April 22, 2008 | Mama Smith

evenings at the park

We’re making the most of this gorgeous southern weather and spending as many weeknight evenings as possible outdoors. Cleveland Park offers vast stretches of romping room for the boys and grassy spots by the river for Matthew and I on a blanket.

We’re attempting to rest for a bit before packing madness begins next month and I turn into psycho-type-A-freaky-mom. I hate it. I am praying hard against it and asking others to pray, but I really, really suck at staying sane in those pressure cooker moments. I become snippy and short-tempered and flit around the house like a teased hornet. Matthew’s attempts at maintaining our marital relationship during the process by giving me an encouraging hug or backrub are often met with a looks of “How dare you interfere with my packing process!! Back away slowly before I bit your hand off!!” Poor guy. No wonder he hates moving so much. It’s not the work of it all, it’s the transformation of his semi-normal wife into a she-wolf that he dreads.

So after our month of illness and house insanity, we could all use a bit of free, unencumbered, structure-less time at least for a week or so. That’s where spending our evenings at the park comes into play. Maybe we should carry on the tradition throughout our packing/moving adventure in hopes that some relational normalcy can be restored at the end of the day.

After almost a dozen moves in our 4 years of marriage you think I’d have learned some of those sanity savers by now.