September 1st

Ah…September.  You are my official new year.  Your calendar is already filled up with immunization appointments, hair cuts, soccer registration dates and birthday parties.  I love the routine that you offer and the chance to start anew.  It's back to regularly cooked meals instead of chicken fingers and fries.  The crockpot makes a reappearance after being shoved away in the cupboard all summer.  The lists come out and my home management binder gets dusted off.  It's time for weekly cleaning schedules and meal planning.

I love the cool, crisp mornings with my coffee.  I love that it's cool enough for sweaters, but not heavy coats.  I love wearing my tall boots again.  I love waiting for the phone to ring in the morning, with the anticipation of a sub call (although realistically I have another two weeks to wait for that).  I love watching the leaves start to change and slowly begin to drop. I don't love raking you up.

I love the way the sun falls into the dining room in the mornings.  I love the bed head of little ones who are woken up earlier than they'd like.  I love the sound of the coffee pot perking.  I love the rumble of the bus as it comes to pick up Joel.  I love early morning showers with the window open, letting in the coolness of the fall air.

We say good-bye to sandals and hello to new sneakers.  Good-bye to sunscreen and hello to tea tree oil.  Good-bye to bathing suits and sun hats and hello to long pants and sweaters.  Good-bye to trips to the lake and hello to school adventures.  Good-bye to long days where the sun doesn't set until 10:00pm and hello to darkness at 6:00pm.

We prepare for fun times like Halloween and Thanksgiving.  We gear up for annual fishing trips with brothers (Mike, not me).  We do yet another purge of closets and drawers to make room for new school clothes.  We may even start Christmas shopping a little (gasp!).

Oh, September…you are my favourite month.

And so it goes...