Relaxing weekend...yeah, right.

Greetings!

I should be working at something other than this, but I have to bring up the subject of summer weekends.  Once you're past the age of 16, I'm sorry, but the summer loses most of its magic.  Right now my kids, 13 and 16, both think summer is this lovely golden time of sleeping until noon, lazing around the house all day, and facebooking until the wee hours of the night.

Sure, for you.  But Skippy, the oldest, will be looking at colleges next summer.  Life, as far as he knows it, will be over.  And Peaches, well, she's already in a couple of classes this summer, so her evenings are taken with gymnastics and cheer camps.

But for adults, we know summer is a myth.  Lazy hazy days?  My sweet aunt fannies' fanny.  Even when I was a "stay at home mom"  (read here, the mom everyone dumped their kids on in the summer.)  I spent a ton of time running kids to the zoo, the park, the pool, the beach, the museum, the library, the video store, the grocery store, the liquor store  (HEY...you try dragging six kids, four of which are not yours, all over God's green earth and see just how long you can go without a little visit to the "grown up cabinet.")  Sure, I miss those days because bathing meant swimming in the pool, a rainy day meant movie marathons, and there's something endearing about six grubby pairs of socks wedged under the back seat of the car.

Now, however, those kids are teens and want nothing to do with me, with the park, the zoo, the beach, the museum, and the library.  The video store, will that's a maybe, but only if I rent the movies and then walk away, never acknowledging your relationship to them. 

So my mother decided I needed a relaxing weekend.  For the last three years she's decided this.  Three years ago we rented two mobile homes on a river with enough extended family to make two mobile homes seem....well, like two mobile homes.  Two years ago we borrowed my boss's adorable place on a lake.  I spent my relaxing weekend cleaning up after the extended family.  (That weekend was everyone's FAVORITE, btw.  Of course it was.  They weren't the ones who had to listen to the boss's comments about grubby socks left under a random bed...)  LAST year we borrowed my uncles time share.  Sleeps 8.  Right.  Only if the 8th person doesn't mind sleeping on the stone kitchen floor.  GUESS WHO THAT WAS?

So this year my mother has decided that family togetherness will be lovely renting some random two bedroom one bath cabin for a week.

Can I repeat that.

Two bedrooms.

One bathroom.

At last count, the number of people she was insisting showed up:  10.

Two bedrooms.

One bathroom.

Relaxing? 

I don't say this EVER...but THANK GOODNESS for work!  Skippy, Hubby, and I are in luck.  We have to work!  Peaches is not so lucky.  She'll be toting herself back and forth from the cabin to do her stuff in town.  After all, my mother informs me, that's why I picked a place close to home....

Couldn't we just pitch a tent in the back yard?  Our house sleeps 10 without putting a single body on the floor.  We have TWO bathrooms.  More important, we have FOUR TV access to a city pool, and hot running water.  Oh, and our house is fairly bug free, and has central Air.  Plus, no packing! 

Of course, looking at the pattern, these relaxing weekends are getting closer and closer to home.  Maybe next year we will just all camp out here!

Hey, if they want, I'll charge them all rent and they can bring their own linens...

Anyway, hey, enjoy the 4th of July!  And, seven more weeks of summer vacation before we can lock the kids back in school where they belong!