Time Still Passing

It seems like this summer went by so fast.    Yesterday Brendan started fall classes at the college and today Sean started at the high school.  On Saturday, Clare returns to college.  I've been emailing back and forth with the K12 teacher which reminds me that soon the next academic year will be in full swing again.  Though I always like homeschooling in the fall, it all feels too soon.

Let's pray for those who have been homeschooling for a long time and those who are just starting, shall we?   I happen to know several longterm homeschoolers who are hitting something like a midlife crisis.  I think it's hard when you get to the point past babies, and look around, and realize that some of the things you hoped would come out of homeschooling just didn't materialize, and that some of your illusions have been replaced by sheer persistence, and meanwhile the rest of the world has moved right along and you are not quite in step.  

I remember my mom going back to college when she was about the age I am now, and I can feel that pull myself..... wanting to focus on something outside the home.   Not because I'm bored with my kids, but because my presence is not quite so desperately needed on an hour by hour basis anymore.  Several of my kids are venturing out into the world themselves in different ways, and in slightly more than five years I will have no one younger than a teenager in my home (if God doesn't give us any more babies).    It's weird.   Along with celebrating my 25th anniversary this summer, it's put me back in touch with the 22 year old who married less than a week after she received her BA diploma.   Now one of my kids is older than I was when I gave birth to him.  So strange.