You would not think that resting could be so exhausting.  It’s resting.  For those of us (we know who we are) who don’t know how, it takes a lot of work.  I had to have my doctor write down exactly what resting entailed.  Then, I worked hard to follow the prescription.  (Did you notice the “work” part of that?)

Time With Family

I have to explain a couple of things.  We are a very large, close knit family.  I have 9 siblings (7 with spouses), 36 nieces and nephews (6 with spouses), 15 great-nieces and nephews, 6 children (4 with spouses) and 5 grandchildren.  With my parents, that makes approximately 80 people.  We are somewhat spread out and it is a rare thing that everyone can get together at one time, but more than half of us live within a couple of hours of my parents.

We had four BBQ’s this summer

Memorial Day, 4th of July, 24th of July (Utah thing) and one odd weekend. I didn’t plan (or help plan) any of them like I usually do.  I just showed up with food.  They were fun and lightly attended.  We didn’t have more than 35 people at any one event.  Of course, we never had less than 15.

My older sister came to visit this summer along with her oldest daughter

Of course that means more play time. We stayed up late playing games or watching movies. My older sister and my youngest sister played with our mother’s new cookbook creating some really fabulous things to eat.  I gained 8 pounds.

We have a weekly game night on Fridays.

This has been happening for over 10 years and is open to any family member who wants to attend.  Usually there in only 3-5 of us. Over the Summer, especially when my sister and niece were here, they were much better attended and rowdier than usual. We laughed until our heads and sides hurt. Of course we also played  on the days we had BBQ’s.

My youngest son got married.

My youngest daughter and I flew to St. Louis, Missouri in August to attend the wedding. It was great. As the mother of the groom I took the bridal party out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the night before the wedding. Of course, there was the bridal shower, the wedding rehearsal, the wedding and the reception within two days. Youngest Daughter also had to spend time in the hotel pool. We went and saw the Arch in St Louis and the LDS Temple. We would have done more, but we only had a few hours to see the sights on the day we left.

The annual family camping trip

This is the highlight of the summer according to my youngest daughter. We spent four days at our favorite camping ground, Whiting. We enjoyed our new instant tent and instant cabana. It was just me, my youngest daughter, my oldest daughter and her family, my brother and his children and grandchildren.  Just a small group of 23 people.

Aside from setting up camp and breaking it down, I spent most of my time reading and relaxing. We each cooked one night and were responsible for our own breakfast and lunch. Of course it rained every afternoon for about 45 minutes to an hour. Except on Friday when it rained twice.  Actually a better description would be water poured from the sky in bathtubs.  We played games, roasted marshmallows, did dutch oven cooking, read, hiked (not me) and just hung out. It was fun.

Spending Time With My Youngest Daughter

I really enjoyed spending time with the energizer bunny. We went to 7-Peaks water park 2-3 times a week most of the summer, we went to the movies, we went to the zoo, we read together and snuggled in the evenings.

Going to the water park was fun, but tiring. With our passes we could get into the park a couple of hours before it opened to the public. I always made sure that daughter had a friend come with us so she would have someone to hang out with and swim. I joined them in the wave pool a couple of times and would enjoy the lazy river. Mostly, I sat in my rocker under my umbrella and read a book or visited with family or friends who would come with us. When the park opened to the public and started getting really crowded, we would pack up and go home.

Birthday parties are a really big deal to children. My daughter was so excited because she was entering the double digits. She turned 10. Her party lasted much longer than I had planned. We started the day at the water park, came back to the house for lunch, gifts and cake. Then the party was officially ended. Of course the kids stayed and played for a few more hours. Needless to say, we started at 9:00 in the morning and I sent the last child home around 5:00 p.m.

Enjoying My Hobbies

I crocheted several stuffed animals and flowers this Summer. People really liked them. I took the time to write down the patterns, test them and then put them up for sale on Etsy. This means that I made each stuffed animal at least twice as I worked out the kinks. Writing the patterns is mentally tiring as I worked out the math, counted stitches and repeats, and put them into a simple to read format.

I sewed matching outfits for my five grandchildren.  I sewed new shorts and shirts for my youngest daughter.  I made myself a new skirt. Of course this only took me a week, maybe two.

I read several books exploring new authors and genres. I have signed up for BookBub. It sends me a list of e-books that are free or extremely low priced. I have found many fun reads through this.  Of course I tend to read late into the night (or into the morning hours) and sleep less when I’m reading a really good book.  My favorite book series of the Summer is Monster Hunter.  I was introduced to it by my daughter and thought it might be interesting.  I could not put it down.  I read all 705 pages of the first book in 32 hours.  It only took me that long because I used all my will power and went to bed that night.

Limited Stress

I guess this is a relative term.  My family is a crowd unto itself.  I had a little too much fun this Summer and am absolutely exhausted. This is the first time I’ve ever been glad that school was starting.  I really needed to get some rest after resting all Summer.