By ELKE GOVERTSEN
Say it ain’t so… summer is, gulp, over? But I don’t have my summer feet yet.
We have a less-than-manicured lawn. Really, it is more like a field. With pricklies and pokies and rocks. And inside it is a minefield on its own, with endless hidden legos to step on. With the late season rains and a couple of trips to Alaska, my feet spent an awful lot of time in shoes or boots this summer.
I am still feeling the pain when I misstep.
My wienie little feet are a rather good metaphor for my mothering this time of year. School starts next week… double gulp. My kids are bickering and probably in dire need of structure, but oh, how I love the long lazy days. I detest the fighting and the whining, but I love, love, love it when there is nothing on the calendar that day. I am soft and not ready to gear up.
That first day of school is as ouch as any lego. I still feel the pain.
Don’t get me wrong. I need to get some work done and focus in a way that just doesn’t happen in the summer. The boys need to see their buddies. They need teachers and their pedometer wearing principle who clocked a couple of million steps in the elementary school last year. Talk about tough feet and a tender heart.
Next week will be a welcome change. But this week, oh, give me bare feet and empty days. Most of all, give me a couple of little boys, their blasted pointy plastic toys and a slow walk to the creek. Those walks turn into the whole day. They turn into the entirety of the summer memories.
Go.
Walk across sun warmed rocks.
Teeter over logs.
Right past the school, to woods.
Learn something else.
We still wear our summer feet.
We aren’t ready to stop.
Like this blog? Check out more from one of Missoula’s FAVORITE Mamas About Town, Elke Govertsen: Camp Elke, Get Outta Town, Norman Rockwell’s Got Nothing on Missoula, or Anywhere but Missoula, MT. And check out Missoula Children and Nature Network and Active Moms Missoula.
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Bio: Elke Govertsen is the publisher of Mamalode which is a magazine and website for area moms. When not juggling her family, business, and the laundry (disclosure – there is no laundry being done whatsoever), Elke tries to eek out time to write, do yoga, and read like a fiend.