An End and A Beginning

This is it:  The last week before school starts again.

About this time every year I look back on the summer and wonder where the time went.  Did we do everything we wanted to do?  Did we accomplish our summertime goals?

For me, the first goal of summer is to relax.  Sleeping in.  Hanging out.  Playing together.  Reading alone.  Preparing easy meals.  Not packing school lunches – yay!

Then I think about the things we need to do that are easier to accomplish during the summer, like swim lessons, painting with the windows open, and having garage sales.

The away vacations and leisure activities are bonuses – things to create family memories or write about the first day of school when the teacher assigns the inevitable “What Did You Do This Summer?” essay.

The last few weeks of August take on a life of their own as we prepare to go back to school.  This year I’m determined not to fall into the back to school shopping trap, though sometimes the school supply lists baffle me.  Since when are white-out and reinforcements necessary items?  At least I’m happy to see only twelve pencils listed instead of the sixty they asked for one year in Fort McMurray.  Sixty pencils?  That worked out to more than one a week!

In any case, as the end of summer arrives, another season quickly takes its place.  Funny how that works.

Now what do I want to accomplish this fall?

If I Had Three Wishes

A few months ago I wrote an article about my calculator dying and my husband wanting to buy a new TV even though the old one still worked.  Two weeks after that article went to print, my husband’s wish came true and Zenith passed away.

What if this column is magical?  What if the things I write about come true?  Oh the pressure!  What should I write about?  World peace?

We’ve all played the game If I had three wishes, what would they be?  Thankfully, many of my past wishes haven’t come true.  It’s nice to know someone of superior intelligence is looking out for me, tossing out my dumb ideas.

A year or two ago, a local gas station had a promotion going:  Buy a full tank of gas and get a free lottery ticket (for a multi-million dollar jackpot).  My husband and I aren’t gamblers, but we received tickets twice when we gassed up.  It sure was fun to talk about what we would do with several million dollars!  I can see why gambling is addictive.

Most of our plans for that money involved eliminating debt in both of our families, building a dream house (modest and totally energy efficient), and starting a business.

Astronomical amounts of money and defying death aside, we can make many of our own wishes come true.  It’s called setting goals, making resolutions, following our dreams.  It means being motivated enough to take a chance and get to work.  Write down a plan.  Post it on the fridge.  Be accountable.

Why wait for someone else (or the lottery) to make our wishes realities?  This year, make your own three wishes come true.