The Seasons Keep Changing

Three things in life are consistent: dishes, laundry, and school starting. While I am neither mentally nor physically ready, it is time for school. This also means our house is going to get quieter again. It wasn't as if we saw each other much anyway because of everyone's work schedules, but what a blessing it was to have Olivia and Claire living at home for the summer. Bridger will have to adjust to being the only child here again-and to only having to share the milk with the cat.

I have begun to think about what this season will look like when we don't have anyone left to send off to school and it is just Eric and me heading off to class. As difficult as it can be to get our teenage son out the door most days, I am definitely not mentally ready for the day when that chapter comes to an end.

I will admit, every year I dread the beginning of school. It isn't because I don't want to be there; I just don't want summer to end. But it has to. Even on that first day, as hectic as it is with training new photography students and new editors in my publications classes, I am reminded why I love being a professor and why I have now been doing it for a quarter of a century.

Time marches on.

This year we will technically still have three Bethany students. Olivia will be a senior, Claire a sophomore, and Bridger a PSEO student. He won't be on campus much since he is still a full-time high school student, but at least we get to say we have three students at the college where Eric and I teach.

Next year will be a different story. If all goes according to plan, Rylee will be in medical school, Olivia will be in a physical therapy program, and Bridger will be off beginning his engineering journey at some college yet to be determined. For the first time in more than twenty years, none of our children will be living at home in just one year. I'm not quite ready to think about that yet.

Earlier this week, Eric helped Rylee and Nate move into their first apartment in Jamestown as they prepare for this exciting new chapter. He said it reminded him of moving into our first apartment in Bozeman together, only without all the moving drama. I had to stay back to work, but today the three of us-Eric, Bridger, and I-helped Olivia and Claire settle into their own apartments across the hall from one another at Edgewood Place.

This evening we attended the parent reception. I always enjoy helping welcome the newest Bethany families alongside the other faculty, but this year felt a little different. Between visiting with friends and catching up with former students, it hit me that I've been teaching at Bethany long enough to have the children of those former students in my classes. That's both incredibly rewarding and another reminder of just how quickly the years have passed.

One by one, our kids are building lives of their own. This week was another reminder to me that the seasons never stop changing.

Claire now has a larger kitchen than she did at home, complete with an island where she can spread out all of her baking supplies. Our kitchen may no longer be perpetually covered in flour and sugar, but it also means I'll be seeing a lot less of her. Olivia is settling into her apartment just across the hall as she begins her senior year. It makes me smile knowing they'll have each other only a few steps away, even as they continue growing into their own independent lives.

This week has carried a little more weight than most. On Wednesday, I found myself photographing the same athletic team I was photographing the morning my mom died. I will never forget getting the call from my brother literally seconds before I took the very first photo and somehow continuing on because there wasn't any other choice in that moment.

Today marks one year since she went home to heaven.

Somehow it feels fitting that a week filled with so many new beginnings would also be a week of remembering. As we helped our girls settle into new homes and new routines, I found myself wishing I could tell Mom all about it. About Rylee and Nate's first apartment. About Olivia and Claire settling into apartments across the hall from one another. About Bridger helping carry their belongings, and the three of us ending the evening together in Honsey Hall after the parent reception. About all the little moments that make up a family's story.

I miss being able to tell her those things.

Another school year begins. The house will be quieter, my classroom will be full again, and life will keep moving forward, just as it always does. Every season brings both blessings and goodbyes, and I'm learning that gratitude and grief often walk hand in hand.

The seasons never stop changing. Through them all, God remains faithful.

How sweet is it that they requested to have rooms across the hall from one another? We joked today that we are crashing for a progressive dinner sometime with the main course at Olivia's and finishing up with dessert at Claire's.

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