spend more time with my family

I am living in Ireland but in a few weeks I will move to Madrid. I am Portuguese but at least I will be in the same peninsula and as I don´t have to fly to go to Lisbon I hope I can go there more often.

I left my job here and I don´t have a new one so I will take two weeks to be with my family, especially my grandparents that are very old. In summer they go to a house they have in the beach so I think it is a good oportunity to spend a week or so with them.

We celebrated our youngest’s birthday today. It was a lot of fun; she was so excited.

She was a toxic cheater, liar, you name it!
... so I went wit da better – ME – MYSELF – AND I!!! as much as I miss her, I’m still truckin along gettin over her. I’m on better terms with my mother, but still a little shaky, and I’ve been spending a lot of time with my grandma.

It’s very HOT!
C Biz

All the kids are asking to bake on the weekends. This is a fun chance to do something with them. The oldest two are doing gingerbread men this morning. Mostly they can do it by themselves, but not quite.

It’s a good time.

i have not got in the habit of seeing my mum every two weeks, and my sisters are always with her
my dad is a little more complicated to see
and i do really need to work on spending more time with the rest of my family, its just that we arent that close

Went for Chinese food with the family and a neighboor kid. Brought back memories of when our oldest was little and we ate a LOT of Chinese fast food.

I took my three girls, and a neightboor, to the local Circle K for slushes. It’s a great summer time walk. Unfortunately, my middle girl fell off her scooter (okay it wasn’t quite a walk) and skinned up her knees and elbows something good. It was a tough trip. Next time: walking or biking. Scooters are too hard one handed.

Had my in-laws over for a week or so. It’s probably been a year, so it was a well needed visit.

For the past five years I have been so busy and I always told myself my family understood. But that is not good enough. If I am going to be away for another year for graduate school in England then the Year I am at home I need to make a real effort to see all of my family.

I feel like this goal is unattainable at this point.

A year ago my Great Grandmother was moved from Texas to Minnesota to be put in a nursing home closer to some of my cousins who can care for her on a regular basis. This doesn’t make her further away, but it does mean that I now have to travel to two opposing locations to see her and my Grandparents.

With many requests for time off of work denied and only so much money from each paycheck to play with, I feel like I’m just beating my head against a wall.

Next Wednesday I am going to be traveling to Texas to see my Grandparents. I hope to maybe see my Great Grandmother some time this Fall/Winter. But, at this time there is no reason to believe that I will have the time off of work approved.

Aside from those two portions of my family, I have not seen anyone else (brother, father, etc.) since 2004. I talk to a few cousins from time to time on Facebook and my brother & father on the phone about once a month. But, that’s all I seem to get out of them.

Definitely losing hope in this arena.