The petals from the flowering trees flutter in the autumn-like breeze. The seasons seem as mixed up as I feel. Rain pounds down. The sky miraculously turns blue and the sun shines until the wind blows clouds across the sky again. I wouldn’t be surprised to find a light dusting of snow in the morning, though I do believe we are past that annoyance. After all, the dandelions are in full bloom, though my neglected lilac bush displays my negligence.
Do you ever have to ask yourself what season it is? Maybe that’s just me. Autumn and spring resemble each other so much.
I’m simultaneously locked into three separate seasons of parenting life, too. My teenagers inhabit that moody, occasional surly stage. Sometimes they shock me with their helpfulness and sometimes they make me wonder what I was thinking.
My 11-year old never wants to grow up. He’s Peter Pan in a chubby body with freckles on his pert nose and a tendency to annoy his sister until she cries. But this child is smart and funny and sweet, even though he “forgets” to use shampoo on a semi-regular basis.
And then there’s the 6-year old who loves kindergarten and gives me a full report almost every day when I pick her up. “Matthew talked about violence again today. Angelina made me sad, but Alyssa cheered me up. We had a substitute in music class today. I had to sit on the wall at recess.” (“Sit on the wall” is the punishment given to children who stray beyond the boundaries or disobey the rules.) “But I didn’t mind because I just talked to the other kids on the wall.”
Every other time I had a kindergartener, I had a baby at home. This is the first time I have a kindergartener with teenagers instead of a baby. (Teenagers are easier, only because they sleep until I wake them.)
I’m planning our summer vacation.
Enrolling my teenagers in virtual school for next fall.
I’m living in different seasons and trying to keep myself from flying away in the tornado of it all.
(And my kitchen sink is full of dishes, the dirty laundry needs attention and all I want to do is float in a bathtub and read a novel.)
Actual Unretouched Photo 
When, exactly, would you ever have time to float in a bathtub? Sounds like wishful thinking to me!
“Fly away…”
“Float in a tub…”
“Read a novel…”
Sounds like a novel idea to me (pun intended)!
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Mel, you are and always will be one of my favorite bloggers. I look forward to the day my kids wake up only when I wake them. I hope you got that bath.
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“float in tub reading novel” sounds wonderful!! miss you!
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I learn so much from reading your blog, so I guess it’s only natural that I’m going to have questions too. So. Um.
What’s a virtual school?
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And I don’t have to time to float or read. Something is seriously out of whack in my life. –Mel
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I would love to see Seattle in the spring. In Ohio, the seasons are quite different. Spring, newly-green, and fall, in color, fly; summer progresses steadily; winter drags greyly by.
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