Labor Day Woes

I don't know about you, but there is always a sadness that hits me at the end of each Labor Day Vacation. I think it's because it's the sure sign that summer is over. I love summer and the carefree feeling I feel during those three months. Don't get me wrong, I love the change of the seasons here. I look forward to every one of them, and I am always grateful for the structure that comes back into our lives when school starts. But there was an especially lonely feeling this year with Daniel gone, and the loss of Ford, our dog. The house is way to empty now and it has hit me even harder that I am so close to having all my children gone!

The time for summer and all the fun things I had planned have slipped away. I had so much planned and so many dreams that I wanted to have happen before Daniel went away to school. It seems just last week that I took Daniel to Crestline Elementary in Vancouver, Washington for his first day at Kindergarten and then he didn't come home on the bus because the bus driver got confused and I was in a sheer state of panic. It doesn't seem that long ago that Jason went to his first day and now I am almost to the end.

That time for family fun and vacations will have to be put on hold now. Daniel will be off on his mission for our church next year, and it will be four years until we are together again as a family because Daniel and Jason's missions will cross over.

I guess that's why I feel an especially sad feeling at the end of this summer. The summer's as I have known them will never be again. My children are grown and they have other things and people in their lives now.