Now that we’re at the end of summer with only three working days until it comes to a crashing end, I can tell you one thing we as a family won’t be doing: we won’t be going on a last hurrah bike ride in Virginia.  Why not?  Well, we tried it last year and although it was memorable I can’t say I’d be able to get the family to do it again.

Another reason is that this summer kinda-sorta ended last week.  Our oldest is playing football at West Forsyth this year and practice started with a bang in early August, so he’s out of any kind of grand, end of year excursion.  Also, our daughter’s soccer team, for which I’m an assistant coach, started official practices last week and we just had our first tournament this past weekend and will be playing in another this coming weekend.  So this year we’ll just be trying to survive this schedule for our last week of summer:

• Tuesday
  • Back to school shopping
  • Doctor’s appointment at noon
  • Football practice 4-6:30
  • Middle school open house: 6:00-8:00
  • Soccer game at WFU
• Wednesday
  • Football Practice 8-10:30
  • Soccer practice (goalies) 6:15-7:15
  • Open house for West Forsyth 6:30-8:30
  • Soccer practice for entire team 7:00-8:15
• Thursday
  • Soccer practice 7:00-8:45
  • No football practice in prep for season opener on Friday
• Friday
  • West Forsyth football season opener 7:30-whenever
• Saturday
  • Soccer tournament in High Point, Game 1 – 11:20-1:20
  • Soccer tournament in High Point, Game 2 – 6:00 – 8:00
• Sunday
  • Soccer tournament in High Point, Game 3 – 9:40-11:40
  • Church confirmation class 12:00
• Monday
  • School starts.  6:00 am wake up to get ready for middle school bus.

Yes, I realize that much of this is self inflicted.  No one says our kids have to play sports or that I have to coach, but since this wild ride we call life only goes around once (unless you’re Shirley Maclaine) then I figure we might as well do it right.

I’ve been told that the high school years will flash by and the next thing I’ll know I’ll be eating pureed food through a straw remembering those fine times when I had teeth and my kids actually needed me for something.  Well, with weeks like this one the pureed food may come sooner than anyone expects seeing as my eyes have grown bags large enough to pack for a two week European trip and I can’t seem to stop drooling.

Ah well.