Summer holidays have begun

It's hydrangea season and it's been drizzling today. A great time to get
a gorgeous photo of this neighbour's flowers.

Today I watched my son formally finish elementary school or primary school as it's called in Australia. That's the end of an era. It's been eleven and a half years since our eldest son started in grade one. Going back even further, it was April 2003 when our eldest son first started at full-time kindy. That's a long time. 

From August I'll only have middle and high school kids in my house! And in only one year's time I will only have two boys left at school when our eldest son graduates. Phew! I don't feel old enough for this.

They're everywhere at the moment.

I have mixed emotions as is usual in situations like this. I'm happy to see them growing up, it's the natural thing to do, it's the goal and what we've been training them for their whole lives. It's great to see them developing their various strengths and individual characteristics. 

But it is a little sad, just a tiny bit sad, that that "little boy" stage is very much gone.

I also have mixed emotions about the fact that we've now begun summer holidays: more than eleven weeks of boys at home. It's great that that means no nights of homework and assignment pain, less scheduling challenges, and more rest. 

But because I work from home, it feels like a bit of an invasion! I can no longer count on uninterrupted days in my weeks to get my work done (because I don't get eleven weeks holiday from my work), though admittedly the boys are a lot easier than they used to be in terms of keeping entertained. I have to forgo my wonderfully quiet and simple lunches on my own. These long eleven weeks mean a lot more interaction and challenges in loving one another.

School on the last day before a break always finishes at 12 at CAJ. Strange, I know, maybe because it allows people to still catch an aeroplane after school's finished for the day? Anyway, I don't normally feel like hanging around on campus after things like this, but today I did. I think I was reluctant to come home and face up to those eleven weeks of boys!

We do have some great things planned for the summer holidays, so hopefully I'll be able to look back at these three months in September when I get my quiet house back again, and be thankful for the weeks I had the guys here.