Here it comes…the next school year.  I know you…you wonder where the summer went.

There were so many empty days looming out in front of you at the end of May.  Days to spend quality time with your kids instead of other kids.   You were going to loll round on the beach with a cooler full of drinks and a nice big umbrella…perhaps a good book.  You would stay there till you got good and ready to walk away.

You were going to start summer off right, too!  Those precious children of yours were going to get their own breakfast and then you were going to teach them what ‘cleaning your room” really means.  Yeah.   You were gonna get ’em in shape before the next school year rolled around!  Oh, there would be plenty of fun time for them.  Ball tournaments and swimming at the pool.  Perhaps sleep away camp and church VBS.

You just thought it was important to also remind them that being a part of a family mean ‘everybody works’!  And what better way to get that message across than by making their summer project emptying the garage..selling the junk…and putting everything back in a useful order. { FYI:  you may not know this but 95% of the women with children in grade school have handed out this same project to their children for the last 80 years.  They most probably faired no better at it than you and your kids!}

And lest every single bit of knowledge that has been crammed into their brains in the last few years of school, grow stale and somehow slip away when you are not watching…..one book a month must be read…and reported on to you.

You were planning to enjoy those days when you didn’t have to get up until your body said, “You can not stay here any longer or you will have no reason to go to bed tonight!”  You were planning on those days when baggy jeans and a sloppy top was the outfit for the day and absolutely NO MAKEUP REQUIRED!

You were thinking about all those fresh veggies you were gonna cook and those fine Slocomb tomato sandwiches with lots of mayo and perhaps a slice or 2 of bacon.  Those fresh strawberries and blueberries and plums and figs.  You sorta toyed with the idea of making some preserves from all that fruit this year.  Actually you spent about 1.4 seconds considering it and then thanked your Maker that He had given you much better sense than that!

Maybe a few trips with the girl friends should be in order to fill all those days.  Just you and your sister-friends…those girls you have shared life with.  The good and the bad.  The ones who have seen you host a fabulous party and those who have sat and talked to you while you were on the toilet!  You’d play all day in your cutest bathing suit and cover up…then dress to the nines to go out to eat…new summer frocks, cutest sandals, new shade of eyeshadow, and the cutest purse ever!  You’d share your entrees and desserts….gotta always be careful!  And, the shopping.  Up and down every street at Pier Park.  Then on to Destin.  Stoppping at every little boutique on 30A and finding something with your name all over it!  Lunch at Bud and Alleys or perhaps a late lunch or early evening at The Red Bar!  Then FASHION SHOW…everyone has to show and tell about their fabulous finds.

Is hubby feeling a little neglected?  You knew he would and planned a couple of weekend trips for just you two.  Lovely dinner…you in those fab new clothes you bought…maybe a little wine…a little dancing…a little romancing!.

Or maybe you planned one of those grand vacations?  Where it took weeks of planning?  Where everyone had to pack their own suitcase and carry it?  Where there would be learning as well as fun?  Oh!  I bet you did!  How long did it take before the youngest was ready to go home?

They seem to waffle between having a fabulous time and being bored to death, don’t they?  But, you, Mom, the fearless one, was going to expose them to the places of historical significance around our country…perhaps other countries.  And, they were going to see it…and soak it in…pose in front of it  and remember it… come ‘a hot place’ or ‘high water!”

Good for you, Mom!  You did it!  Or you tried.  You just forgot to remember that there’s something magical that happens to the days once school lets out.   The first few are long, but  they grow increasingly shorter as it nears August.  June and July loom out in front of us with the promise of all of the above…….but the days…the days…they just don’t cooperate!  They are too short!  They are too hot!  They are too lazy!  How could anyone expect you to follow that schedule you laid out in May…on a day in July…with a temp of 98 and a heat index of 106?  How are sane folks supposed to muddle through those days?  EXACTLY!!!  Stretched out on the couch…with your favorite cold drink….and the new book you have been aching to read all year…the fan above you on high…perhaps the dog lying on your feet…and kids loaned out on playdates…or upstairs playing video games and hubby already instructed to bring home take out for dinner!  Yeah!  I understand.  You need to charge your own batteries…some ME time!

So here you are the end of July…nigh into August….the school year for 18/19 has already begun for you.Your room is ready.  Didn’t take you but a week to get everything in place.  You set through all those teacher workshops and staff meetings that are so full of great information and get you all psyched up for the year!  All the supplies you think you will need are purchased or on order.  You’ve received your class list….smiling at some names…moaning at others.  But, I know you.  Those kids won’t know the difference.  Cause you are a TEACHER!  The noblest of professions.

You open up little brains to the wonder that exists around them.  You make all those numbers rolling around in their heads fall into a logical order and mean something.

You show them how all those words on every page of every book are just a clue to some great piece of knowledge that will help them the rest of their lives.  You help little fingers as they struggle to make those lines straight and the curves in the right direction so as to make a disernable letter.  And then you even show them how to combine those strange markings together to make a word they can read!  And you can read!  And the world can read!

And every day as you watch those little bodies and developing personalities as they run and jump on the playground…you whisper a prayer for each of them.  Because by the end of this year…when May rolls around again…they will be different.  They will have grown…in their physical bodies, in their minds, in their social skills and in their interest in the world around them.  They will be another step closer on their journey.  Thanks to you!

God bless you teacher.  God bless your class.  I thank you.  I admire you.  I honor you. And I pray for you.  You are doing the hardest…yet most important job of all…teaching!

And, hey, you just save that list.  You can use it again next summer!