My Dinner With Siblings

I was planning on blogging about this yesterday, but in the spirit of the Sabbath, I did nothing more taxing yesterday than make a meal for my family. I spent the rest of the day rejuvenating my spirit, and hopefully getting back my energy so that I can face this week and all its demands with enough energy to get through whatever comes.

On Saturday Mrangelmeg and I rounded up all of our kids and drove up to my mom's house because my brother flew in from Philly for a visit. He and my sister who lives just north and helps me take care of mom drove down with her husband for the day. We picked up our daughter who is a college student, and so all five of my kids had a chance to spend the afternoon with four of my siblings when you include the two sisters who live at mom's and take care of her full time.

It was a really nice afternoon. Mom had a bit of a hard time with the crowd. When my sister Sheila wasn't in the room mom got a bit confused and wasn't sure who the rest of us were. There was a time or two when she actually went up to her bedroom because she couldn't figure out what was going on, but there were none of the hysterics that used to happen before she began taking risperidol.

Seeing my younger brother and sister together again was really nice. The three of us make up the youngest three of a family of nine siblings. We have always felt like a little mini family. We have similar memories, and went to similar schools growing up, so we have common friends.

I complain sometimes about my siblings, but I do love them. Tina and Sheila are doing a great job of taking care of my mom, which is a thankless job. And they are the go-between for me and a dear priest friend of mine who was reassigned to their parish. Every week they give him some silly little message from me, and he sends a message back. They just love it, and they love him. I am glad.

Jeanne is such a help in taking care of mom. Without her I don't think I could do it. Between the two of us we can ususally get to mom's about once a week to check up on things. It is such a relief to know that someone is there that often keeping an eye on things.

Mat, is well, Mat. He is the baby of the family. My kids love him dearly and they almost never get to see him. They talk about him for days after they spend time with him.

We went out for a late dinner on Saturday night and spent most of the meal talking about movies: which ones we love, which ones we hate. It was a lot of fun. I think Mat was impressed that my kids have seen so many independent films. I have to admit that my kids have very eclectic taste in movies, and that is probably my because I do. We watch a lot of off the wall stuff at our house.

Anyway. It was really nice having all that time with my siblings. I do love them.

Pax