Winding down, or is it up?

I feel it coming to a close, the summer that is. The tomatoes are still trickling in but the squash and zuchini are long gone. The outdoors still beckon but the light is changing, you can see it, feel it.

Games in the yard reflect the timelessness of summer, that while it's end is inevitable and soon, there are moments when it seems suspended, frozen in time. For example, you take a nut,

you throw it at the yellow chalk circle drawn on the century old oak tree in the yard, that is the game, and it goes on and on and on.

And while this stage is all but over, the undercurrent of what is about to start is palpable, ever-present, bringing forth an unsettled excitement that seems to make every last moment of summer that much more special.


School will start, schedules will change and I can't help but think of this next milestone from my perspective. After all I did decide to stay home raising children for the past 8 1/2 years, and just as that transition has faded and the familiarity of life as a stay at home (sometimes working) mom is ingrained in me, I look now to a future with full days of school and I wonder if I'm still a "stay-at-home-mom" or if I'm something else altogether now, or am I just getting a little too hung up on labels?