Gated Community

I tell my mother-in-law that we live in a gated community.   She and my father-in-law moved in last weekend.   For those of you who have never been here to visit our community, about 15 years ago we installed a fence around the perimeter of our ten acres.   Our old dog, not to be confused with our current old dog, used to escape with great regularity and go visit the neighbors garbage cans.   Our old neighbors also decided to use part of our property to build trails on for their enjoyment so......we followed the old adage of fences make good neighbors.   No more Christmas hams eaten off of the neighbors back step.....

Anyway, my father-in-law is 85 and has a hankering for wandering around through the woods.   My twenty month old also enjoys wandering down the driveway to the gate (not good).   So I told mother-in-law that we live in a gated community.   Charley's dad does not have Alzheimer s but he is pretty easily confused at times.   He loves walking in the woods which probably comes from growing up and living most of his life on 200 some acres in Pennsylvania.

Charley's mom is having a nice time too being able to stretch her legs, help with cooking and cleaning and basically having some freedom and space to move around.   So far so good, we are a pretty good match for them.   And.....we live in a gated community.   We do let some people in but you never know if you will get out.   Kidding.....

Safety for the numbers

Another large family, broad age spread issue which I struggle with is the safety of the youngest kids when mom is away.     The older kids do tend to become immune to where the little ones are if mom has an appointment or is taking another kid to an appointment.   Tomorrow I am going to pick up my daughter for the weekend from college and the safety of my youngest two is of course of the utmost.   The older ones do fine together.    I am considering letting go of my ideas of the TV being a bad thing and going and getting a in van TV set up.   I found one for fifty but have no idea how to hook it up.    Driving long distances with potentially screaming children is also not a safe thing.   I wouldn't be surprised if all the younger kids will want to come with if I figure out how to do this.   It was just another inspirational moment of how to survive this large family thing without taxing my nerves more than they are already taxed.   My perfect parent syndrome can stand in the way sometimes.   Hopefully I can figure out how wise this decision is in the next 24 hours.