June 24, 2025

Focus on the Kids

A friend of mine with 9 amazing children is also sandwiched as her mom-in-law’s needs ebb and flow, and she said the other day that at some point we need to shift focus to the kids. That is resonating with me quite a bit right now as I have my four kiddos home for the summer and Mom, taking it day by day on her liquid diet, is currently half way to the 60 days she needs for her Medicare benefits to re-up. She’s framing beautiful baby pics of her only grands and our house cleaner (who is also an organizational extraordinaire) is hanging them for her all over the suite she shares with my dad. There have been bright spots om the last couple of weeks and it almost seems like the calm before the storm, but I haven’t been focusing in on her as much as my dad is heating the incessant soups and popping straws into the protein drinks and carrying the trays to their room. Home health PT continues to come work with her to help her get stronger and mobile lab is coming by to draw the blood needed to monitor when Mom becomes nutritionally sound for surgery. Just chugging along at the moment.

The kids are home 24/7 for summer break other than the few partial day camps we can afford. We are deeply blessed by getting to use the pool of someone we know and we are doing hikes (walks with clues at area parks and trails) organized by our library system where we look for posts and do rubbings on a sheet that holds 30 of them. The kids whine a bit, but it’s an activity similar to geocaching that is very much for all ages. We adventure together and I am soaking up the sun with them even on the hottest days or refereeing indoors while I try to work. I am apologizing for the distant background noise on client calls and rushing the dog back in the house ASAP because she needs her summer cut and we are on the waiting list.

Sometimes you need to focus on the kids…sometimes you need to focus on the dog….sometimes you just hope to find a way to settle into a routine with the top bread remaining stable while you’re responsible for the bottom bread all day, every day. Sometimes you find a little bit of rhythm, a tiny bit of routine, and some sweet spontaneous summer adventures while you’re waiting for other needs and demands on your time to increase, to return.

Today I focused on the kids and a little work. Tomorrow I take both parents to the neurologist for that yearly check in. Sometimes the kids are safe, but they take a backseat. And all the time right now, we’re in the middle.