Our Last August in this House Comes to an End

August flew by, which isn't surprising because I went back to work on the 4th. Andrew started school on the 7th, and Val come home from her (incredible) summer internship on the 9th. 

It is not lost on me that this is, likely, the longest stretch of time we will all be together in this house again. If I weren't so busy, I'd be even more sad. Work has a way of occupying your time, and your mind. 

I didn't have a job when we moved here, besides caring for a two-year-old twenty-four, seven. I was so excited to be leaving the sprawl of unincorported San Diego for the quieter and cooler Central Coast. Hubby was going to be getting a nice paycheck, and I figured we'd buy a house within a few years. But that's hard to do when you don't have a down payment and prices keep going up.

So we stayed in our rental and celebrated holidays and milestones, taught the kids to ride bikes on our little street, sent them to elementary school up the hill, then six miles to middle school, twelve miles to high school. Val went to community college (seventeen miles)  and last year moved away to university (one hundred seventy-eight miles).

Now that it's Andrew's senior year, I have to pay extra attention to the school bulletin, and start attending PTO meetings again. There's a lot going on.

And the light is changing in our little neighborhood. The sun sets further west over the mountains, and a bit earlier. These seasonal changes always take me back to our first few years here, when everything still felt new. 

In another ten months, I'll be learning how to take these memories with me. I can't really imagine how that's going to be. To keep the panicky feelings at bay, I make sure to be present when the realization comes over me. 

That's exactly what prompted me to take the photo of our kitty looking out the window. It's my same view each morning while drinking my coffee and having some quiet time to myself before opening my laptop for work. I don't know what my window view will be in a year from now. I really like this one, and I think I'll miss it.