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Growing up, Mom would go on a cleaning frenzy anytime we were preparing to leave on an overnight trip. She wanted the house spotless should anything happen and people needed to come inside. As a child, the only reason why I could think that people would need to come inside our house was if they were burglars. Why were we cleaning up for thieves?  Now that I'm older, I realize that many things can happen that would precipitate the need for people to come inside our house.

The older I get, the less inclined I am to pull the almost all nighters that happened the first 10 years of marriage right before a trip. We've tried several different things - leaving later (it's a 12 hr drive from here to my parents' house), making it a 2 day driving trip, and this trip I actually blocked off two days before we left to get things done. We still left early, but I was in bed at a reasonable time (but couldn't sleep) and we left early enough to get there to unload and visit for a little bit before bedtime. 

Sunday morning we had church at my parent's place, and my younger siblings and niece came to the parsonage for an early birthday celebration for my Dad. Many of us got together for supper on his actual birthday as well, but it wasn't a relaxed, take your time meal as people had to work the next day and my Dad was trying to see about some situations for his niece and brother. I had hoped to see my uncle while we were in, but with all the Covid restrictions still in place the rehab facility is not letting anyone inside for visits, not even his children. He was supposed to go to a nursing home facility this weekend, but on our drive back to NC we got the text that he had developed pneumonia and would be staying put the time being. 

One positive thing from all of that is that it made my parents get serious about taking care of some needed paperwork while we there. Not everything is completed, but they put a good dent in it and I hope to follow up with my siblings in a few weeks and make sure everything has been finalized. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow, but we're to the point that I fear each time I hug them goodbye it might be my last.

It was a good trip, but I do wish I lived close enough to check in on them on a weekly basis or as they needed help.

So now we're home and we're somewhat shifting back into our normal routine (though what I really want to do is just crawl in bed for the rest of the day). I'm oping for a productive week next week.



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