A little Down Time...Or So I Had Hoped

Home for a few days with nowhere to go and nothing to do until I catch a plane at the end of the week with Wayne and the children and head for IL to visit family and friends! Maybe I will read as the laundry is running. I could spend time in my gardens since I had had no time in them yet this summer...one look there and I begin to fume as once again I find the gardener has not understood my continued request that he Not Cut my plants! I have begun to wonder if there really is a communication barrier or if he just likes to see how angry he can make me. So...I won't walk the gardens because I am home for four days and I am going to enjoy time with the kids and sit with Wayno in the evenings and just catch up, right? Peace and Quiet...
Really, who was I fooling? Brit, after my asking and begging for months, has finally decided on a color to paint her room. Yes! "But, Mom" she says sweetly "Could we do it tomorrow because I am having all my girlfriends over this week and I would really like to have it finished before they get here." How do I say no since I have just returned from a trip with girlfriends and now I am refreshed and ready to be a better Mom and wife, right?
Off we head to the paint store and then to the next place and back home to check colors and then back out to find new colors until we have found just the right paint we think...until that night when the room gets darker and the lights do something funky to those little swatches we have hanging on all over her walls! I tell her she must decide by the time I am finished at the gym in the morning so that I can buy the paint on my way home and we can begin then. She does and I do and now we can paint! Actually, it all goes very smoothly. Jacob has agreed to help and the three of us spend the entire day painting. I send them off to the movies late in the afternoon and finish up the last minute details and touchups as I pull of the tape. I decide then that it would be nice if her room were totally back together by the time they get back from the movies and Wayno's arrival home from work is perfect timing! He helps me put the bed frame together and wishes me luck as he heads out the door to the gym. The children all arrive home soon so I work quickly and they arrive home just as the room has been put back together and the squeals from Brit have made the long day all worthwhile. Tomorrow I will rest and read that book and maybe even catch up on e-mail. Today was worth all the rush!!!
I rise and realize the house will soon be filled with teenage girls and I have had no time to prepare food since I had been painting the day before and now I rush to the grocer to find things they will eat. Let's just say that from that moment on, there really was no time to open a book or even casually sip coffee. But it was fun and the house was filled with giggles and continual conversation coming from my daughters room. Enough that Bry and Jordan decide to relocate and go off to hang out somepalce else, any place, as long as there are not a huge gathering of teenage girls close by.
The next day we rise and shine and are happy to be heading as a family off to the Interfaith Celebration. This has been an annual event for 10 years and was started by some good friends of ours. A gathering of many different denominations to celebrate the diversity in our community. What better way to start off July 4th!!! Bry will be joining our group from church to perform as well. We spend the morning enjoying amazing food and music with friends. Then it is off to Wayne and Shari's for lunch around the pool and time to catch up a bit. We leave there later just in time to head to Paul and Patty's home for dinner and fireworks then back home to climb into bed and smile as I realize what a fun day we had and to think back over the friendships we have made in just the couple of years we have lived here. Time to sleep, the next day will be filled with packing and then we catch our flight out early to go see more friends and family in IL. Wow! I didn't have time to sit and read or wander the gardens or even really catch up on any e-mail but summers really are great!!!