Boreal Witch

I apologize for my absence, dear Reader. Some of my family was in town.

When family visits, it's a guarantee that we will be spending most of our time eating (with my dad), shopping (with my mom), and playing games (with my nephew).

For the last two weeks, it's been nothing but noise and chaos. My mom and nephew were here. Molly, my niece, tagged along because she wanted to play with Arthur and Balin. Aunt Joyce debated about coming up to visit, but in the end decided she didn't want to brave the hailstorms brewing in Iowa. Her car was new and she feared it would get damaged. Dad came down from the farm a couple of times, hemming and hawing about how there wasn't enough room to fit so many people.

But we managed, somehow. Everyone had an actual bed (although for some reason Josh kept insisting that he and my mom keep switching rooms - it became a nightly ritual to ask: "Where are Molly and Nana sleeping tonight, Josh?"). I bought groceries every few days instead of once a week. We played a game - sometimes two - every night. I was constantly on, entertaining, hosting. It was wonderful and awful at the same time.

Wonderful because I miss these crazy people. I miss seeing them regularly and knowing what's going on with them. Sometimes we'll have family FaceTime or Skype sessions to catch up, each of them telling me in turn what's been going on with them.

Awful because there's so much pressure to do something with everyone. It was a bit of a challenge to find activities that everyone would enjoy and were close. We only have one car, so there were a few moments when I had to shuffle everyone back and forth in two car loads.

All in all, I think everyone had a good time.

I hope Josh enjoyed getting out of his comfort zone a bit when he drove a go-cart or went down a water slide or floated around in a paddleboat. He learned how to play Pokemon and showed his young cousins how to play Skylanders. I hope he liked the haunted places we visited, even though we didn't see anything particularly scary.

I hope Mom liked the food I prepared and that she didn't mind when I included onions in almost all my dishes and that she didn't feel insulted when I only picked out a few items of clothing during our shopping trips and that she knew how much the boys would miss her when she left.

I hope Molly reconnected with her cousins and that she doesn't see me as such a foreign entity anymore and that she had fond memories of Wisconsin. I hope to see her again soon.

Did you spend time with family this summer? What did you do?

Blessed be.