Tick-Tock Tick-Tock

Tick tock, tick tock goes our countdown clock.

Where has the time gone?  The summer flew by in a flurry of heat, work, and travel and now it is September, the month of transitions, changes, and new beginnings. This is our third September in Albania but this year is different since it is our last.  With just under five months until we move onto our next adventure I know this fall will also fly by.

The first six months of this year dragged.  We were busy, even busier than usual as we worked, traveled, and most importantly, found out where we would be heading to next.  Belgium!  It was unexpected yet welcomed and gave us a lot to think about.  This knowledge in itself should have made the time fly by but it didn't.  January crept into February then March seemed endless.  Despite the warmer temperatures of April and May it rained non-stop (a preview of our future perhaps?) so these months were just as bad.  It felt as though we were going no where fast and the fall felt a lifetime away.  And then June arrived.  She sped by in a flash as did July and August and suddenly I find it being September.

Fall is always busy.  After the long lazy days of summer the pace of life picks up.  Days are shorter but seemingly filled with more activities.  Here in Europe, where August is the official month of vacations and many stores and restaurants simply shutter their doors for weeks on end, people return to their jobs in September ready to get back to work.  I feel the pace picking up all around me.  People seem more focused at work and with the start of the schools, traffic has increased.  The fall months are also filled with both American and Albanian holidays meaning short but intense work weeks and long weekends filled with endless opportunities for exploring (or working or de-cluttering....the list could go on).  And all too soon the big holidays- Thanksgiving and Christmas- will be here with their usual madness and this will be followed shortly by the New Year.

And with the New Year we will be leaving Albania.  So all this means I have a whole lot to do between now and then.  I must be organized, efficient, and proactive.  There are preparations to be made and an all too full house to be purged and packed out.  And then there are the farewells to be had.  Throw in a visit from the grandparents and a final trip or two to complete our Albanian bucket list and there won't be a moment to spare.  Somehow I seriously doubt that these final months of the year will drag the way the first few did.  Time is sure to fly and all of a sudden I'm feeling that I have too much to do and not enough time to do it.  I'm now living life on fast forward.

And not that I'm counting or anything, but we have 140 days until we depart.  And a whole lot to do between now and then.