It’s that time of year, the end.

No, not The End, like the end of this post. The end as in the end of school, the end of Boy Scouts, and the end of Girl Scouts. At times, it feels like the friggin’ END OF THE WORLD!!

I’ve been doing this school thing for more than 10 years now, 6 years with two kids. You would think that by now, I would remember that the last two weeks of school are just INSANE. It doesn’t matter if it is pre-school or junior high, life is just nuts. I can’t put it on a calendar six months in advance because six months ago, we were still contemplating snow days and the end of the year was a moving target. So, it sneaks up on me EVERY FLIPPIN’ YEAR.

There are assessments and meetings, final projects, year end celebrations, and field trips. Don’t forget class parties, Scout events and teacher gifts. At a micro level, I appreciate these things as they mark the passing of time. At a macro level? I just want to scream ENOUGH at the top of my longs.

For our family it is further complicated by a cluster of birthdays. Do you now how hard it is to schedule a little boy’s birthday party in early June? I’m not the only one who’s calendar is suffering from overload. Eventually you hammer a stake in the ground and say “Those who can come, will and those who can’t won’t” but it is hard as you hope and pray that SOMEONE will come.

As fast as it winds up, it screeches to a halt. Tomorrow is the last day of school for my kids. I estimate the first “I’m bored” will arrive at 10:26am Friday morning as I scramble to meet a deadline for our local paper.

We have a few scheduled weeks and a lot of down time this summer. Karate is the only constant through the summer. Come the fall, all the other activities will kick in again. I’ll bet you come next June I’ll be just as crazed as I am now. In the immortal words of Harry Chapin “All my life’s a circle, sunrise and sunset.”