My newsfeed today was filled with children in new clothes, most with stiff backpack straps over their shoulders and many holding up fingers or signs to indicate their new step in the journey. So many happy faces.

Our own journey begins on Wednesday. We are venturing into strange and uncertain territory that I am not entirely sure I want to explore. Swee will be attending pre-K at the local public elementary school, and she is so pumped. It’s a small class – only nine students, and two teachers who seem really sweet. There will be ample time for play, and my smart, assertive little miss is showing no signs of anxiety. That’s all me.

I haven’t done any school shopping yet, and she needs a haircut, badly. No idea what I’m going to pack for her lunch (they eat as a class, though it’s only a half-day program). I’m not even sure where I stashed her backpack. It can wait. I’ve still got time.

Instead, we’re playing hard, and I’m trying to keep my nerves from fraying. I shouted today, which did nothing to improve the nasty little moods both girls woke up with. None of us are perfect. But we flew the kite and played tag with the grasshoppers. We dug in the sandbox and slurped up the last of the peaches given to us at the library this weekend. We baked biscuits for the dogs. We read stories and picked flowers and did much snuggling.

And now that they are finally asleep, I’m drinking mint tea while I click through all the photos that never make it off the camera card. I’m soaking my tired, garden-stained feet and soaking up the images of summer sunshine before everything changes again and we’re forced into another season of the unknown.