Well, that was a gap. But today’s word is End, and today I’ve chosen not to end my BlogElul series prematurely, despite its imperfection.

For some reason I got completely stuck on the word Ask, and then Judge, Dare and Love just went by with me pretending time wasn’t moving on … but today I am back.

Sometimes we think that when we screw up like that, we just need to end whatever we were doing and shove it under the rug – pretend it never existed. But the imperfect is better than not doing anything at all. When I come to look at this year’s blog posts next year, looking for the links that tell you what I wrote in the past, those will be missing. I’ll probably click my tongue disapprovingly at myself, and just move on, because the project is more important than a few missing links.

This weekend also symbolises the end of our summer, it’s the Labour Day weekend, and on Wednesday my kids will be back in school. They can’t wait – they say they are bored and crave the structure and the productivity. On the one hand I’m delighted that they are so honest and open (and that they go to such a good school that they are happy to be there), of course on the other there is plenty of scope for mommy guilt about not making their summer more exciting. Or maybe I should have taken them to the beach instead of letting them bum around playing video games all day … there’s always something for mothers to beat themselves up about.

So now I also choose to end that blame game. They had a pretty good summer, we went on a trip, my son learned to drive, my daughter went to camp for three weeks and also spent a week riding and grooming horses. It’s OK that they are looking forward to the next phase, and I’m glad they are happy to go back to school rather than dreading it.

What are you choosing to end (or not to end) today?