A weekend in 24 hours

Saturday
7:15 a.m. Make cream of wheat, pull clothes out of dryer and rouse sleepy kids for various sports practices and one game.

10:15: Pick up last child from sports practice, and enter loaded car for overnight trip to the lake.

11:00:  Realize we should have stopped to take the time to pick up a book on tape from the library for the kids.  Unable to agree on music that keeps peace.  We still have more than two hours of driving ahead of us.

12:15: Now, we realize we didn’t pack any meat to cook. We stop for gas, and a trip to the grocery store for a steak.

12:59: Why is the last half hour the hardest part of the trip? This guy keeps hitting the kid on the left, and pinching another one.  We tell him to stop; he can’t help himself; he can’t keep his smile off his face.  And we only have a half and hour left to go…and, can I tell you, this agony is worse than childbirth.

1:30 or so: We arrive to greet a calm lake, and 80 degree temperatures under a clear sky.

2:00: Unpack, and because we’re so famished, pull out the jar of peanuts in the pantry and go crazy.

2:09: Turn on water in the house, and turn hot water heater from vacation mode to Hot.

2:15:  The boat is out of the garage and back in the water. (We thought we were done so we put it away last time! Ha.)

3:00: I drive the boat so he can ski on the “glass” lake.

3:30:  The boys are tubing

3:10: The boys discover that the frogs have grown quite a bit since the summer.

3:30: Start grill.  The peanuts haven’t held us for long.

4:00: He grills the steak, and I decide that I am not going to steam the broccoli; after all, I’m at the lake.  They can eat it raw.  The kids actually liked it more.

4:15: Sit down to eat.  Husband wants cooked broccoli.  I give him that look that needs no explanation.

4:45:  Bullfrog has been put back in the water now at least 5 times; he stays close to shore, against my son’s feet.  The frog likes my son, a lot.  Still, the frog tried to make a couple of get-aways.

4:50: The entire ensemble of lake clothes of shorts and t-shirts I’ve brought are now wet.  Except for their PJs, they have no dry clothes.

5:00: Drive boat for him again, so he can ski on lake that is still like glass.

5:15: The boys do various things behind the boat.  I think about going skiing; but change my mind.  This, I never expressed verbally.

5:45:  Bullfrog has now been moved to a sandbucket with water and weeds.  There is no lid on top; but the bullfrog stays and doesn’t want to leave.

6:00 One son uses his tube to jump over his brother; while tubing.  I do not have camera for this kodak moment.

6:15: Realize that I probably won’t sit on the deck and read; like I had imagined.

6:30: Uncle Bud and Aunt Joyce have completed their afternoon nap next door, and are all set to go fishing.

6:37:  Sunset.

7:00:  Gather sticks to start bonfire.  I’m hoping bedtime is just around the corner.

7:10: BB Gun, target practice time.

8:00: I have successfully roasted and eaten a s’more… before my children.

8:12:  Release bullfrog back to the water.

8:30:  Uncle Bud and Aunt Joyce come in, and report they have caught 10 fish.  They sit down at our awesome fire pit and have a s’more.  What a privilege, really, to talk to them; they’ve both had an unexpected turn of good health. Bad health has kept them away most of the summer.

9:00:  A first: kids are inside and getting ready for bed; before 10. Did we wear them out?

9:15:  Way too tired to give the little ones showers; got by with brushing their teeth and washing their feet only.

10:47:  I think I started to read; but the next thing I knew, it was 7:21 a.m.

Sunday

7:21 a.m.: Pour Honey Bunches of Oats in a bowl for my first grader; made pancakes and eggs.

7:16 a.m. I notice the lake is stunningly beautiful; are those fog clouds, or is it steam coming off the water?  I take lots of pictures.

7:45:  Get dressed, between flipping pancakes, and throw wet clothes in a plastic bag to take home.

8:00:  Make tea; and move packed bags out to car. Continuously tell kids to take their stuff to the car. They managed to ignore me fairly consistently.  It’s a fine art they’ve cultivated.

8:15: The kids are fed, my husband is cleaning the bathroom, and the boys are outside playing, and I have this bright idea that I’m going to sit down and eat my breakfast; drink my tea, and read that book.  It doens’t really happen quite like that. But I did gulp my tea down and stand up and eat my fried egg sandwich.

9:00:  Shut off water, turn down hot water heater, and say Goodby to Uncle Bud and Aunt Joyce.

9:30:  We’re off.

9:35:  I thought we’d be spending the whole day at a service station; the tire pressure light came on; but that turned out to be minor; everything’s OK.

9:38:  Remembered that XM Radio, 164, is old time radio. We listened to “Citizens of the World” about an attempt to save an airplane that was one its way down; the kids were postive it was Batman; whatever; it was Fred MacMurray, not Bruce Wayne. But, hey, whatever works.

10:00: The Alan Young Show was old-fashioned stellar.  A guy named Ralph sent a married woman flowers; her husband’s name wasn’t Ralph.

10:15: I’m catching up on my reading; the reading I didn’t get to do at the lake.

12:30:  We stop at Jersey Mike’s Sub’s for lunch.

12:45: We’re back on the respective soccer and football fields for a full day of play.

Dreaming of next weekend; when we’ll really have more than 24 hours.