person part time. Oliver has half days 5 days a week, every week. Matt is in preschool 2 half days a week and 3 days virtual. I'm grateful for whatever we get, for as long as it lasts. I know we are lucky school even opened. 

(It was a tough decision to send our kids back to in-person school. We are lucky to have the option to be in-person part time right now, and we are taking it because it's the best choice for us currently. It wasn't an easy decision. Their first days back I was super anxious about whether I made the right call or not (home in a bubble forever please). But they were SO HAPPY to be back with their friends and teachers and classrooms. Everyone has to weigh their mental health, their kids' mental health, their needs as a family and the risk of getting sick... the answer is different for everyone. Here in NJ, our caseload is low right now, so this is a good time to see how well masks and social distancing work - if our kids aren't catching colds, then we know these restrictions are working. We are taking it a week at a time here.) 

So now I get TWO WHOLE HALF DAYS a week alone. Honestly I'm not even sure what alone in the house looks like anymore. I'm feeling a weird mix of elation and sadness - time to myself (to work! to clean! to drink coffee by myself for 5 minutes without someone interrupting me!) is amazing, but I'm also sad they are gone, sad summer is over, scared that this wasn't the right decision. 

Will I be able to get more things done? 

Will I be able to stay on top of the laundry? Finally get the house cleaned and organized after all these weeks? Work on updating Oliver's bedroom, something I've been planning for a year now?

If I couldn't get myself together last year, when the kids were both gone 5 days a week, full days... what makes me think I can do that this year?

Then again... last year we were running around doing 4 different sports each week and we had something every single day after school. On weekends we were doing more sports, seeing friends and doing lots of fun social activities. This year, when I don't know what next week will bring, we haven't made plans that far into the future. And by going back to school, we are sort of "contaminated" now in terms our people outside our circle. And we're limited in sports options this fall - Oliver is doing just Tae kwon do 3x a week (with some of it virtual) and Matt is doing soccer on Saturdays. And that's it. So maybe this year will be easier in that sense?

Either way, I'm sad Summer is over. The pool is still up. The weather is still warm. The flowers are blooming and there's color everywhere... but Fall is coming, I can feel it. The sun sets much earlier. Nights are getting chillier. The light has changed to that golden light near the equinox. Suddenly there are pumpkins everywhere and pumpkin-spice-everything is back on the shelves. I like Fall, but I'm a Summer girl at heart.

So here are a few snaps of some of my favorite summer colors from the season. Flowers, woods, beaches, rainbows and sunset skies. It was a good summer despite all the craziness. It was different, but still good. 

We spent a lot of time outside. At our pool, at the town pool, in our backyard, at the beach. Water was a constant reoccurring theme. 

It was also the first summer of the new garden in its entirety. We've had an amazing harvest and I absolutely love all the cut flowers from having two cutting garden beds.