Whoosh.

There it goes.

Sunday we were jumping in a friend’s pool and eating hotdogs off the grill. Yesterday we had to throw on a sweatshirt while we played in the yard. How does Mother Nature do that? It’s like she’s in cahoots with the Kohl’s back to school sale. One day – summer, the next day, doors open at 9am for fall!

But I have to admit, I love it. I’m always ready for fall. I can take about 3 months of sunscreen, heat and lack of structure and then I’m sooooo ready for a little more order, a little less bug spray, and a cute new pair of boots (for the kids too of course). And September always feels like such a fresh, new page of crisp white-lined Mead paper, the kind I used to snap into my Saturday Night Fever Trapper Keeper back in the day.

And seeing as how it’s been a bit of a weird summer, I’m really ready. I’ve spent a fair amount of time sitting in little doctor’s offices pondering the big picture. But we’ve also spent great times going to the pool/the park/camps/playdates..all book-ended with some much coveted family time. And I think my husband and I have actually made some progress toward just dialing down our crazy lives a notch. Case in point – when our ancient computer crashed this summer, and took EVERY email correspondence from the last 4 years with it, I did not, astonishingly, completely lose my you-know-what. Maybe it’s the yoga, or the drastic reduction in my caffeine intake, or the fact that a week into my parent’s visit, my dad suddenly and sadly lost one of his close friends and had to head back home to help.

Some things just don’t matter as much when you look at the big picture.

And as I start to organize the school paperwork, the fall calendar and the kid’s closets, I don’t know what the year ahead will bring. This past one had its share of changes, surprises and losses. My son is now a bonafide 1st grader who’s lost a total of 7 (or is it 8?) teeth. My daughter is an accomplished ballerina (one recital, neon pink tutu and all) and is about to embark on her last year of preschool (gulp) before joining her brother for the big time. And with the amount of accessorizing this girl does, she may be asking me to audition for Project Runway before she’s 8.

With any luck, I’m hoping that I got a little better at parenting this year. Hard to tell. I do try to keep the kid’s sugar intake to a minimum, but I should probably buy more organic. I could definitely be more patient and yell less, and supervise the brushing of teeth more closely. But I hug and kiss them a lot. And I did teach them (by performing live in the living room of course) songs from classics like “Grease” and “Annie” this summer and let them build crazy contraptions with items from the recycling bin.

And as my husband and I sat, with the windows open on a few warm summer nights and watched the news, we were saddened by the loss of great icons.

Michael Jackson.

Walter Cronkite.

Eunice and Ted Kennedy.

People that were passionate about what they did, accomplished a great deal and made an impact on us all.

So the September calendar page has been turned and a new chapter has officially begun. And I think…what will change this year? What funny anecdotes about the first week of school will I be telling my parents on the phone next Sunday? What will the news headlines be tomorrow? Who will come in and out of our lives? What will flu season be like? When, pray tell, will skinny jeans permanently be removed from store shelves? What will change in the world and what will we learn about each other and ourselves?

I don’t have any more answers than I did a year ago.

But what I do have is a better view of the big picture.

And that’s a pretty great start.

Happy fresh first page of fall!