the here and now

Kindergarten has started.

The weekend is here.

Summer is winding down, slowly but gracefully easing into fall.

The lighting has been gorgeous in the evenings. Have you noticed? There is a glimpse of fall lighting...and it has me enticed and ready to take the leap into the next season.

Although we participated in summer-like activities this evening, my heart wasn't in it.

I have made the switch and my mind is completely in love with the approaching fall!

Oh man I can close my eyes tonight and smell fall. You know the crisp fall air...it has a smell that takes you back to football and harvest to school to memories.  This longing for the next season has of course made me start thinking about my next list! I will admit that actually writing down a list of things to do during the season was surprisingly successful and fun. It prevented us from just letting the season of summer pass us by without completely savoring all the things that make summer~summer!

Without further adieu

1. Bake pies

    *I have never made a pie!

2. Soup

    *I have such a craving for soup weather...chili, chix noodle, potato...mmm.

3. Bake Bread

4. Jump in Leaves

5. Pumpkin Patch

6. Go to Football games

7. Go to Volleyball games~Husker's would be great!

8. Halloween......oh man I am thinking Halloween already, costumes and fun...food

     *Last year we had ghost pancakes for breakfast and mummy dogs for lunch!

9. Haunted House

     *an Adult scary one!

10. Combine ride for me and the kids! Modified and upgraded to driving the combine!

11. Buy a stranger's meal

Well that looks like a good start! I feel as though I am missing some classic fall moments, so feel free to leave me some suggestions or thoughts about YOUR list for fall!

I challenge each of you to make a list of what you are going to do to savor this approaching season.

What memories are you going to create?

When you close your eyes and smell that crisp fall air what visions come back?

Go there. Do those things.

That is my challenge for each of you....

Are you living your life or waiting until "xyz" happens because  I had a moment with a parent this week that reminded me again how important it is to live the life we have now

because we never know what our future holds

and none of us want to look back and wish we had enjoyed the moments we have

....here and now!

This is your life.

Here and Now.

Live it!

“Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.”~ William Cullen Bryant

If you are reading this...click the lil' Comment line below and start your fall list!: (Comment under Anonymous if you don't want to be known!Heck I dont' care! Just do it!)
Can't wait to read your plans.........

rocket science

Kindergarten such a small yet big thing really.

I have been contemplating what is it about Kindergarten and Cohen that pulls at the heart strings, that makes me want to run for the hills.

For some it is hard to separate, the thought of sending them out all day, but for us, we do that already with daycare, so no it isn't the separation. It isn't the new place. New teacher. New friends. Yes those are all factors that make the first day a bit scary, but I know Cohen and I know he will be fine. Quiet at first, but fine. No it is not those things at all....it is, well everything else.  Bigger.

When I think about the significance of Kindergarten it gets me. These first two to maybe three years will virtually determine if he is a child who loves or hates school. These first two or three years will determine if we learn from the homework sent home or fight over it for the next 13 years. Did you know that if you are not a proficient reader at the 3rd grade level it is most likely you will never be?  The power, influence, and impact of these first few years are indescribable in predicting and creating future success.

Kindergarten for me is not letting go of Cohen as much as it is letting go of the power I have in shaping and influencing who he is and what he does.

Up until this point, as Cohen's mom, I have had control. Yes he is in daycare all day, but if I don't like the daycare provider, we can change. I get to decide what kids he sees and what kids he knows and what kids he plays with. I get to decide, well pretty much everything.

This chapter ends that.

This chapter begins a new balancing act that I am not yet equipped for.

Unlike daycare, if he gets a teacher that I don't agree with or I don't think "clicks" with him, I have no power to change that. I can't "decide." There is not another choice, but to make it through.

So when I think about the lack of my "power" and the importance of these first few years in predicting future success...that is what "Gets me" that is what "holds me down."  That is what "scares the living daylights out of me", Cohen's mom.

Then that makes me sit down and reflect on the foundation I have laid for him while I did hold the "power," and the decisions were mine.  Did I do enough? Could I have done more? we should have read more books and drew more pictures.  Did I do the ground work? Did lay down a solid foundation for him to grow from?  These again are scary questions to ask of yourself as a parent, because they too greatly predict your child's future success.

The night is closing in and tomorrow we set foot into a new world.

A world of new learning and new lessons for Cohen and Cohen's mom.

Yes friends parenting isn't rocket science, it is far more complicated than that!

To lead him through the places

A glimpse at what is coming this week at our house.......

He started school this morning,

And he seemed so very small.

As I walked there beside him

In the Kindergarten hall.

And as he took his place beside

the others in the class,

I realized how all too soon

Those first few years can pass.

Remembering, I saw him as

he first learned how to walk.

The words that we alone made out

When he began to talk.

This little boy so much absorbed

In learning how to write.

It seems as though he must have grown to boyhood overnight.

My eyes were blurred and hastily I brushed the tears away

Lest by some word or sign of mine I mar his first big day

Oh how I longed to stay with him and keep him by the hand

To lead him through the places

That he couldn't understand.

And something closely kin to fear

Was mingled with my pride.

I knew he would no longer be a baby by my side.

But he must have his chance to live,

To work his problems out,

The privilege to grow and learn what life is all about.

And I must share my little boy

With friends and work and play;  he's not a baby anymore --

he's in Kindergarten today.

 

 ~author unknown

 

big week stayed tune........