The Summer of 2017

This summer, I had all my family home in one place for a couple of weeks.  In the middle of that, my husband's family came in for a reunion and memorial of the passing of his mom.  What a great time!

When my girls and their family were here, we used every room in my house.  Now, my house isn't big - a tri level.  Do I wish for more rooms, more space?  You bet I do.  We made it work though.

Our family has not been together in one spot for four years.

The weeks prior to this gathering, I scheduled the cleaning of my house.  Since I have a tri-level, I cleaned one floor a day thoroughly.  I haven't cleaned like this in some time, since it's only my husband and I in the house now.  Needless to say, I was exhausted after all this cleaning.

"Wait!  I need to make freezer meals and prepare a menu for the first five days."  Why the first five days you might ask?  Because my oldest daughter was bringing a friend she had been seeing for the past year and a half to meet us - that's why.  I needed to be prepared and not look like I was wracking my brain for a meal to prepare.

Thus, I prepared freezer meals and a menu for Thursday to Monday when he was here.

We headed up to the lake cabin after this, and I didn't prepare one meal.  My daughter's and son-in-law cooked. My hubby and I watched and played with the grand babes.  I may have washed dishes one night.

Was I exhausted?  You bet!  I think this was a good kind of exhaustion: seeing family together, cooking, preparing, playing, watching, laughing, talking, eating together, cleaning up spills, comforting children, reading books, diffusing tantrums, hearing "again Yia-Yia, again PaPa" as we played the same game over and over.  This is truly living.  This is a good kind of exhaustion.

I'm very blessed with my family.  Has it all been rosy and easy?  No way!  We've had our fair share of troubles.  But I look back on those times and think "God got us through that.  Look what He has done."

Everyone has gone back to their own homes.  I still hear my four-year-old granddaughter Analiese say:  "I miss my house mommy."  As soon as she arrived home, my daughter said, she went into her bedroom, sat on her bed, looked around at her surroundings and promptly fell asleep.  She was content to be home, her safe place.

Good memories were made.  A lot of pictures taken.  I will never forget this wonderful summer when all my family were together for two weeks.

I hope it happens again.