I spent the day today getting ready for company.   And I really enjoyed it.  Sound silly?  It probably is......but I found that I look back to the days of "old" and I'm jealous.

I'm jealous of the time people seemed to used to have to enjoy each other's company.   When I was a little girl.......'lo those many years ago!.......Sundays were visiting days.  Stores were closed.  Moms had been home all week taking care of the house and chores and errands, so Sundays were not needed to run around like nuts and try and fit everything in while also holding down a full-time job.   So Sundays were for visiting.

I had one Grandmother who lived with us, so sometimes we'd stay home and visit with the children and grandchildren who came over to visit with her.  And sometimes we went to my other Grandmother's house for the afternoon.  No plans were made....no phone calls.   It was simply understood that my Grandmother would be home, and willing to receive guests.  

We'd all pile out of the car anxious to see which other relatives would be there.  My Grandmother had seven children and 25 grandchildren, so chances were pretty good that there would be someone else there.   The grown-ups would situate themselves in the living room to chat, and the kids would go outside, or to the basement, or to the extra bedroom to play.

And that's how we spent a Sunday afternoon.   We had nowhere to go, nothing pressing to do and it was idyllic.  

By the time I was an adult with young children, things were changing.   My mother's was the last of the generation of "stay-at-home-Moms".    By the time I was an adult, the majority of women were working.   I stayed home when my children were young, but none of my neighbors did.  And then when my kids were in school, I worked - too busy on the weekends to spend Sunday afternoons hanging around at my Mother's house.

And a valuable thing was lost.  The ability to sit and relax.....to just enjoy each other on a regular basis with no guilt for what we "should be doing".    And it makes me sad.