It's the most wonderful time of the year! All the parents and caregivers I know feel it is anyway. School starts on Tuesday. In a few days or a week or two, life goes back to school mode and some sort of normal begins.

Bed times are by the clock again, everyone has some place to go in the morning and things to do in the early evening, like homework, and getting ready for tomorrow. Meal times get regulated, and all things seem to become more organized, until routine reigns again.

Alarm clocks that have been silent all summer will blare again, followed by moans, grumbles and stumbling steps of the half awake getting ready for school.

The down side is, with summer coming to an end and the beginning of fall, winter is just around the corner.

I guess it's best not to think about winter yet, there are still too many good things in the waning days of summer. Ripe tomatoes, apples, straw berries. Warm days with the kids in school, dedicated to the summer reading that's been put off, or in my case, painting that has been waiting for the moments when it's not too hot and naps need to be taken in the afternoon. There is also fall gardening but that's not for a month or so yet.

I will be down to one preschooler on Tuesday. "The Darling One" will be having classes with Gramma, in short sessions, so she won't even know she's learning. Just one on one, coloring shapes, and counting them as well, lots of stories, and exploring the neighborhod now that the bigger kids are back to school and before it gets too cold.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.