Well, it's May and we all know what that means. Most of our calendars look only slightly less wordy than the Declaration of Independence. With all of its madness, May is really just a warmer copy of December except without the tree in your living room. Carson graduates in 2 weeks and 2 days and, until then, there will be banquets, programs, services, and parties.....the first being tonight. End of the year is always hectic, but, with a graduate, it's just plain nuts. Making sure the white shirts get to the cleaners for starch. New dress shoes. Mastering the tying of a bow tie. RSVPs. Turning in all of the forms and baby pictures and writing checks to whoever asks for one. We also have five other graduates in the family ranging from high school to nurse practitioner, so it's going to get pretty crazy around here until everybody has turned their tassels and flung their caps into the air.

Carson attends one of those rare K-12, all on one campus, schools and he's been there all 13 years. We moved and Blair started there one year before his kindergarten year, so we've had a child at this sweet school for 14 years now. I was there, a couple of weeks ago, and walked through a swarm of kindergarteners playing on the playground, wondering how their Mamas were ever going to get those uniform shirts white again. I remembered those polos stained with playground dust and trails of dried chocolate milk and I couldn't help but wonder how in the world I'd gotten from then to now so fast. I wanted to call and warn the parents of those dusty, little creatures, "Don't be fooled...You don't have as much time as you think!"
When Blair graduated, I was comforted by the fact that Carson still had several years to go, but now this is the end of the line. It's had me thinking about this transition from all those years of having kids in school. Baking brownies, packing lunches, buying those little packs of valentines, teacher gifts, concession stand duty, eating nachos on bleachers, writing notes to explain absences, getting calls from the school nurse, washing sweaty uniforms, selling pizza kits, raffle tickets, and cookie dough. What's a mama to do when, for one year shy of two decades, she's defined herself as a mom of school age kids? What's she to do when her calendar is no longer filled with their activities? When one of the spokes of her identity wheel suddenly flies off? 

It will be different for sure.

So much life happens at school. It's where our kids spend 35+ hours per week. My children learned to be independent there. They lost teeth. They made friends. Found their strengths. Worked on their weaknesses. They were included. They were excluded. Learned to wait their turn. Stepped out of their comfort zones. They made the team. They didn't make the team. They earned medals, certificates, and pizza parties. Carson broke his thumb there. Blair's phone was confiscated for a week. They won. They learned to lose. Carson was known for his nut allergies. Blair was comforted during tornado drills. Some days, they'd come home elated. Other days, they'd be upset when they got in the car. They learned to respect authority. Learned about consequences. Navigated the awkward years. Built friendships. Found role models. They grew from children to young adults while walking those halls.  

Maybe what I treasure most is that they knew they could bow their heads there. They saw that patriotism was encouraged and reverence for sacrifice was expected and that faith was welcomed to come with them to school. Admirable traits and virtues were modeled for them there in that place. They were hugged and encouraged and called by name. There's no place so warm as the place where people know your name. They knew their school had the same value system as their home. They felt safe there. They felt loved there. And what greater blessings could a school give to a child?
 
This week is his last full week of school and May 18 will mark a new chapter for him. It will mark a new chapter for me, too, I suppose. We'll both be letting go of something we've had in our lives for a very long time.

I'll pop back in when we experience lulls in the activity.

Y'all have a good one!