The Easter Weekend with the Fam

This past weekend was a blessing. I was granted off for Easter Sunday and Monday without having to ask off. Of course, I went home to visit the family. This was the first holiday in a long time that our whole family wasn't able to gather, but all still was good. I had brought home a couple dishes to pass for us to indulge in along with the usual fixin's that my mother has for us. I made sea-leg salad, whole wheat banana bread with white chocolate chips and almonds and mint-chocolate chip brownies. My mother was impressed because growing up I never really spent any time in the kitchen with her, I was always out in the barn on our farm.
The funny thing about going home is that visiting always saps more energy than I had to offer before arriving. For example, Sunday at about 3:00, the kids paused a movie to go do the egg hunt and I just closed my eyes to relax for a bit. Imagine my surprise and disorientation when I woke back up at 8:30 pm.
The next day wore me out even more. My mom and I went out to run some errands, we literally made 13 stops. I feel like every time I go home I have this similar problem. It makes me realize that I need to retire so that I have time for a life and time for my family. Too bad that's a fantasy world right now. Right now in my life, I would like to get my finances in order so I wont have to work so hard when I am older. On the bright side of things it keeps me out of trouble. ; ) My mother would love for me to move back home in an instant if I only said the word. Unfortunately I suffer the curse of being the youngest and my mother does not wish to cope with empty nest syndrome. With that being said, it really was nice to go shopping with her, even if made me tired. We even went to my favorite restaurant, she enjoys it too and my dad doesn't like to go with her there. It's a Mexican restaurant and he just does not care for that style of cuisine.
The time at home was way too short, but as always, time well spent. Every minute of it. At least this time I got to take a few of the luxuries of home with me, a few packs of homegrown steaks and roasts from my brother's farm (the one I grew up on). Hopefully I will get to enjoy those soon. : )