It's been a busy six weeks. Greg's 30th birthday, followed by helping him move house - and his house-moving-helpers BBQ, which unbeknownst to him was planned to turn into a surprise birthday party.
Then it was Jeff and Konny's turn to need our help to move house, followed shortly afterwards by Jeff's 21st birthday. He didn't want a party, so instead we had a family dinner at Iguana, a Hamilton restaurant.
In between the moving and celebrating my mind was largely on bees: bee club meetings, doing lots of work on my Apicultural Knowledge correspondence course to get a month ahead, and spending time with Barbara at the Raglan Office (aka Black Sand Cafe) planning an August workshop for beekeepers.
And oh - there was the planning, shopping, phone calls, panic, all in anticipation of Mac's and my visit to our friends, Susan and Steve, in Alaska. It really shouldn't be that much more complicated than going to Invercargil or Melbourne but psychologically it's much, much harder.
This week has been especially difficult: at the same time as I am getting really excited about our trip (we have only been overseas once before - I don't count Melbourne - and that was way back in 1975 - 76) I have been thinking about my sons. Even though I often don't see my sons for three weeks or more, this is the first time since Greg was born 30 years ago that neither Mac nor I will be unavailable. Even when Greg was in Invercargil, or when I was in Melbourne, our kids have never been more than a three hour plane trip away.
So this week has been a family week. We visited Greg and Ethan on Monday, and Mac's sister and husband on the way home. I had lunch with Steven and Heidi today, and then Simon cooked Mac, Rebecca and me a lovely dinner. Tomorrow night Greg, Maggie and kids are visiting, and Simon too. Then on Thursday we drive to Auckland and spend a little time with Jeff and Konny before Jeff takes us to the airport.
I so want to visit with Susan, Steve, Heather and Robin, but oh my - how I will miss my precious family.
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