Old Habits Die Hard...

                Guilty as charged! I hereby admit that I am an excitable person. I smile quite a bit, laugh often, and even lose my temper from time to time. I take enjoyment from many avenues of life - friends, family, good music, a glass of white zin and sometimes even a stimulating TV show. But honestly, nothing stirs more excitement within me these days, than getting together with those I love most (also known as my immediate family). Since my daughter, Megan, and son-in-law, Joe, moved to the east coast in 2010, our core family only reunites a couple of times a year. These gatherings are prime time occasions for me now, and I tend to love every minute.

            So - shortly after I wrote my blog post about remodeling Megan’s bedroom into an office (A Special Space – 3/20/13), I received an exciting phone call from her...

“Mom? What are you doing next weekend, and how would you feel about having a couple of visitors?”  Of course she meant her & Joe…

“WHAT??? Yes! Of course! That would be great! Make the plans immediately! Do not hesitate!” Did I use enough punctuation in this sentence to reinforce how excited I felt???

Coincidentally, it felt strange that almost as soon as I hung up the phone, just as soon as I got this great news that Megan and Joe would be here for four days and three glorious nights, I began to worry. Now, I’ve shared with you before that I tend to be a worrier. If it weren’t for me, I don’t know how the familial worrying would ever get done! No one else seems to take the job nearly as seriously as I do! I’m saying this like it’s a joke, but as with most good humor, there’s almost always at least a thread of truth…

Now, a legitimate question that might pop into your mind might be, “What in the world would Katie need to worry about? Her daughter’s coming home! She loves spending time with her kids! She should be excited!” And of course you would stand correct on all counts. My daughter WAS coming home and I WAS excited. In fact I grew so excited that I realized that four days would go by so fast, three nights would fly by, how would we all be able to get together? How would the kids get to see Joe’s family, PLUS my dad, my aunt, my sister, Tony…Oh yea - Lesleigh had to work, how could we possibly get everyone into the same room at the same time and what would I make for dinner and what would they want to drink, and now that we made her bedroom into an office, where would they sleep for Heaven’s sake, and… and… and….?  

My son’s intuition zeroed in on my ever-rising stress level. “What’s going on, Mom? You seem really distracted.”

Brilliant – he’s onto me!  “Oh nothing,” I lied, which never works around here. “I’m just wondering how we might best coordinate the upcoming weekend with Megan and Joe.” I proceeded to explain how little time we had and how many plans I was planning…

He then, in turn, proceeded to give me some very good advice. “Mom, you need to relax…” It makes me laugh to type that now, but he did say it lovingly – and it really is solid counsel. And then, in true Tony form, he quoted some song lyrics, “Ya gotta rock wit it, roll wit it…” Nothing like a little rap tune to soothe the 50-something year-old’s soul…

But seriously, he was right. I did need to relax. I needed to focus on the here and now. I needed to zap into reality. I needed to choose and implement my best-laid plans, and leave the rest to lie for yet another day… or long weekend. I reflected back to the whirlwind weekend that Megan and Joe visited Tony in Massachusetts when he flew there for the Helping Hands event. (See blog post “Gettin’ Together” - 1/26/13.) They had less than 11 hours together (and a few of those were sleeping) and ended up having a very special and impromptu time. Maybe ‘quality’ really does trump ‘quantity.’

Well, Megan and Joe came for their visit. As it turned out, the weekend was a hit. We arranged visits with some family, shared many laughs - heard stories that become short and unanimated during brief phone calls, but are a true hoot in real life. We drank coffee, ate pancakes, took family photos, figured in a fish fry with Lesleigh! Joe got to see his family members. And low and behold, somehow, it all…worked…out!!! Amazing! J

So… on the scale of  “Family? What’s that?” to “We will NEVER have enough family time” I feel our visit ranked right around the mark of “We did the very best we could with the short amount of time we had.”

            … and I can’t WAIT till next time! 

I wonder what will happen if they…  

            Sorry, old habits die hard.