Welcome Back!

Ahhh...it's so good to be home. Well...not really. I came home to a dirty house, PILES of laundry, a dead fish, an empty fridge and kids with attitudes. I was REALLY missing my sister's little cabin in the woods this morning! And so today I began the process of setting it all back to "normal". Or whatever normal happens to be for this crazy family of mine! The morning started off with a BANG! Getting lunches made and progress reports signed and all sorts of other small details. In the midst of it all, Clara knocks over a whole cup of coffee. Mental note...add mopping the floor to the already long "to do" list. Then proceeds to have quite the attitude about it. That shortly morphs into complaints about and talk about quitting her cheerleading/tumbling class I just paid a fortune for her to do. We have been having THIS particular discussion for a month now and when I voiced my opinion that maybe this activity should maybe wait for a year or so she went NUTS! Crying, begging, pleading to let her do it. And so I relented and wrote out the check, signed the recital contract and committed to pay for her lessons through May. And of course...exactly ONE day after those forms are turned in she decides she doesn't REALLY want to do it after all. Welcome to the land of tough crap, Baby! Because now she is all in and there is NO turning back. She may not be the best tumbler and she may not grasp all the ins and outs of cheering. But she WILL understand the meaning of the word "commitment" and she will know what it is like to see something through to the very bitter end before it's all said and done. And so...coming home was not really pleasant. I SO treasured the peace I had the past weekend. The nights sitting in the gazebo at NIkki's house, listening to the frogs and crickets with a glass of wine in my hands. I loved the low key feel to the weekend. None of the rush and run that seems to be a constant in our household. I am treasuring my sisters even more than ever today as I go back and face my reality. I am so grateful that we have managed two get togethers now in two years. Nikki was very tearful that it would be another year before we get to do this again. But I am so thankful that we even get to attempt it each year. What a wonderful tradition we started between us! I am already looking forward to next year and planning out our next visit in my head. But in the meantime...there is reality to deal with. Guitar lessons and ballet, art lessons and mountain biking clubs, cheerleading and tumbling and then of course...homework, homework, homework. Life is so busy right now. I am so thankful that I have two wonderful sisters and the fantastic memories of our weekends together that I can draw on to bolster me through my reality! Speaking of reality...back to it!