Last Wednesday was my sister’s birthday. I didn’t forget it. In fact, I sent her a virtual bouquet in the form of pictures of dahlias blooming in our yard along with greetings on the evening before her birthday. In our family, hers was the last summer birthday. In two weeks and three days it will be the birthday of my next oldest sister, and her birthday always meant that it was time for back to school. Between those two birthdays, our mother always had plans for back to school shopping that included at least a new pair of jeans and perhaps a new shirt, often included a new pair of shoes, and always included the list that the school sent home with tablets, pencils and crayons. We were usually 16 crayon kids, or whatever the minimum size appeared on the list. I think that one time I got a box with 64 crayons, but I don’t remember the occasion. It seems like every year there was at least one kid in my class who showed up on the first day of school with that big 96 crayon box with the built-in sharpener. We dismissed it as an unnecessary display of wealth, but secretly I wished I could have such a box one time. The problem in our family is that back to school never meant shopping for a single child. I had older sisters and three younger brothers. I was always expected to set an example for the younger boys and somehow that meant not getting the big box of crayons.

I wasn’t a fan of back to school shopping anyway. My sister’s birthday was a signal that it was time to panic. Only two weeks before school starts! I needed to get in all of the tree climbing and river floating and fishing and grasshopper catching and kite building and library book reading, and a thousand other things that I wouldn’t have time to do once school started in the fall. Usually, in Montana where we grew up, my sister’s birthday landed during wheat harvest and that meant a busy time for our father, who worked long days in the summer. Once, the year I went to first grade, there was a huge earthquake in Yellowstone Park on my sister’s birthday. That got everybody’s attention.

Of course I grew up and my life was a little bit less dominated by the school schedule than it had been, but I never fully got out of the effects of the school year. In my young adult years, I still was a student. We attended school for five more years after we were married. Then, when we became ministers, we fell into the rhythm of the church program year. Like the public schools, church programs take a break in the summer and fall means returning to a more intense season of programs and meetings. Over the years, it seems that the return of fall programs in the church as tended to lag a bit behind the school, with church leaders choosing not to get fall programs rolling quite as early as public schools.

I haven’t heard too much talk about the start of school from our grandchildren, but their first day of school is August 31, exactly two weeks from last Wednesday. That means that this week is the last full week of summer vacation. Our oldest grandson will start middle school, an entirely new adventure. Our youngest granddaughter will begin kindergarten. She attended a public school preschool, so it won’t be too big of a shock to her system, but this year she goes to the elementary school near the farm while her brother has a slightly longer trip to the middle school in town. I haven’t noticed much back to school shopping activity at their house, but their mother is very organized and I’m pretty sure that they will have the necessary clothes and supplies for the adventure. A mom who has four children is bound to notice when three of them start spending their week days at school.

The big kick off of fall programming at the church, at least most of the programs that we facilitate in our position is still a couple of weeks beyond the start of public school. In Gathering Sunday is still four weeks away. We have time for quite a bit of planning and a bit of last minute leader recruiting before we have all of our programs going. And our church has a fair number of retired folks, who tend to travel in the shoulder seasons, so Gathering In is generally a kind of soft start to programming, with a few programs being delayed for a week or two as we get organized.

Although the weather has been sunny and warm, with the last couple of weeks being the warmest of the summer for us, there is a slight hint of autumn in the air. The length of the days changes rapidly here in the north country. Sunset is already an hour earlier than at the solstice. There are a few leaves that have turned color and some have even fallen. I noticed we were crunching on leaves as we walked through the woods yesterday. Those falling leaves contribute to a slightly different aroma, so it is even beginning to smell like fall. Winters aren’t severe around here and first freeze might not occur until late October, so we’ve got plenty of days of bright flowers and other summer joys. The seasons, however, are changing. Life moves on and the older I get the more quickly time seems to pass.

I don’t need to go shopping for new clothes for back to school, and the church has an amazingly large supply of crayons, notebooks and pencils. We’ll probably avoid the back to school sales entirely this year. I’m not much of a shopper anyway. For all I know they are setting out the Halloween displays in the stores and receiving shipments of Christmas decorations. I’m in no rush to have the seasons move along.

I’ll be enjoying these next few weeks, walking in my shirt sleeves, taking a paddle or row in the bay, lingering in the evening to watch the sunset. Like when I was a kid, I’ve got a list of summer activities to get to before the seasons change.