But this morning, I sent Gryffin off to a camp for 6th graders at his middle school. It's just a little morning event to help them feel more prepared before orientation and then the start back to school next week. And for such a small event, it's got me reeling with so many thoughts and bittersweet emotions:
Joy that both my kids (who are thick as thieves) will have this golden year together at the same school.
Anxiety about how they'll fit in, and whether they'll have friends to sit with at the lunch table.
Melancholy that they're slipping through my fingers and growing up so dang fast.
I love having them all to myself over the summer, and all the fuzzy warm memories we create as a family when routine ends and we seek out new travel adventures (California and Colorado this year--my old home states), enjoy lazy mornings and lots of slumber parties in the living room, and learn incredible life skills (we worked this summer on scout merit badges... I think they're working toward a record in the number of merit badges earned over a summer--it's been a blast). That's pretty much summed up our summer.
It's been glorious soaking in this time together.
And it's hard to let that go.
It's hard to watch kids grow up, even as they get to be more and more fun with each stage and blossom into such incredible people who I'm so proud to call my children.
Because I feel like I'm in the thick of the golden years of my life, and I know these years are short. I love being their mom with all my heart. And yet my goal as their mom is to prepare them for life... which means working myself out of this job.
It's the hardest and most significant work I'll ever do, raising these two humans entrusted by Heaven to my care.
Here's to yet another step toward working myself out of my favorite job: Here's to the beginning of middle school.
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