I’m here to stay. At least for now.

I have a Facebook friend who regularly longs to travel from Kansas to Colorado to enjoy the mountainous spaces. He loves to hike, and he often exhorts his friends to accompany him. He’ll take your money as a guide, but I believe he’d take your company as currency just as well.

He often longs for one of the other seasons during the current one. Posting images of Summer during the cold, blustery days of Winter. He’ll post the beauty of Fall during the first heat of Summer. When the temperatures in Kansas clamber into the 100’s he’ll begin posting pictures of snow-capped mountains. He seems to always long to be somewhere he’s not.

After my most recent traveling adventure I was reminded that I’m happy to be where I am. Today. Right here.

Having had kids in college since 2008, the ritual of college summers has become the metronome of our lives. The college kids get out of school weeks before the high-schoolers. They pack their lives into cardboard and plastic boxes and return home by plane, train, or automobile. They travel with their lives held in place by packing tape and bailing twine. With cars bursting at the seams, they arrive in our driveway, unpack and move back into our house for a few months.

It’s a crazy time, with the regular rhythm of our lives disrupted by the arrival of family members who sway to the beat of different music. Family members who aren’t familiar with the routines that have evolved over the past nine months. Young adults who have their own way of doing things that are similar, yet distinct, from the way of our current lives.

It’s vibrant, and disconcerting.

As has happened for many years, we also have a High School graduation coming up. In fact, it’s this coming Sunday. Our sixth graduation in eight years. This particular daughter is our fourth International Baccalaureate student, so she has finals that span two years of study. Rigorous finals that can suck the life out of even the most dedicated student. There’s a graduation party to plan. Parties to attend, and there’s a final looming the day after graduation, because that’s when IB has it scheduled. To say that this season of life is stressful for her would be such an understatement it’d be laughable.

The stress snakes it tendrils out from her and tries to engulf us. With eight years of experience, each family member knows how to handle what she’s experiencing. We’re a great support group. Sometimes we just accept the emotional outbursts. Sometimes we engage in pitched battles because her energy needs to be exhausted. We each play a role in IB exams. Someday they will no longer be part of our lives, but that someday isn’t today. We don our costumes and fill our roles as her support team.

This is an emotional time. It’s made that much harder by the addition Hectic Grandson’s baptism at the end of the month. After over a year of planning, we’ve finally found a weekend when the entire Hectic Clan can be in one place. It’s the kind of celebration requiring everyone be here in person. But that’s taken planning, negotiation, and re-negotiation. The stresses of those plans and compromises have been tremendous. We’ve got immediate family members coming from Maine, Colorado, and Minnesota. We’ve had work schedules to adjust, time-off to negotiate, not to mention all the plans with the church. My oldest daughter has dealt with the planning fairly well, but there are so many details..and details take time…and none of us seem to have a lot of extra time for a new, time-dependent project. Somehow we’ve gotten the planning done.

Then there are the Summer jobs for the college and high school aged kids. Short term employment that has to mold and conform to all the other constraints of the Summer. The careful balance of working enough to make money while not overworking and burning out. Mix in the desire to have a social life and sports practices, preparing for next year, and generally living and the tensions rival a pressure cooker. But again, the family is stepping up, doling out advice on how to achieve that precarious balance, and at times taking lumps for providing unwanted advice.

From the outside it sounds ridiculous. This hectic life of ours is a mess. That’s often how I explain why our house looks the way it does. It appears that we just run through the house, dropping things along the way, and picking up other things. In all honesty, there are days like that. Zip in from one event, change clothes, grab something to eat, and zip off to another event, leaving a trail of stuff in our wakes.

But you know what? I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Having my kids around brings an energy that cannot be duplicated. They have such exciting lives, with so much before them. They have the strength, fortitude, and sense to handle everything that life throws at them with aplomb. They are amazing! The stress they have may rub off, but so does their sense of excitement.

It’s vibrant and energizing!

So I’m concentrating on not looking ahead to the Fall, when we have three returning to college. I’m focusing on the little joys everyday. Like the silly puns that we were throwing around the house yesterday. The fact that my first Grandson knows all his Aunts and Uncles and was spreading hugs and kisses around like crazy. The constant laughter and conversation. We’re a crazy bunch, living the most hectic of lives, yet it’s all good. Today. Right here.

I’ll worry about the Fall in the Fall. For now, Summer beckons…with so much to do. So much to accomplish. And so much promise.

It’s gonna be a great one!

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