Sunday, October 7, 2012

Interludes of Great Fun followed by Profound Sleep

My daughter-in-law will come home by train tomorrow. I hope more of that train travel starts happening for us Westerners and Southwesterners. It's great!

In the meantime, it's been busy. She has called her her daughters daily to remind them of tasks. I am proud to say, they and I had thought of and already done or had scheduled all of them.

We've done it all. We've done chores, we've straightened, they have done normal laundry. (Since school started in first grade, they have been trained to wash, fold and put away their clothes, which I find admirable.)

My high schooler's marathon day at school Friday, started at 7:30 am for tennis (before sunrise) and ended when the marching band got home at 1 am Saturday. She got a solid 7 hours' sleep before reporting for marching band competition, starting at 10 am Saturday and thank goodness, ending at 6 pm. They came in tenth of 12. It was their first year to compete.

She came home, ate, did homework, watched cable tv at my home, and slept about 13 hours. Today she is overnight at her best friend's birthday party. Although school is out, she has another 3 hours of marching tomorrow evening.

The youngest attended her overnight birthday party last night. I got everything done for three communions at church. She came home.

She's here tonight, and tomorrow we will finish up polishing their home because we have it in very good shape, just what her mother likes, for her return. I will have potroast waiting when I pick their mother up from the train.

I've done this for four, beginning five, days, and I am exhausted. I am in awe of their mother, who has been handling this crazy schedule for weeks while holding down a fulltime job with a lot of responsiblity. Makes me feel my age.

It also makes me feel proud. The kids and I have done well, because their parents first did well with them. They have a sense of fun, also of responsibility.  I am so proud of them.

And I hope the youngest wants to go to bed early.

Because I sure am.

2 comments:

clairz said...

What a lot of work! Unlike your daughter, you will be able to kick back and even nap to catch up. I hope that isn't insulting to you (the nap part) but it's what I would do.

When I was in my fifties, I went back to school, finished my bachelor's degree and got a master's. At the same time we had two kids at home, I worked full time, and we were working on fixing up an old house. And gardening. With chickens and goats and sheep. Good grief, the list wears me out. How did we do it?

I've said it before: You're a good grandmother!

charlotte g said...

And you know, you were a treat mother! Nothing makes kids cling than an interesting family life, and the critters made sure of that.

When I look at Chris--when I look at the rest of us--we did it well and enjoyed it because we had no idea we couldn't.

As a grandparent, I am flummoxed to find that I can still do it, but need several days to recover.
Both parents home tonight. I'm off duty till 3 pm tomorrow.