The next school year and the return to routine

In five days Isaac will have his first day of Grade 2. In six days, Paige will have her first day of Kindergarten. I need to pull out those chalkboards again and prep them for the first day photographs.

The first first day photographs with just me in them. And, I suppose, a last day picture for Paige as she's officially done with regular daycare forever at this point. More kid milestones that I'm passing, not as the sole witness, but nonetheless ones that Hillary missed.

Paige and Isaac will figure out their new classes and routines during the day. I'll figure out how to get everyone to their respective activities. If the gods smile upon me, Isaac's soccer practice won't be on Friday night and I'll be able to race on the track this winter again.

All this means that the next few days are going to be complicated. There are as yet unknown emotions regarding the kid milestones. There is a big personal milestone coming at around the same time. To top it off, this weekend is going to be busy and I'm very much looking forward to it.

I'll be in the moment at the good times. Maybe I'll even remember to get pictures. There will be that underlying knot though about the stuff that I can't control and is rolling towards me.

I don't know. This is all very vague. I kind of apologize there, I'm not entirely sure how much of it I get right now.

Ultimately, this is all boring, but that's probably good. I've had a very exciting couple of years and am looking forward to some boredom. I think I'm beginning to see what the vague shape of my life for the next year or two and that's at least comforting.