My little niche

We are having a lovely time at my mother-in-law's house in South Dakota. The kids are marinating in the love, and Tom is relaxing, which is vital to the family's well-being. I've been getting more sleep (10-12 hours per night!)  than I thought I needed, which is probably what I really need.

So far, we've taken the kids to a horse farm owned by my MIL's beau. (They've been dating for almost six years, and aren't getting married any time soon. Calling someone a boyfriend when they are both in their seventies seems awfully twee.) In addition, we've seen Devil's Gulch in Garretson, SD, where Jesse James "jumped the gulch" to get away from the authorities. We took a lovely pontoon boat ride on Split Rock Creek where the captain of the ship made many, many Norwegian jokes. It's a regional specialty.

Tomorrow, if the weather is nice, we're all going to the zoo in Sioux Falls. If the weather is rainy as it was today, we'll all go see "Up" in a nearby town that has a theater. The town we are in is so small that it only has one grocery store and no stoplight.

However, my family is happy and relaxed. I don't need much else this week.

I'll be pulling up stakes Friday when we head out to Minneapolis for a night and I hopefully get to meet posthaste ! Saturday morning, we'll be having breakfast with Tom's aunt, uncle, assorted cousins, and offspring, then catching a flight home.

Tom and I have been entertaining his mother and aunt for the last week.  They drove down from their tiny town in South Dakota to visit the grandchildren who live in the South. They arrived the day after Election Day, which we had asked them to. This was careful planning on our part, so they could celebrate/mourn with Tom's sister who is a staunch Republican. We wanted our time to watch the results and process accordingly. :) 

Tom's mom and aunt are very conservative midwesterners, who get all of their news from Fox News. Period.  The days after the election reading through the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with them were occasionally stressful.  Luckily, there were two beautiful grandchildren in the house who were here to break the tension. A rousing game of Candy Land and a glass of Merlot made Mommy, Grandma, and Auntie happy.

A big gift that Tom's mom gave us was our first weekend ever away from the kids. Tom and I got a hotel room at the Westin Perimeter and spent the weekend doing whatever we wanted. We relaxed, shopped, and dined while Grandma and Aunt J took care of the kiddos. It was heavenly.  Prior to this, the longest we have spent away from the kids is just a few hours.  There were times I had to sit on my hands to keep from calling and checking on them. I figured that both Grandma and Aunt J are trained RNs and would know what to do if an emergency came up. However, nothing bad happened and both kids were happy and mellow when we came back Sunday afternoon.

I don't know when the next time we'll get the chance to have that time away. It's a rare gift - the only other grandparents my kids have are my Dad and his wife and they haven't offered. It'll probably be when the kids are a few years older, plus they live in Jacksonville, FL. I'm jealous of my friends who have in-town family that can get that kind of babysitting on a regular basis. (I don't admit this jealousy out loud, but it's there sometimes.)  The only time I've ever been away for the night from my kids has been when I gave birth to Katie and when I went to my mom's funeral. Tom has only been away when he went to London for training for three weeks.  I think we both  need to learn to be a bit more selfish to be able to give more to the kids.  We both come close to burned out at times.

Next week, we're flying up to visit Tom's mother in the middle of nowhere. We bought tickets for 3 of us, and Katie will be a "lap baby." The last time we flew was before Katie came along, and we always had tickets for the 3 of us. We decided to try this one with Katie on laps.

She's so full of movement right now, so I'm quite nervous about how she'll do. The flight is scheduled during their naptimes, so I hope one or both will sleep. Tom has promised to take on his fair share of Katie wrangling, but with his narcolepsy, I often find myself being the on-flight entertainment.

After we land, we have a 5 hour drive to get to his mom's house. We won't have a lick of time (or excess good spirit) between the landing and getting in the car, so I won't even get a chance to
wave at posthaste.

Once we get to Small Town America (tm), it'll be fine. We're going to be in an itty-bitty town (1500 people) for a week. I'm planning on reading a lot and trying to unplug. There will plenty of trying to baby-proof his mom's house on the fly, but that usually simmers down by the 2nd day.

Right now, I'm in the middle of doing a few extra loads of laundry to have our bags packed tonight. We have guests coming in from out of town Saturday (gardenwaltz and h_postmortemus) through Monday, then we leave Tuesday morning. It'll be busy but fun.

I'm in a touch of a mood right now. The news out of London has me sad, and the daily domestic junk is getting to me right now. Katie's refusing to be fed but she's hungry. Amelia's running laps.

Today will be spent attacking the mountain of laundry and explaining to the kids that we don't have a beach in our house. And, no, whining will not change it.