Summer skidding to an end.

It seems like there is a rush towards the end of summer.  It's coming towards me like a blur.  The flurry of summer trying to eep in all the last bits.

When I was a kid the week of the local community fair was the big sign that reads, "Back to school is right around the corner!"  That sign will be glaring just next week like some sort of get-your-fun-in-while-you-still-can beacon.

Stores are filled with bright binders, fun pencils, hand-held sharpeners, storage cases for holding all the bits and parts, shelves and mirrors for lockers, Trapper Keepers and similar style binders grace the shelves, almost begging parents to make the purchase while promising a year of mom not having to find the errant homework because it will surely be neatly seated in a folder clearly marked with a a subject name and next to a syllabus clearly pointing to due dates and times that will keep from the procrastination called I-know-it's-my-bedtime-but-this-project-is-due-tomorrow from every happening again.

This end-of-summer-let's-start-the-new-year trend of optimism comes beaming out of the stores with the new backpacks and pictures of happy-as-a-clam kids boarding the school bus in their new jeans and logo shirts advertising the latest and greatest toy, movie or video game with bright white shoes and laces tied up with the security of a prison. Everyone is put together, eager to learn and has charming, engaging and thought-provoking teachers.

This will be the best year EVER!

Moms have an ever-present knowledge that the second day of school will bring the crinkled homework in the bottom of the bag, Trapper Keeper left in the locker, open lunch boxes with discarded applesauce containers and crumbs trailing over the bottom of the backpack, lost pencils, a new shirt with a hole in in, dirty tennis shoes and a trail of random school "stuff" trailing from the front door half way to the bedroom.

Those necessary forms for emergency contacts, sports participation, field trips, medications, immunizations, etc., etc. that will continue ceaselessly ad nauseum for the rest of the year begin to trail in, getting lost between a soggy lunchbox and the floor of the bus.

We know that the back-to-school routine of getting up early and getting to the bus on time will be a struggle like it has every year in the past, though each passing grade has brought up a child a year older, a year more independent and a year less likely to play with toys on the floor of their room while they are supposed to be getting dressed.  On the other hand, transitioning from elementary school to middle school to high school comes with a shift of start times that makes everyone cringe.

We have promise, though.  It's a new year with new teachers and new challenges, new ways to improve ourselves and push ourselves and our children to be smarter, stronger and more competent.  We will all make it through this new year, crinkled papers and lost homework aside.