Post-Summer Blues

Summer is over. The days are becoming shorter, sunlight is getting yellower, and the shadows are beginning to stretch. A few trees in my yard are showing reddish tints, and I seem to be reaching for a jacket more often. I like the ambiance of early fall, yet I am finding myself these days feeling rather sad. My kids, you see, are all back to school.

The first time this happened was when my eldest daughter started going to preschool. And it has been happening persistently every year since. For years I’ve been spending summers with my kids, being with them all day, every day, for almost three months at a time. Some vacation days have been interesting, exciting and fun, while others can be long and boring. But hanging out together is usually nice, except for those days--mostly towards the end of the vacation--when the kids just can’t stop fighting with each other. On such days they drive me absolutely nuts, and I find myself wishing for school to just start, so that I could finally enjoy some peace and quiet and have the house back to myself.

But when the school-year actually does begin, as it inevitably does, the house suddenly feels awfully quiet…

I did many things this past summer, but sewing wasn’t one of them. I’ve been missing it quite a bit. I got lots of new ideas while traveling, and have been eager to get back to my fabrics and start experimenting. However, now that I finally CAN sew again, I find it very difficult to concentrate. I turn my machine on only to realize, half an hour later, that I haven’t sewn a stitch. Or I start one thing only to stop and go do something else. I miss the kids, with their noise, company, constant demands, and yes--even their squabbles…

So I’m trying to start small, with simple projects to get me back into a sewing mind-set. I made a couple of book marks, a zip pouch or two, and even managed a cross-body sling. And for over a week I’ve been working on a bunch of journal covers that I am slowly starting to finish and put up in my Etsy store. I hope to get back into routine quickly, so that I could soon progress to the more complicated, demanding and interesting projects.