August Angst

It is August 1st, the most dreaded day of the year.  I always become grumpy and extra irritable on this day.  8/1 is the giant flashing warning sign that summer is almost over.  In just 13 short days A1 will be back in school and I will follow shortly after that.  Then it is goodbye fun-ish carefree-ish mom; hello stressed out teacher mom.
Don't get me wrong, most of my angst isn't about me returning to work because it really isn't.  I love my job.  I really do.  I am one of those teachers who ends up crying at the end of a school year because I just had the BEST CLASS EVER and no other class will ever be better... every year.  It takes me a few weeks to get readjusted to a regular schedule but once I get used to set times to eat, use the restroom, and breath I am good. 
My August anxiety stems from the fact that August 1st marks the passage of time.  It is the official end of summer, my long new year's eve, and the beginning of my new year.  It is a big slap in the face that the girls are getting older and I guess that means I am too.  A friend innocently wrote on FB that you only get 18 summers with your child.  This sent me into a full on panic.  I realized I have already blown through 8 with A1, 5 with A2, and 2 with A3. 
August 1st is my wake up call that the girls won't be little forever.  I get a little, ok a lot, choked up when I think about this.  I know that I complain about the things they do that drive me crazy.  The messes, the noise, the constant chaos, but really I love all of those things.  I would be lost without those things.  Those are the things I get up for in the morning.  In just a few more summers I won't have the tiny finger prints and unexplained sticky spots or mystery nail polish puddles.  Really with a house full of girls, who seem to have inherited my grace, we will probably have nail polish spills for a while!
In order to get past my August Angst, we will be filling the dwindling days of summer with the things we want to do.  The things that make us happy.  Please don't judge us if you pull up next to our car and hear Christmas music blasting.  It is one of those things that make the A Team and me happy.  I will still be a mess, a basket of nerves and potentially on the verge of tears at any given moment but in just a few more weeks it will be September.