The kids are tucked into bed hopefully dreaming about happy starts to the school year. Mark and I are hanging out around the kitchen stove working on our second batch of salsa tonight. Overall, these will be our fourth and fifth batches of salsa, which means we have canned around 35 pints of salsa in the past couple of weeks. You would think we would have quite the stock pile, but we've already consumed a lot of our bounty. Mark, Ella, Claranna and I love the stuff! Last year, we finished our salsa stash by mid January and Mark is determined that we will have larger stock for the coming year. I can't help but feel that summer has come to an end too soon. I know our tomato canning days aren't over for the season, but our "lazy" summer days came to an end tonight. Tomorrow starts fourth grade for Ella, first grade for James and preschool (just Tuesday and Thursday mornings) for Claranna. Tomorrow also brings the start of soccer practice for an hour each on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturday games for James (and Mark as he is coaching). Ella and Claranna begin dance, both girls on Mondays and Ella for an extra hour on Wednesday. Piano lessons and church choir started respectively on Tuesday and Wednesday for Ella and me last week. Sunday school begins this Sunday and then on Monday we will fully be in our fall groove. Our schedule will be full and while the routine will be nice, I will miss the carefree feeling that summer brings.
Our days were really anything but lazy, but having a varied routine with lots of fun options makes for a nice summer. Though, it was not the slow moving summer that I had hoped for. We flew through the months by spending time at the lake with my extended family, spending a great week worshiping and serving at our church during our awesome VBS program, T-ball games twice a week for seven weeks, having my college friend and her family as house guest, more lake time with Mark's former college roomie and family, relaxing lake resort time with just our family, celebrating the Fourth with friends, swimming lessons for all three kids, prepping for the county fair, spending a week working and playing at the fair, having cousins sleep over for four nights in a row, more swimming lessons, a little getaway for Mark and me, Monday night softball for Mark, visits from my oldest (as in I've know her forever!) friend and her family and another great college friend and her family, a weekend at family camp, a family reunion, barbeques with friends, golfing for Mark and James, a trip to Valley Fair and the MN State Fair, picnics at parks, bonfires with family and friends, gardening, mowing, swimming, playing in the sprinkler, catching fireflies... It was a busy, blessed summer. It will also be remembered as the summer our little baby, Claranna, moved from a crib to a "big girl bed", gave up her last bottle of rice milk and stopped wearing diapers. It'll forever be the summer that James lost his two front teeth, Ella won her first 4-H ribbons and Mark caught his big fish, It was a memorable summer!
As we finish up with tonight's vat of salsa, sealing it away in jars to be opened and enjoyed in the midst of a snowy winter, I can't help but wish we could pack up a bit of summer and store it in a jar to be opened in mid January, too. Wouldn't that be lovely? We could open up a pint on a cold, cold day and suddenly all that summer goodness of bonfires, swimming outside, fireflies, impromptu park play dates and sandbox playtime would be right there on a bleak January day... I must be in a bit of a canning, end of summer, 'my babies are growing up' kind of delirium...but, wouldn't that be amazing? If I could, I'd store a few pints of summer's endless possibilities and save them for a snowy winter's day.
