The End Of The School Year Is The Season of GO!

This morning I overslept. My oldest son overslept too. Nothing about those two statements is alarming as it happens almost every morning. But when my youngest son oversleeps there is an issue because he typically pops out of bed with no problem. 

We are all exhausted. Last night was my oldest son’s last track meet. We were not necessarily out late, though I sure feel like we were. I think it is just this time of year with so much going on. There are field trips, track meets, and basketball practices, not to mention the daily homework assignments and work projects. There are parent-teacher conferences coming up and end-of-school band and choir concerts too. There is scheduling next year’s classes and friends’ birthday parties to attend. There are all the details of transitioning into a new summer schedule with the kids’ activities and planning our upcoming summer vacations. It is just SO much. 

I know we all have full plates during the end-of-the-school-year season. I know there are the same amount of hours, minutes, and seconds, in each day for all of us. I know it is how you spend your time with the choices you make that often dictates your energy level, your passion, and your desire to keep going. We are in a season of ‘GO’ over here. There is rarely a night we don’t have anything planned. And it seems to be taking a toll on me and both of my sons. 

Almost every mom understands the stress and strain of The Infamous Season of ‘Go’. This is the time of year when you leave work early to attend your kids’ sports activities and awards ceremonies. These are the days you get home late and eat a hurried dinner of fast food. This is the time of year when you come home after a long day and all you want to do is strip your clothes off and fall into your bed for a few hours of rest before the alarm goes off and you do it all over again. 

Are you in a season of ‘Go’? If so, I see you, I hear you, I feel you. Add one letter and it is a Season of ‘God’. He knows. He cares. He is with us in the busyness, the weariness, the ‘I can’t go another hour-ness’. Cry out to Him. He has a way of offering us peace and strength, even in the busiest, loudest, craziest, and most hectic times of our lives. 

Eventually, things will slow down and even out. Life has a way of balancing the busy with the bored. The ‘too much’ with the ‘not enough’. And the ‘overwhelmed’ with the ‘under-utilized’. 

I know someday I will look back and yearn for these days. I will sadly miss this ‘Season of Go’. So, I try to keep that perspective and not wish this time away. If anything, I wish I could slow it down and savor every single second of this time with my kids. The ‘Season of Go’ will one day be the ‘Season of Was’ and I certainly do not want it to go faster than it already does. 

So, I take deep breaths and do what has to be done and I try to let go of the rest. My house is a mess. My kids are over-tired. I am hanging on by a thread. But tonight is one of those rare jewels of a weekday night where we have no games, or meets, or get-togethers. We finally get a night at home to recover. We may be eating Ramen Noodles and drinking nearly-expired milk because I haven’t had a chance to get to the store. Or maybe I will spring for a pizza delivery. Either way, I look forward to the quiet and rare evening of no activity. The nights I used to dread in my 20s and 30s have now become the nights I treasure beyond all others. Isn’t it crazy how our needs and desires change with each new season of our lives? 

Sometimes the ‘Season of Go’ needs to include a day off to preserve your family’s sanity. Tonight is just that and I will relish it.

Whatever season you are in, whether it be ‘NO’, ‘Not Yet’, ‘GO’, ‘Empty Nest’, ‘Has Been’, ‘Was There’, ‘Wish I was Still There’, or ‘Thank the Good Lord I am PAST That’, try to slow down enough to enjoy it. After all, “there is a time for every season”, and they are all beautiful, integral to our growth, and special. No matter how exhausted and stressed out we are, let’s savor this season of ‘Go’.