The whole Alter clan was together for the weekend. Like other families, we have our moments of friction, but on the whole, it's amazing how well the adults all get along and how fond they are of each other and of all the babies. And believe me, there were a lot of babies. It was the things they said that most caught my imagination:
Eden to Juju: Do you have make up on?
Juju: Yes. Do I look all right.
Eden (with a shrug): You look like your usual self.
And Sawyer on being told he needed sunscreen: I'm going in the garage. There's no sun in there.
Sawyer developed an absolute fascination with Jordan and Christian's automatic garage door and kept wanting to put it up and down for what he believed would be the amazment of every adult he showed this trick to. Denied this privilege, he took to throwing himself at the door with a loud bang every time he hit it. Finally I asked his father if he didn't have an automatic door, and he said, Yes. Sawyer broke it.
Morgan (2 yrs.) on hearing her mother ask Juju if she was going to sit and visit a minute before bedtime: Come on, Juju. Come visit. This was accompanied by pointing to the place on the couch where I should sit.
And Eden, as I told her goobye and that I loved her: I hope you have a lovely day every day. What a delightful way to leave someone!
However much fun, it was a tiring weekend. Saturday we spent the day at Jordan's, but I was grateful to be able to slip back home for an afternoon nap, and then to leave a little earlier than the others, put the top down on my car, and drive through heavily wooded neighborhoods, taking the back way home and enjoying the breeze. I fixed barbecue, beans, and marinated vegetables to take for supper Saturday--Maddie ate the veggies at dinner, before bed, midmorning Sunday, and before she went home that afternoon. Then Sunday, we picked up two more kids--Hunter and Alex from next door came to play and eat breakfast, which was eggs, bacon, and potato casserole served about 11 o'clock. I laughed at Hunter--he kept walking back and forth through the kitchen, and I asked him why he was doing that. "I'm really hungry," he explained. I told him it would be an hour or so, and he moved on.
The kids do a terrific job of putting the house back in order before they leave but there was a pile of dishes to be washed, three loads of laundry, the backyard to clean up (Scooby had his two "cousins"--a chocolate lab and a large black "island dog"--and he was as worn out Sunday night as I was), the bird feeder to be filled, plants to be watered. I took a really good nap late in the afternoon. About six, Sue came for a glass of wine, and we were joined by Jay, so we sat, drank wine, laughed, talked, and ate my newest homemade cheese spread in which you really can taste the roquefort. About eight I broke up the party by saying I had to eat. I was getting light-headed from the wine, since it had been so long since I'd eaten breakfast. So I came in and ate it all again--beans, marinated vegetables, and potato casserole. So good!
And today it was back to routine, where a million small and a couple of large problems landed on my desk. Then at home it seemed I had a hundred small things to do--the last of the laundry, rehook the TV and unhook the DVD player, etc. The nice bonus of the afternoon was an offer to write a children's book--but with a really short deadline. Manuscript due September 7. Wow! I said yes of course. My theory is that when opportunity knocks you don't say no. There goes however, the exploration of my Macbain ancestry file that I had planned and the reading on Scotland I've been enjoying. Tonight I've got to review changes in a manuscript for the office. Oh me.
I wish for each of you a lovely day every day.
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