The schools up here let out last week, which means summer has officially arrived. It’s been *mumblemumble* years since I sat in a classroom on the last day of school in June, feeling giddy with anticipation about the last few minutes of class and the last bus ride home until September. My desk (or locker) would be cleaned out, and my friends and I would be practically levitating out of our chairs because we were so wound up and excited about the summer.
Those days have long passed, but I still get a thrill out of watching the calendar and counting the days left until the schools empty out for the summer. Granted, I watch for a completely different reason (we’re busy all day long instead of during the immediate few hours after school), but I can appreciate what the kids are feeling.
This year was my mom’s last year of teaching, as she retired at the end of this past school year. She taught grade 1 at a school she’d been at for almost 25 years, and had seen lots of changes there (some for the better, some for the worse). In all, she’s been teaching for over 36 years, so she deserves a break!
On the weekend, my parents and youngest sister came down, and we hung out for a few days. The most ambitious things we did were buying a barbecue and making strawberry jam [1]. Sadly, they left yesterday morning, so I’m all alone again. Sniff.
As for what my plans for the rest of the summer are, I don’t have many beyond reading, knitting and sleeping. I don’t have any vacations or get-aways planned, but I make take a few days off here and there.
[1] Here’s where, if I’d been truly ambitious, I’d have inserted a picture of the jars of jam. However, I’m too tired to go downstairs and do that now, so you’ll have to imagine it. There are six jars, in case you need somewhere to start.