Summer Is Over and My Kids Are Back in Their School Routine

A walk outside at 6pm mid-September hits a little different than it did in August. I open the door, decide I do need the sweater, and grab it before I head out. Just a few degrees cooler, and a little less sunlight. It's a little thing that the body notices before my eyes do. But, once I notice the nearness of fall, I can't stop noticing.

The kids are back in their school routine now. Backpacks get staged and we're adding homework to the evening plans, and the kids are back to needing a wakeup in the a.m. Back to making and packing lunches in the morning, too. A few weeks ago it felt like our house was on the loosest of schedules.

I had a version of summer in my head back in May. More evenings outside, some planned trips, including camping. No major house projects this year, just upkeep. Most summers go that way. You get some of it, you miss some of it, and by September you're thinking about the couple of things you wish you'd accomplished before the weather began to turn. If you're like me though, you continue moving into what's next.

"What's next" arrives whether you're ready or not. We asked our kids if they were ready to go back. They had mixed feelings about it after a pretty eventful summer. But, the school bell rings on time (I'm actually not confident they have a school bell there, but that's beside the point). Work also picks back up to a regular pace. Commitments felt like they kind of paused while the sun was out, and now the Outlook calendar starts getting colorful again.

I think about this, staring outside at the gray; all the leaves on our tree in the front yard still green, the neighbors' beginning to yellow. What I find when I think about this: God created seasons as the original planning structure.

Most of adult life runs on a similarly structured version of this, except its derived by man. A workplace sets their hours. A school sets their calendar. A commute can set the rhythm of the day, whether you love it or not. For decades, something external tells you what week it is and what you're supposed to be doing in it.

And Then There's Retirement...

Retirement may be the first long stretch where that structure can unravel. There's no "back to the fall schedule." The freedom is expansive, and many people it's genuinely wonderful. It can also be disorienting, because the thing that used to organize your weeks (work) isn't there anymore.

The changing of seasons, for homeowners, can trigger a mental (or written). It's fall and the furnace needs it's annual inspection. The gutters need clearing before the rain really starts. Maybe for you, it's time to take advantage of that fall overseeding in the front yard.

A retirement plan could use a version of that same instinct. It may not announce itself the way a clogged gutter does (yeesh!). The accounts, the beneficiaries, the income plan - all of it can drift for years without a single visible sign, until the year it matters most.

So, here are some things you could do to take proactive action:

1. Pick one week each fall, maybe this one, when the leaves start changing, to review your own plan.
2. Ask yourself what in your plan hasn't been checked since last year, the way you'd ask about a filter or a gutter.
3. Consider a future date on the calendar for deeper review (we love to book February through April in our office!).

I have no doubt kids will be in their groove by the time this post is live. With so much happening in this transitional year, I still feel like I'm working on finding mine this fall.