Goodbye Week. Hello Weekend. Lessons Learned: Take 61.

Watercolor by Becky Kazana

Goodbye wonderful Labor Day spent with friends picking Concord Grapes at their farm - wait 'til you see what I do with those plump, purple beauties.

Goodbye busy, short week of setting plans in motion and meeting destiny at the door - welcome.

Goodbye severe pain in my neck that has affected my mood everyday this week - go away.

Goodbye setting many spinning plates in motion this week and hoping and praying I can keep them all from crashing to the ground.

Goodbye packing tons of s'more kits for tonight's football bonfire - Go Team!

Hello resting-up to tackle the only full week of school for the whole month of September.

Hello wondering when a 5-day school week became something to "tackle".

Hello homework on weekends - a new experience for us.

Hello family time and indulging in a new "What-we-do-for-fun" activity: watching old Leave It To Beaver episodes on NetFlix.

Hello watching those old episodes and wondering how it was really like in those days of prosperity, growth, and innocence.

Yea, we picked a lot of Concord grapes!

The Lesson Learned this week is when you've got your health, you've got everything. I remember when I was about 12 years old and was asked what I wanted when I got older. I said the typical 12-year old stuff like "be rich" and "live in a mansion". But never, not once, did I ever think to put on that list "be healthy as an ox". Why would I? At age 12 the most pain I'd ever felt was from a paper cut, and boy did I got into a raging wail of pain on that one. But now that I'm older, I know the true richness behind being healthy. It affects your entire life, your attitude, your activity. No, I'm not dying, but I have had this pain in my neck since Monday and I can't tell you how debilitating it has been to me this whole week. I've been more grumpy (sorry family), I've been less active (sorry running shoes), and I've had a headache every day because of it (sorry liver for all the aspirin I've been popping).

I know there is far worse than neck pain and perhaps that's my equivalent of the paper cut way back when. But now, I'm smarter so my answer to what I want when I get older will be a resounding, "I want to be as healthy as an ox. That will be my riches."