Busy summers make family vacations hard

School just got out for the summer and I am already feeling like there aren't enough days left.  

For the first time ever, our family could not find one week to take for a vacation and go anywhere together. Instead, we opted for one week at Emerald Isle so that the teens could drive back and forth for their schedules.

They are all going places. Our oldest daughter took a discovery trip with the Teaching Fellows Program and went all across North Carolina. She has a new appreciation for this great state we call home.

The younger one is attending a student council convention in Colorado and gets to fly for the first time. We won't be with her to laugh and joke with her when she gets nervous.

All of the girls in our family, and I include the nieces here, are busy and going all over the place this summer. They are going in all different directions though, and that's why getting the "we" time has been so hard this year.

It doesn't help that I have a motherly sadness knowing that this is the last summer before my baby girl leaves the nest.

I know from the experience we are sharing with our oldest that she will come back to eat, do laundry and get money.

But, will it be the same?

I've learned that after my daughter's first two weeks home from college, it actually can be very much the same, and in some ways even better.

Summer has always been my favorite time of year to be a mother. I can't count the days we've spent on the beach, first when they were still in diapers and later as they learned to surf.

Now, mom stays home and they load up the car with friends and boyfriends, or even go by themselves.

It's all part of life and I wouldn't have it any other way, but still I get a little blue with the realization that time just keeps marching on - with or without my consent.

Lazy days spent in the hammock listening to the "Summer Fantasy Series" of classical music on public radio and reading great books together are gone.

Now, there is a young man napping in my hammock and snuggling with my daughter. I do still get to hear great classical music from our resident music major, but it's not the same.

Enough whining, I know. Kids grow up and moms get old and summers come and go. I know that.

But, I hope that as all of you young mothers read this, you realize that every single moment you have with your child is a teachable moment. Every experience from the homemade popsicles and sidewalk chalk art to the sand castles and birthday parties for Mozart counts. Every moment matters.

You are not only teaching them about ABCs and 123s, you are teaching them how to laugh, how to love and how to live.

Kim Smith is a member of the Craven County Board of Education and the mother of two daughters.