Last Day of School

The boys are so excited they can hardly stand themselves. Not sure how much of this excitement I can stand, either. :-) This morning was wild. You know how boys are when excited, right? Well, then you can probably picture it then.

There’s always something a little bittersweet about the last few days of school. That and the fact that once the standardized testing is over, the last two weeks are kind of meaningless, but we’ll save that discussion for another day. I’ll also spare you discussion of my normal end-of-the-school-year nightmares (yes, I’m quite tired today). But seeing all the writing and artwork come down off the walls and all the name tags and workbooks coming home in book bags and the general winding down feeling is kind of sad, I think. But it also has that exhilarating feeling that summer break is upon us and the two and half months of summer stretching before us with all their potential. I hope my boys can keep their excitement and remember that they like being home together come Monday morning, because I’ve already told them they will NOT be fighting in the house. It’s awfully hot outside! We are working diligently to learn 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and talking daily about what real love looks like and that it is a choice, not a feeling. We’re also memorizing Proverbs 29:11 “A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back.” And we are talking about how we can’t love that way on our own and I’m teaching the boys to pray that God will help them to have hearts that will love each other. I don’t want to give the wrong impression. J and M actually get along very well, but too much togetherness is sometimes, well, challenging for them, and I want to be a wise mom and teach them, using God’s word.

Back to the bittersweet, this year has a little more of that for me as the mom. J’s teacher was also his second grade teacher who looped up to third, and she also goes to our church and we’ve become friends, too, so we’ll really miss her next year, though we’ll still see her at church. M’s teacher is retiring this year, and I’m so glad he got to have her during her last year. She was a great teacher. Plus, thinking too hard about this being J’s last day of 3rd grade and M’s last day of 1st really reminds me how fast time is going and how quickly they are growing.

I’ve got fun stuff planned to celebrate this afternoon, though. School gets out at noon today – pretty wise planning if you ask me. I’m taking them to Chick-fil-A for lunch and then when we get home they can have some of the homemade cookies that I am baking right now with milk. And tonight I am making pizza (the boys love it when we make homemade pizza with Chef Boyardee mix), then we’re going to watch National Treasure together with real, Orville Redenbacher, on-the-stove-with butter-flavored-popping-oil popcorn. They’ve been wanting to watch National Treasure for a while, and Drew and I think it’s probably okay. I’ve already told the Question King he needs to have a notebook and pencil in hand and write his questions down and keep his mouth quiet during the movie. He can ask them at the end if he doesn’t feel he got the answer during the movie. Just thinking ahead.

So, in our house summer is officially beginning today. Hooray!