Behind Before You Get Started!

It’s that time again: I call it overlap season.  That season when the school year events have not quite concluded, but the summer events have already begun.  Yes, my calendar is filled with end of year concerts, awards ceremonies, graduations and other culminating celebrations.  Even luncheons thanking the volunteers, but who can spare the time? 

If the calendar weren’t enough, piled on top are the errands.  The shopping for thank you gifts for teachers, office staff, bus drivers.  Don’t forget Sunday school, scout troop and soccer coach volunteers who have all kindly dedicated their time. So much to get done before the school year ends!

But the summer season will not wait.  Summer sports teams have started practicing, a summer job search for my oldest.  Camp sign ups with their deadlines nearly past threatening to put you on their waiting list.  Don’t forget father’s day cookouts, church picnics and firming up summer travel plans.  All of this is mandatory before the school year ends.

Oh, where are the lazy days of summer?  The ones I spent happily playing at the pool, perfecting my cannon balls and flips off the diving board.  My Mom, lounging comfortably poolside, catching up on her reading and chatting with the other mothers.  When bronzing in the afternoon sun was chic, not carcinogenic.

They are a distant memory.  I wonder how Mom survived overlap season.  Gift cards weren’t invented then and neither was the internet.  How did she keep schedules straight without an online calendar?  I had teachers and coaches and loads of extracurricular activities.  There were awards ceremonies and graduations and…some how she did it all.  Without the weight of overlap taking her down.  Or at least it didn’t show.

Maybe next year I’ll just purchase a nice selection of  gift cards in September, well before overlap season.  Hopefully I won’t be left holding the Victoria Secret card when the wonderful soccer coach Dad is the only one I have left to thank.  “Perhaps for your wife,” I will stammer.  “After all, it is overlap season.”