It’s 5:30 a.m. and I’ve been awake since 3. My daughter, Allison, son-in-law, Chris and Asher, the WCG (World’s Cutest Grandson), are leaving early this morning to fly back to their home in Georgia. I remember from being a military wife just how great it was to visit my family, but how even more wonderful it was to return to our home with our own friends and our own lives.

In the midst of my daughter and her family’s vacation, we unexpectedly moved my mother into an Assisted Living facility. Lots of tiring afternoons and busy schedules, but having my daughter here saved the day for me. When I finally took my mother to her new place to live, I returned home that evening to find the room where mother had stayed now clean with freshly made bed, flowers on the kitchen table, dinner cooked and family fed.

It was wonderful for all of us to also be able to visit my son, Phil, and his famiy in Tri-Cities over the 4th of July. Phil and nephew Asher (4 yrs. old) spent July 3rd. at a neighbor’s back yard camp out ~ 34 kids with 12 tents (the last I counted). Phil volunteered for this. We are all amazed that he volunteered, and even more amazed that Asher agreed. First time away from Mom and Dad. First time sleeping in a tent. Score one big time for Uncle Phil.

On an impromptu visit to Manito Park yesterday, while Mom and Dad ran an errand downtown, Asher and I got to play in the park (he played, I watched); then we walked up to the Park Bench for huge, delicious scoops of Cookies n’ Cream ice cream in waffle cones. Sweetest moment of the day for me? When he turned his ice cream smeared face to me (custodian of the napkins that were trying to blow away in the breeze) and said sweetly, “Wipe my face, Grandma!” If only I’d had a camera.

I told him this morning as he was heading out the door with two stuffed animals, that I would not only keep the bowl of rocks sitting on the counter, collected from his walks around the neighborhood this week, but that I would be dusting them, too. It’s a Mom thing. I am still that, you know: Mom, Daughter, Sister, Grandma, Wife. So many hats. So little time.