Our Pod With 2 Peas: A Summer's End

The past few weeks at home with my boys, I have been thinking that God is trying to send me a message and prepare my heart for the end of the summer that I always dread. The tantrums, the screeching, and the boys simply just getting on eachothers nerves has hit an all time high (or low, depending on how you look at it). The little bug in my ear buzzing around telling me that I am ready to go back to school tomorrow because I clearly do not always have what it takes to do this stay at home mom gig.

But then of course today, our last day home together before I start my teacher workshops, the boys have been nothing short of perfect. Enjoyable in every aspect. They have parked their cars in the driveway when I tell them it is time to go, they have taken turns on the stool when washing hands at the sink, and played nicely in the sandbox while I made lunch. They look adorable in their little shirts tucked into their shorts, with their colorful Crocs that are showing the wear and tear of an active summer. I try to capture the way they look at me and the way they talk and the cute things they say and truly remember every moment of this beautiful summer day.

And my chin starts to quiver and tears well up in my eyes and begin to spill over because I know that today is the end.

Today is the 81st day in a row, that I have spent all day long with my boys. 50 plus hours a week when it is just me and my two little buddies. What a lucky mom I am.

While I went into this summer thinking that this summer was going to be easier than last summer since the boys can get around on their own so much better, they can communicate their needs, and can even help out here and there. I did, however, forget to calculate two little boys' opinions into the equation, and now realize that this summer has in fact been quite challenging at times. The times we have been to the library and I know I have gotten "the look" from on-looking moms when my boys haven't used anything that would even resemble library voices and are more interested in climbing over the book bins than sitting down to actually read a single book. The times I have had to strap a screaming toddler into the stroller and head to the car as fast as possible, because no, we don't get to do that "one more time." Or the times we have been driving in the car and someone makes an animal noise at the top of their lungs and then the other one repeatedly says, "That's too loud! That's too loud!" equally as loud as the animal noise, if not louder. I cannot count the times I have shouted "STAY IN THE DRIVEWAY!!!" as they test the limits of what they can and can not get away with when they are riding their cars and so desperately want to go into the street. Or the time that I suddenly became referee to a little game they made up after nap one day called "Smell My Butt" where they chased each other around laughing and laughing while they tried to smell eachothers butts. Yes, this too.

But what fun it has been to spend my days with these two. I know when I look back on this summer in the coming years, I will miss this. All of it, including those challenging times. I will look back on this summer and remember the sandy little feet, and weeks of bandaids on the knees, and messy mac and cheese faces and I will want to do it all over again.

And so tomorrow when I hang up my SAHM hat for another school year, it is these images that will carry me through each day, and leave me forever grateful for this summer, even though it had to come to an end.