Family time

Next week should be interesting, and possibly a little bit stressful. My mother in law is coming for an extended visit. As in, at least a week and possibly more. God help me!

Don't get me wrong: she's a lovely woman, and dear to us. We've been trying to arrange a long visit for months now. I'm glad she's coming, just a bit overwhelmed at the thought. The truth is, she's almost 80 years old, and beginning to slip a bit mentally. Her short term memory has been getting progressively worse for the past year or two. She gets confused easily and often forgets names, or words she means to use, or what she just told you 10 minutes ago. Physically, she's in pretty good shape considering her age, but she clearly is in the early stages of some type of dementia. (The doctors say it's not Alzheimer's, thank goodness). Overall, her memory issues aren't that big of a deal at this point. It's just that it's too easy to let months (and years!) slip by without spending enough time together as a family and before you know it, it's too late. Hence the long visit we have planned.

She lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband. I will be going to get her tomorrow. It's a 2-3 hour drive, so we aren't comfortable with her driving herself down these days. (She does still drive a little bit, but I imagine that those days are numbered). Her husband will come get her when she's ready, that way everyone will only have to make the drive once. I'm looking forward to going to Raleigh; a friend is driving up with me, and we're going to take in some of the city's sights, then spend the night with my in laws. We'll drive back home with my guest Monday afternoon.

 Gregg is excited to see his mom. They've only spent a few odd hours together since he got over being sick, and it will be good for both of them. I must admit I'm a bit nervous. We've never had any guest stay at our house for a whole week. I dread the extra work involved (planning meals, cooking, thinking of things to do, etc. etc.) and, more than that, the lack of alone time for me. I'm one of those people that needs and thrives on a certain amount of solitude. I definitely have some mixed feelings about the visit.

Still, family time is more important than any minor inconvenience it may cause. I hope we can all have fun together. I've been working hard to come up with ideas for things to do while she's here. I've also been working hard at cleaning our house. For once in my life, you can eat off my floors. Ha! Behold the power of a mother-in-law visit!