I Don't Want to Work....

This is what summer mornings look like from my porch. Normally I would take my cup of coffee (I'm down to one in the morning, I'm very proud of myself) out to the porch and sit on the chair and watch the birds play, but right now we are painting our porch so I stood at the doorway and watched the street wake up instead.

It is 7:55 am.. and instead of rushing around trying to get everyone out the door at this time, I'm getting ready to go hang up my laundry that just finished washing. Life is good.


Yesterday, on top of being the first day of summer, was our last day of school. I watched my daughters teacher choke up as she said goodbye to her class. Some of those kids have had her for 3 years now, and it was hard for her to let them go. Likewise, her students felt the same way. Ms. Thang has been complaining about a stomach ache for a few days, and I know she wasn't sick. Just nervous about the last day.

A lot of our students come from broken families. About a third of them live in poverty, or near enough to it. Summer vacation for them is not always enjoyable, and they act up during the last day of school. We see similar behaviors the weeks before vacations during the year. Some of the students were moving, and instead of dealing with their sadness, they alienated their friends so it wouldn't be so hard to let them go. It's hard for me to watch all this going on. It's harder for them, as they don't have the life experience to deal with it.

And so the last bell rang, and the students rushed out the doors, a swarm of chatter and noise as they headed off to lazy days of swimming and bike riding and things that kids to in the summer.. and a bit of sadness mixed in with the relief that we made it to the last day. We packed up our things, and cleaned up the rooms, and checked items off of our "closing up" list... and called it a day.

The sun is shining today, and though they call for rain later, it doesn't matter. The kids are still sleeping at this hour, and it's just me and the dog (and some carpenter ants but that's a post for another day). We'll spend time today sorting through the stuff they've brought home, and packing the stuff they want to keep up into their school tubs in the attic. Bags will get cleaned out and hung up to be used for camp later on. We'll put away school for a few months (well, I have to be back July 10th to work for 4 weeks) and enjoy what summer brings up.