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Health & Fitness

Moms - Did you Survive the Summer?

As the whirlwind of summer comes to an end, I know you're tired, Mothers of Sammamish.

As the summer vacation sun sinks slowly in the west and school looms in the east, children are hustling to get their school supply lists filled. Mothers on the Sammamish Plateau are either going crazy with the pressure of finding graph paper or can’t wait for next Tuesday. Or both.

How many times in the last two months have you packed the beach bag with lunches, swim floaties, towels, sunscreen and hats? How about raising bike seats, taking off training wheels, yelled “put on your helmet?” Have you been to the concerts in the park at , attended any baseball games, gone on a family vacation to Grandma’s or refereed any sibling fights this summer. You bet you have! And seeing it all coming to an end is bittersweet. You love having your kids run around in the sunshine but it's time to get that house in order again.

Summer is the busiest time of the year for mothers and I, for one, commend you having made it to September intact. The payoff for having your kids home 24/7 and needing activities and friends over every day is that you might have had the luxury of staying up late to read and sleeping in the next day. That is until everyone needs breakfast and can’t pour a full milk jug into the Lucky Charms. You might have grabbed more moments to talk with other moms, (your tightest friends), had a second glass of wine on the back deck in the evenings while all the kids jumped on your trampoline. I hope you snuck a moment here and there to go for a swim without kids, have a round of golf, shop solo, put your feet up and watch Bachelor Pad, or something similar. Did you still do all the housework, as well as arrange play dates, supervise children, organize trips to the zoo, beach, park and make meals? And the gardening? Did the dogs drive you nuts with all their barking because the doors and windows are left open and they can hear everything that happens on your cul de sac? (OK, that one is mine.)

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You are the bomb, Mothers of Sammamish! I’ve seen you at Target getting school supplies, picking up a pizza, laying in groceries for the long weekend, on the roads in your vans and SUV’s driving here there and everywhere to give your children the best summer possible. After all, they will only be ___ once and you can’t get these years back once they’re in their twenties. Swims at the  pool, trips to the , camping trips, berry picking, baseball games, vacations to see relatives all have a shelf life and don’t work as well when the kids get to be in their teens. The humans known as teenagers are a whole different breed themselves and must not be lumped in with innocent children, when it comes to summer activities. They tend to hang with their own kind after about 14 and must be treated differently. They go to movies, do sports, have sleepovers, go swimming, play tennis – all without mom helicoptering over them.

But to the Mothers who have young children - Here’s to Tuesday (for ) and the sense of relief we’ll feel on that day for having delivered our children safely to school after an awesome summer (compliments of that lady known as Mom).

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Come on, give yourselves a pat on the back, ignore the dirty house for a few more days and enjoy the last hours of summer with those kids. You did it!

What did you do this summer that was awesome?

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