Grand Thoughts: Summertime and living ain't easy

Photo by Karen Nazor Hill
Photo by Karen Nazor Hill
photo Karen Nazor-Hill

It's been more than three decades since I was a stay-at-home mom.

Nowadays, here I am at 63, a stay-at-home grandmother. The "new" life began last week on my grandchildren's first day of summer vacation. I had been gearing up for this big day since I retired from the Times Free Press seven weeks ago after 31 years as a reporter.

The grandchildren - Tilleigh, 9, Evie, 6, and William, 3 - came straight to my house, which is next door to theirs, when they got home from school. We swam in our backyard pool until my husband, Hank, got home from work and cooked dinner. I hate to cook and, thankfully, he enjoys it, a win-win situation that results in everybody eating healthy meals instead of my microwave specials.

I had big plans for my babies on their first night of summer vacation. First, no bedtime. I didn't have to go to work in the morning, and they didn't have school, so what better way to celebrate than staying up late eating popcorn and watching a movie? And not just a movie on a TV or electronic device, mind you. This hip grandmother planned on setting up a big screen (actually, a king-sized white sheet) on the screened-in porch and watching "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" via my laptop and movie projector.

The kids were thrilled. With popcorn and juice in hand, they settled in for late-night movie watching. It was 9 p.m., their typical bedtime, when we sat down to watch the movie. Tilleigh claimed the hammock while William and Evie pulled out their child-size reclines onto the porch.

Ready. Set. Watch movie.

Wrong. I couldn't make the DVD player sync with the projector. It worked fine last summer, but clearly I had forgotten how to set it up. After 30 minutes of frustration, and listening to the kids asking if it was working yet and when it was going to work, I opted to hook it up to my new laptop. Voila! We've got a movie, people. The children actually clapped - right before they sighed.

No sound.

For the next 30 minutes, I hooked up speakers to my laptop, to the projector, from the laptop to the projector. By now the kids were tired, whining and wanting to watch regular old TV. No way was I giving up. I was determined.

Finally, after sticking wires every which way, there was sound - loud and clear.

This time, though, I was the only one clapping. Tilleigh was asleep and William and Evie were nodding off. But when they heard SpongeBob talking, William and Evie got their second wind and watched the entire movie. Tilleigh was sound asleep.

It was close to midnight when the movie ended. I carried Tilleigh to bed - stupidly refusing to accept that my granddaughter is getting too big for me to carry - and tucked everyone in for the night.

Earlier, the kids told me to let them sleep late the next morning, a factor in me letting them stay up late to watch the movie. They fell asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows. So did I.

Anticipating a good eight-hour sleep, I wasn't a happy camper when William and Evie woke me up at 6:05 a.m. to tell me they were hungry for breakfast.

Noooooooooo.

"Go back to bed," I told them.

"No," they answered. "We're not sleepy. We're hungry, Mom." (the grandkids call me Mom).

Ugh. They're hungry.

Turns out, the excitement of not getting up early to go to school makes little children excited to get up early to eat and play.

Lesson learned. It may be summer, but there's going to be a bedtime. I don't function well on five or six hours of sleep, especially if I'm taking care of three kids. And now that I've mastered the projector technology, outside movies will begin when the sun goes down. I'm on top of it, now.

Yeah, right.

Contact Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfreepress.com.

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