Parents Can Ask Little More

The first ones came in late Thursday night late from Manassas, Va. with two excited little girls and a sleeping 4-month-old little boy. The Innkeeper (Mama) had strict rules as to where each family would sleep as all beds had been carefully allotted in order to make the puzzle work.
Nineteen bodies had to sleep, eat, bathe and co-exist happily within our four walls for a period of more than 10 days.
And so began a very happy time for this grandmother (Mama) and grandfather (Opapa) as we gathered our family in our home by the sea. Plans that had originated at Christmastime on the farm had coalesced through emails and texts setting the July 4th holiday as our next time to be together.
The economy of the county must have felt a little ripple of prosperity as I rushed about buying cots, sheets, blankets, a porta-crib and a mountain of groceries so large that even my two giant refrigerators were bulging.
As the next family arrived from Louisiana, the house began to hum with a never-ceasing sound of children. Oh my goodness, how could I have forgotten that babies cry in the night for periodic feedings and 2-year-olds wake several times a night — just “because.”
ShopRite loves me because they know my checkbook well! That mountain of food? It lasted about a day and a half. My car knows the way — it goes there at all hours of the day and night to resupply for the hungry hoards.
The New Yorkers were next and they brought five children (three boys on those new cots). With them came a menagerie of “technology.” They have iPads, iPhones, DSIs, laptops, Wiis and then some more.
Last to arrive was the Chicago couple. They bravely joined the madness of nine children. Being childless to this point, I think they survived wonderfully and were noted best aunt and uncle of the year.
The small European washer that I have sloshed day and night. The dryer never stopped. The sand tracked into the house from the beach made a small dune in the laundry room.
Everybody made concessions while they were here and all the kids laughed at mine. They all know me as the queen of setting a proper table with china plates and silverware but for those ten days we never ate on anything that could not go into the trash- can. Who says an old doing can’t learn new tricks?
Well the July 4th gathering of the clan is over. As they trickled in so they trickled out; we have been let down gently with the departure of the New Yorkers.
Do you know the best part of the visit? In all those days, somehow all those 19 people together in one house I finally could see children together as friends. Parents can ask little more.
PATRICIA HALL