I say this every year, but I will say it again anyway. Remember when we were young and summer used to end at the end of August, not the end of July? OK, I’m done complaining. Don’t have much to complain about. Only that we will be leaving Kentucky in five days and it’s a bittersweet goodbye. We’ve had nothing less than a two-month blast of a summer vacation, even if we did regularly participate in activities such as menu planning, grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning and laundering for eight people, and maintaining a car and a yard and a supersized family. None of that seems to matter when you can hop on the bike and take a ride in the country for an hour as the sun sets in the west (never mind the mosquitoes, they can’t keep up). Or when you can take a drive into the countryside and ride a free ferry into Illinois, shop at an Amish dairy farm and bakery, and learn the true meaning of locally made. Or when you can pack up the car for the weekend, kayaks on top, and head to one of the endless lakes with water as warm as a bath and air that stays warm far into the night and campsites within walking distance of the shore and paddling out at dusk and dawn and love, love, love. Or stepping on metal step after another into the depths of the world’s largest cave. Or swimming in Zak’s parents’ pool, eating their delicious home-cooked meals, and feeling like we are staying at a bed and breakfast. Or Bruce taking the girls to visit his family for a good long time, enjoying at last the day at the picnic area in Cades Cove that he has spent our marriage telling me about, where the girls wouldn’t get out of the creek all day and caught frogs and crawdads, saw a snake and a fawn, and had a day they will never forget. Or taking one more day at the paint-your-own-pottery place, where this time gifts for home were on their mind… Or taking a drive into St. Louis to stay in a “fancy” hotel with a circular tower, a room with a view of the Arch, walking distance to the Cardinals game (they won 8-4!), where Bruce and Zak struck up a conversation in line and got handed box seat tickets, where we could pretend for one glorious weekend that we were rich… oh, but we are, aren’t we?
But, alas, the end is near. We will spend the first half of the week indulging in a few more bike rides, one more beach day, and then begin packing our million point five items (we thought we would have so much space going home, as we brought so many items to give to Lucy, but it appears we might be heading back with MORE) into, on top of, and behind the van. We’ll head out on Friday night, make a stop in St. Louis so the girls can go in the Arch for the first time (we didn’t have time over the past weekend), and drive all night while they sleep. Then we will have just ten days to rest and recover, to rediscover our friends and our home, before reality hits. Reality being, school starts! This may seem overwhelming for most families, but for a teacher it’s double duty. Every year I feel like I’m beginning a new job all over again, and this year I kind of am. I am working with different teams and doubling up on my ESL class and teaching a computer class for the first time! It’s going to be a stressful but exciting new school year, especially since it is Riona’s first (and only) year of preschool and Mythili is entering kindergarten! Oh how the time flies… Seems like we were just pulling up, and now we will be heading out… but life is cyclical, so I’m sure we’ll be back before we know it, on two wheels or four. 
For now, here are my poems for the girls this July.
