On savouring summer, welcoming September and once again pretending I'll have school lunches figured out this year.

With back-to-school on the horizon, I know a lot of parents are getting teary-eyed thinking about their littles heading off to school so soon.

But I have to be honest.

It ain't me.

the loosey goosey days of summer

Don't get me wrong. I adore my time with my boys, and we've had an incredible summer. This year, I feel like we actually found a pretty good balance between camp weeks, grandparents' sleepovers, road trips, mini staycations, summer adventures and cottage weeks—with plenty of long, luxurious days of doing not much else in between.

I feel like we really nailed the vibe of enjoying a low-pressure summer while still savouring the sweetness of it.

We swam. We stayed up late. We went places. We did nothing. There were probably too many ice creams and definitely not enough baths.

And when the kids head back to school, of course I get a little misty-eyed about the milestones. New grades. New classrooms. The realization that they are somehow getting bigger and older at an unreasonable pace.

But I can hold two thoughts at once. My kids are growing up too quickly, AND I am very much looking forward to September. Because my kids—and, honestly, my entire household—thrive on structure and routine.

return to structure

The slightly-off-the-rails feeling of summer is mildly enjoyable for a while. I like the freedom of it. I like not knowing exactly what we're doing every day. I like the long stretches of nothing.

But eventually, I start looking forward to the predictability and rhythm of the school year. The familiar routine of getting everyone out the door. The quiet hours in the house. Knowing what day of the week it is.

As much as I love summer, there is something comforting about settling back into the rhythm of another school year.

my school year nemesis

Unfortunately, there is one major downside.

School lunches.

Every year, without fail, I enter August with the confidence of someone who has never packed a school lunch before in her life. “This is the year!”, I tell myself. I will have ideas, I will have variety, I will find things they actually eat!

Will I give up within the first few weeks? Most likely.

But for now, I am in the planning phase, which is arguably the most enjoyable part of any endeavour because nothing has gone wrong yet.

Two children. Two completely different eating situations.

I have two kids who are as different as night and day when it comes to food, which continues to amaze me considering they came from the same genetic pool. One of them has what I would describe as a gourmet palate. At home, he eats absolutely everything. He eats like a lumberjack, in fact.

But at school? Barely touches his lunch.

Yes, I know a lot of kids feel rushed at lunchtime. But after a lot of observation, I've determined that his issue is more specific.

He doesn't like food that's been "sitting".

And honestly, I can appreciate that.

He likes his food fresh. If I could show up at lunchtime every day and hand him a freshly prepared meal, he would probably eat every bite. Unfortunately, that is not realistic.

Meanwhile, my other child eats like a little bird at home. We joke that he's on the Mediterranean diet because he could probably survive indefinitely on yogurt and berries.

But send him to school? He eats every bite.

We think this may be due to the wonderful daycare teachers who taught him excellent lunchtime routines, and I would personally like to thank them for their service.

my annual attempt to outsmart the lunchbox

I've also been testing some new recipes that will eventually make their way onto the bakery menu, but they're conveniently pulling double duty as potential lunchbox fillers for my own kids.

So far, mini muffins have been a huge hit. You'll definitely be seeing those soon.

I'm not pretending I'm going to pack a Pinterest-worthy lunch every day. Absolutely not. But if I can have a few easy homemade things in the freezer or pantry that I know they'll actually eat, it makes the battle a little easier.

I also have a recurring joke that I'm going to start a company making extremely realistic fake fruits and vegetables that fit inside lunchboxes. That way, we can show the teachers we're trying without having to compost the same sad apple that comes home every single day.

and so, another summer comes to an end

I know there will be lots of teary-eyed photos over the next few weeks. And I will probably be one of the people getting a little emotional when I see how much bigger they look with their backpacks on.

You can spend an entire summer enjoying your children, make beautiful memories and genuinely savour the long days—and still be ready for everyone to go back to school.

I don't think being ready for routine means we didn't appreciate the freedom of summer.

In fact, I think part of the reason this summer felt so good was because we didn't try to optimize every second of it. We had adventures, but we also had boredom. We had plans, but we left room for spontaneity. We did some things, and sometimes we did absolutely nothing at all.

And now, just as summer begins to feel a little too long and the household starts to gently drift off the rails, September arrives with its backpacks and routines and new beginnings.

And then I'll pack those little lunchboxes, send them off for another year and probably enjoy the quiet for at least a few hours.

Until they come home with their uneaten lunches and eat half the kitchen anyway.