FREEDOM!!

The day has finally arrived. ALL of the minions are in school for the full day! Well not technically.  Three of them have half days today, just to torment me, but the idea is there. Of course I get asked what I will do with all my "free time", only to pull out the three pages of tasks that have been waiting the wings for this day. Some are more traditional are around the house items while others are in game.

The summer months are a mixed blessing for a family full of gamers. With school no longer in session my boys suddenly had time to indulge in their own interests. As they have grown, this has increasing meant MMOs of their own. Jumpstart, Lego Universe, and Wizard 101, have joined WoW and Star Craft in our household. Free to Play games are wonderful for the budget at least. However they require a lot of computers.

Where in the past I had always been able to claim "MY" PC as personal property, that is no longer the case. Now the minions desire to play TOGETHER on their various MMOs. So not only was my play and writing time limited, at times I lost my PC completely, as they battled their way across the cosmos.
 
Of course like any "Evil Mom" game time got limited. The advantage they had was there are four of them to one of me. Add to that the weather this summer was more conducive to indoor activities than out. So despite myself I was often found going weeks with no more than a few hours of personal computer time in exchange for the illusion of minion harmony. It was fun watching each of them grow personally as gamers. 

Gaming sure has changed. Especially computer gaming and the MMOs from when I was first introduced to the genre. My children have never known a time when it hasn't existed. My youngest has never known a time when WoW wasn't around.  It is hard for us not to become jaded and cynical because we have been just so SPOILED over the years. We look back at the "Old Days" with our rose colored glasses but realize that things can't stay that way. 

Looking back I see numerous blog posts started that I never found time to finish. My accomplishments in game are greatly behind where I usually am at this point in past expansions. However when looked at in the greater view I can't complain. My boys are with me only a short time. I will treasure the time spent with them this past summer and watching them grow and expand in their independence. Sure it meant that I personally had to take a back seat on my own plans and goals but that is what parents do isn't it? And now they are back in school. I can once again pick up the gauntlet and focus on my own projects. Once again I can hit the ground running and see where I end up, the road sure has been an interesting one so far.