This fall, Katherine has spent her mornings at her Montessori pre-school and her afternoons at our half day public school kindergarten. I never thought twice about scheduling her days this way. She has been going to Montessori for years and has always stayed there through lunch and in the past year and a half, for a full day. When presented with the option of a two and half hour kindergarten day, it seemed quite obvious that I would extend her day by keeping her at Montessori as well. This is a common practice in our town. Many families choose to continue sending their kindergarten aged children to pre-school in addition to kindergarten to lengthen their day, thereby increasing their learning.

This week though, Katherine’s Montessori school is closed for the holidays so her day consists of only kindergarten.

The dreaded short day. Although, I’m not finding it dreadful at all.

I’m finding it slower and calmer and lovely. In hindsight, I’m wondering if I made the right choice for Katherine and for me. I’m always so quick to wish the girls bigger. To wish them easier. And in doing so, I’ve wished us so busy.

I suppose it is only in hindsight that I now know what this fall turned out to be. It was a fall that never let our community breathe. We ended the summer with a hurricane which brought us right into the craziness of the start of school. As we finally settled in to our schedules, the snow fell, knocking out power and closing our schools. As we got back on our feet from the snow, our community was rocked with the accidental and tragic death of a sweet six year old girl. And then the holidays approached with all their beauty and their stress.

As we go through our last school week of 2011, I feel so lucky to spend it in a quieter place.

It was only today, when taking the fifteen minutes to scooter to school felt like a luxury, that I realized just how much I needed to be in this place of relative calm.

May it remain so and may I have the wisdom to carve out this quiet in our days moving forward..