School Daze!

So the summer just FLEW by and now the boys are back in school. I can still recall when my oldest went into 3rd grade and I was soooo happy that we were done with the horrid 2nd grade teacher. Now he's entering the High School years and his little brother is now a 3rd grader! UGH! Where is the time going? At what point in life do we go from being a child and carefree, measuring the time in seasons and fun activities to a 35 year old other of 3 wishing she had more time? When we were kids we knew summer and swimming and biking were right around the corner only to look forward to jumping in leaves and sledding down snowbanks. Time was not a factor unless it was getting too dark to play outside and that meant dinner and bedtime only to awake the next day for school, after school cartoons and so on. Somewhere during the teenage years we started to panic about time, school ending, what do we do with our lives. Then it was basking in the freedom of being an adult, making our own choices and unfortunately taking responsibility for ourselves. The twenties were a time of great changes, challenges and I believe just too much life and experiences to really be bothered with time flying by. Some of us got married, started our own families and further bogged down the clock with playdates, PTA and extra laundry. Others focused on careers and climbing the ladder and establishing themselves in business. The few lucky ones were able to do both, or not so lucky depending on the demands of time and your perception of quality of life.
I have always been very happy to be a wife and a mother. I have always worked and even started my own business, but not in hopes of becoming rich, or famous or even to fill time. I did it to be master of my own time and schedule. I was already a slave to my husband's and children's schedules so I wanted to be able to make money to pay bills and still be available for school plays, teacher conferences, and dentist appointments. I wanted my children to have a good life with a few luxuries, but mostly with a mother they could count on to be there for them. I have driven them to school the first day of school for every year and school they've gone to. I have taken them to all their dental and doctor appointments and brought them to their football practices, attended games, orchestra concerts and school carnivals. I don't always enjoy everything I have to do, but when the kids do, it makes me happy. The only regrets I've ever had were for the passing of time and wishing I'd had more and done more. It's really moronic when I also wish I'd had more time to relax and do less. This seems to be the curse of all men and women as they grow older. We can become melancholy over our children attending school, wishing we were back there again when all we wanted when we WERE there was for time to fly and for it to be over. Life is such a long and strange journey. How funny that the beginning of another school year can trigger such reflection and contemplations of life.