All of a sudden, it seems, summer is over and it’s time for all of us to get back to reality. My mom left yesterday morning to go back home to Texas, and tomorrow morning at 6:30 Olof will leave on a jet plane for a two-day work trip to Stockholm. A couple of hours later I’ll drive Lydia to town for her first day at her new school, then in the evening I’ll be attending a parents’ meeting for Tage, who’s going into junior high this year. Tuesday is the day that all of the rest of the kids go back to school, and all of them will have new and different things to experience.

Yrsa’s going to the same pre-school, but unlike her first year there, she wont have her big sister, Brynja, there with her. For her part, Brynja is starting kindergarten, something she’s been looking forward to impatiently since she turned six back in February. Petra’s going into third grade, and she’ll have a new lead teacher after having had the same teacher since kindergarten, and Tage, of course, will have a slew of new teachers, not to mention new classrooms, as he begins sixth grade.

My own plans for continuing education are still uncertain, as Ph.D. openings won’t be announced until next month and then there’s the whole application process to get through. All isn’t completely quiet on that front, however, as in mid-September I’ll be joining a few others from Uppsala University in attending a conference entitled “Travel and the Country House” at the University of Northampton in England. A number of papers are being presented, and I’ll be choosing six to sit in on. Not only am I sure to learn new things, it will also be a great opportunity for networking.

Mixed in with all of that, Petra’s soccer continues strong, with a whole lot of games scheduled for the next couple of weeks, and Tage’s violin lessons will start up again soon as well. Brynja may or may not also start an after-school gym program this fall but, honestly, I’ll have to see how ragged I’m run by the rest of our goings-on before I commit to that. I think we’ll all need at least one day a week when none of us is scheduled for anything.