Getting ready to embark

This was one of many pictures I took of the kids at the beach today.

Believe it or not, we've been here for a week and we hadn't gone to the beach. Because ... for a variety of reasons, we're not such enthusiastic beach goers.

For one thing, they're 12 and 10, but the kids only learned to swim this summer. This was the natural byproduct of Asperger's stubbornness on their parts, and throw-in-the-towel pick-your-battles slacker parenting on mine. There, I said it. My kids have neuro-behavioral problems, and sometimes I don't deal with them as thoroughly or as promptly as I should.

Their not being able to swim meant that "constant vigilance!" was the byword whenever we went anywhere where they could drown. And that's not very relaxing.

Then there's the whole pack the car with the towels, sunscreen, snacks, water toys, reading material, sand chairs, and it seems to go on and on and on. And then finding a place to park, and trudging on and on in the blazing sun.

And then when we get there, my husband and I feel fat and pale, as though someone had moved a rock and exposed us to the sun, while we wriggled feebly in protest.

(it's paragraphs like that that make me realize all the money that was spent on my many degrees in English literature was, in fact, completely wasted.)

So let's move away from the extremely hideous verbal picture I painted, and on to the actual real life digital picture I posted.

This is my kids getting ready to get into the water with their boogie boards. I decided I wanted to take a picture of them, so my daughter is walking towards me to pose, whereas my son is still doing something or other to his board.

And far away in the water, so tiny that you can hardly see her, is my niece.

My niece is a normal 12-year-old girl. She can swim, she has friends, she goes on sleepovers.

My sister pretty much had to drag her out of the house today. She was sullen. She didn't want to go out. She wanted to stay indoors and watch television.

But we went out, and my kids were in the water for a while. They didn't get into the water as quickly, and they didn't go as far out as their cousin, but they went in. And they had a good time.

This isn't just a vacation snapshot. It's their life. And you know what? It really isn't that bad.