Happy New Year!

My new year does not start on January 1; it almost never has.  My new year starts with the beginning of the school year. I am about to embark on a new year, and I have to say, there are some mixed feelings stirring around in my heart.

On the one hand, I am open to the changes ahead. I can’t wait to meet my new students. I am eager to see how the school year unfolds and to fall in love 50 times over. I cherish the beginning of the new adventure. I am humbled at the thought of all the occasions I will have to lean on the Lord and ask for His wisdom. I delight in the opportunities I will have to pray for all my little ones and their families. I am ready for a new school year, and more than that, I’m ready for my college students to see what their next adventure will be. I am excited for this year in which Laura will get to do her student teaching and David will settle in to his second year at our alma mater, Winona State University.

My other hand is clenched tightly around summer, and I do NOT want to let go. I cherish the slow pace. In some ways, I’m still hanging on to the vacation R.J. and I took back in June! I love the activity level of my home, which will decrease significantly in the next week. We have had six of us around the supper table all summer long; soon it will be down to just three. There will be more quiet than I like, fewer complaints, fewer jokes, and fewer elephants coming down the stairs to supper. The adjustment will be uncomfortable.

Our summer 2013 family

I have experienced this ebb and flow of activity in our home before, but each summer is, quite naturally, one summer closer to the last summer I will experience it. Will the college students spend the summer at home next year? Laura will have graduated from Crown by then, and she will be actively job hunting. David will be at the end of his second year of college and may choose to spend the summer in Winona. Right at this moment, we may be tying up packages that never get opened again. While I am “all about” encouraging the spreading of wings and embracing the inevitable changes of life, I am also a bit sentimental at this time of year. Just in case I haven’t mentioned it lately, I sure do love being a mama. I miss my kids and their delightful, goofy personalities when they are gone.

So, happy new year to me and to the many teachers and students who view the year as I do! May we all learn to follow our heavenly Father’s lead as we step into the unknown.