The Sunday evening slide to home base

I went from tired to whipped. While I got things done, I had the constant chatter of a five year old each waking moment. She is a wonderful kid and a great help. For someone used to living alone quiet air time is aplenty. She was here from Friday until this evening and it was a spur of the moment thing. She helped with chores. She helped with the dogs. She helped me give the horse a bath then tended the dogs while I got her clipped down. She tended the dogs while I was out weed whacking the monster nettles from the road to the house. She helped with the shopping list, and then with the shopping. We had very few "melt downs" and she fell into bed about 7:30 both nights as I completely exhausted her.

I think the highlight of the weekend was the shopping. You see, we realized as she was going to bed on Friday night that she had no clean "undies." Shock and panic ensued until I told her one night would be OK as we would get up first thing in the morning and go get some new ones so I could wash them. The next morning I was greeted by her little cherubic face, pen and paper in hand. In big letters she had written "GROSRE LEST." On the list she then wrote "TNASBOL" as she felt the dogs could use more and we wouldn't have to have to wait for them to retrieve them all. Following that was "REAS PES." Ponder that one for a bit. A major hint: ET liked them as much as the grand kids and I usually have a bag in the cupboard. She then had ME write out "basketball" as that was way too long, and Kate had popped the one in the field, and we did indeed need a new one. You can probably tell that I kept the list, even though she was quite insistent on crossing each thing off as we added it to the cart. Nice job, dear daughter, she is pretty darn amazing for a girl in the friggin' fives. We had a few bumps in the road as far as attitude, but I talked to her and gave her some rules and she was pretty good at following them.

This is really what life is all about. to be able to watch my grand kids grow and develop into little people is such a joy. When my daughter was five I was already pretty sick, and also was working full time. It was all I could do to just "maintain." The grand kids are all three at ages where they can discuss their worlds with me. There are some things that I ask if I can share with their Mommies, and so far they are fine about it. It is both thrilling and frightening to discuss their "take" on the world around them and family dynamics. I think the toughest, besides the constant chatter thing, was reining her in when she was trying to do things that were way above the five year old level. We had to have a little discussion about personal safety and about Grandma's paranoia. She smiled and said in her little cheery chirpy voice "OK, Grandma. Grandma? I love you." To which I responded, or course, "awwwwww, Thanks. What do you want?" The response? "Grandmawwww."

I now go take a cool shower and fall into bed. I suspect she is fast asleep in the car headed home. She made me realize a couple of things. First, that I really do a lot around here. If I can wipe out a five year old just doing the normal stuff, then I feel pretty darn good for someone who was supposed to die seven or so years ago. And second, as much as I value my family time, I also value my quiet time. I think that I would be very hard pressed to ever have someone else living here. My quiet time is my recharging time. With all that I have to do around here, I really need to recharge on occasion.

So, with that, I round the final base of the weekend and head home. It was a great weekend, but now it is time for me.

Until next week, I bid you all adieu.

G2

I hear that! I suspect that if I ever really do buy the property next door, we'll actually see each other once a week! I do kinda have stuff to talk at you about, so head over to my other blog (the one that you wondered about) if you get a chance.