and summer ends...

School has begun.
Sunday, and even Monday I knew that I wasn't quite ready. And now on the dawn of Tuesday, I'd give anything for another month or so of summer! Sunday I would have said that Camden is really not ready... but thankfully, he has jumped right back in.  All told, it was minimal preparation this year. Maybe we spent  two hours of preparation... and that would include my incessant checking in on a summer assignment... how much of the book have you read now? And finding these...in size 12.

Yesterday we headed out early to school... long before the light. I may have been exhausted, but he was set to go. And when it was time to pick him up he met us with a smile and endless chatter. It was a good day. Friends in most of his classes, familiar teacher faces, and a table full of friends at lunchtime. He even spotted an old friend and invited her over to eat with him...

During dinner, the phone rang... and it was passed to me. A friend's voice full of praise and thankfulness. That invitation to lunch from Cam? It made a mother's day. She was hardly breathing as her daughter headed off to high school yesterday... and when she got a text at lunchtime that said I'm sitting with Cam, she could breathe a little easier. Her breathing made me teary... and reminds me how much difference it makes to not just think a compliment, but to say it outloud.