Goodbye, Beautiful Summer

Because of my school schedule,

this summer I ended up with a full

THREE MONTHS

of no work, no school, no being a taxi mom.

It was the longest I've been off since I was ELEVEN.

To put this in perspective,

the last time I had this long of a vacation,

I was cooling off in the family above-ground pool and

and quenching my thirst by getting a drink from the garden hose.

As usual with the summers I started off ambitious...

... but by the end felt I had accomplished something

if I changed the Britta water filter.

(Hey, there's three whole steps in replacing that thing!)

However, student teaching starts next week,

so it's time to say goodbye to all the good times I had this summer.

Goodbye to long, sweaty, satisfying days in my garden,

where I pulled out the dead plants that didn't make it through

the shockingly dry winter,

and replaced them with sturdier natives and succulents. 

(The above section is in honor of a local landmark,

Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village.)

Goodbye to long mornings at the city library's used bookstore,

where I stocked up on books for my Little Free Library,

my bookshelf, and my future classroom.

(Also, shout-out to the lovely Linda,

 who always gave me the best deals on my books.)

And speaking of bookshelves,

goodbye to hours of luxurious reading,

which I know will be in short supply once school starts.

(These are just a few of my bookshelves.)

Goodbye to sewing for my Etsy shop!

I haven't put my shop on vacation,

but I won't be adding new items any time soon.

Goodbye to looong cuddle-pets with my kitties...

... who will probably be thinking,

I thought we'd never get the house back to ourselves!

Oh, bed.

How I will miss getting up every morning sans alarm clock.

And while I hope I'll still have time to practice my ukulele...

...I know I probably won't progress much past

the half-dozen folk songs I've sorta mastered.

Sigh...

I would stay in my funk for a bit longer,

except...

except...

... look what I just saw at Joann Fabrics!

Yaaaay!!!!

Beautiful Halloween is just around the corner.