Creatures of the Night

A couple of weekends ago we were having one of our busy regular evenings with dinner, kitchen clean up, dessert, more clean up and my husband mentioned he thinks someone left food somewhere because he keeps seeing little moths or bugs. Seems like pretty regularly he swears the fruit I bought has brought in tiny bugs--and usually I don't see them. Or he smells something "off" and has to do a complete investigation (like when he found an old potato that was hiding). So I ignored him as he proceeded to look under couch cushions, ask the boys if they ever left anything in their rooms, actually questions the integrity of two new sofa pillows I bought and as a last resort asked me to fess up if I hid cookies from him and forgot where I put them. No, no, no and I continued to ignore him.

Later I seemed to recall some neighbors we had over a few weeks back with whom we were trading stories of gross experiences of things that got into the house. They told us about birdseed left in their garage and all these moths that kept appearing. So I announced this and the next thing you know we are in our pantry faced with boxes and boxes of pasta and rice and crackers and all other sorts of items that we are now throwing into a huge trash bag. This is after I typed into the internet: moths in pantry and learned that we need to throw everything out that is not a can. It also stated we needed to find the source--as evidenced by a white dry larvae thing. I don't think so. Boxes of raisins tossed. Perhaps the sunflower seeds that had spilled in the back were the culprit.

I then consulted our pest control guy the next day and he said it sounded like we have done all we can. He came over to investigate. He has placed a phermone trap in the pantry to see if they are still around there. Apparently these things come into the house from the store--they do not generate themselves. I am not sure if the story is done yet. All I can say is that in all the places I have lived and all the food I have bought, this is a first for me.

And so is this:
(Bat hanging out INSIDE our screened in porch a few weeks ago).

Now, who wants to come over to my house for a HOMECOOKED meal and we can sit on the porch!

Honestly, is it a full moon yet?

It's Gotta Be Me This Weekend

As you may have read, last weekend I spent 6 hours in the car on Sat getting my grandmother from NC and taking her to my house (hubs drove and I talked). Then I drove her allll the way down I-75 and we visited every rest stop. Every one hour and 40 minutes. And my grandma broke her hip 9 months ago and she has made great progress but moves slowly and with a cane or walker. But she kept me company and we ate the sandwiches I made and then we stopped at Wendy's for dinner. Eleven hours later we were at her condo.

And then 36 hours later I drove 10 hours back home with rest stop breaks every 3 hours. Took me 10 hours. But luckily I have XM radio and I discovered some comedy channels and they were really nasty, actually, and that was my opportunity to hear some dirty talk since I was alone. And I planned in advance because before this trip (which was very last minute) I bought Red Vines, which were stashed in the glove compartment for my return trip.

And when I got back there was no lovely homecoming because I had heard from a neighbor that my middle schoolers missed the bus that day and had to find someone to get them to school. Because the older one was watching Sports Center which is not allowed in the a.m., and got carried away with the time. But I wasn't there for two school mornings, I was in South Florida. So I would have thought that the yelling and parenting would have been over by 7:00 p.m. when I arrived home and all looked well with Hubs and Oldest in front yard tossing the baseball. But apparently it was that exact time that I pulled in the driveway that it was discovered via some tricky Hubs' questioning of son about the TV lingering not that the bus must have been unusually early. And at first I thought to myself--sheesh I am expecting a lovely atmosphere here and now more drama after going through some upper generational family drama?? And then I quickly realized that this is life, and it is not always pretty and parenting has to happen when it has to happen (even if some jogging neighbor witnessed my husband's temper).

And then I didn't make it to the chiropractor the next day and he was closed on Thursday and I am about to jump in the car and drive 3 hours to another state for a meeting, and then back. My neck is killing me. It is it thundering and lightning out there and I am about to get on all the highways. With no Red Vines for this trip.

So I am putting it in writing--this weekend I need to spend some time on me. A manicure. A movie. A haircut. A browsing session in the library. Some magazine time. Something in the exercise dept. Couple time. Computer time! (I was going to write this last night but middle child had an assignment on the computer. The one computer). And as little housework as possible. I would watch some TV but forgot to ask my 8 yr old to dvr my shows this week.
Have a great weekend!

Road Trip with my 88 yr. old Grandmother

I'm going to be putting myself to bed shortly because tomorrow I will be driving 10 hours to take my grandmother back home to Florida. As in at the very bottom of that peninsula. Today Hubs and I drove to North Carolina together to get her--3 hours there and 3 hours back. The ten hours tomorrow will actually be longer than 10 hours as we will need to stop at least every two hours.
So the Hubs and 3 boys will be on their own for a couple days but they can handle it. I will miss them so much. On Monday I will be helping her get groceries, cook food, unpack, make phone calls. And then on Tuesday I will be driving 10 hours back home. Back to work Wednesday. Say a prayer. Be back soon!

Boy Necklaces and In Dire Need of Girl Time

The day before Back to School we went to Six Flags for our 4th annual time. I would have never dreamed of this event but for years our boys have gotten free tickets they earn by reading six hours in the Spring. And with Hubs being a teacher he gets a free ticket. And with lots of nice people working with Hubs they give him several free tickets for me and other folks. Last year was the only year of four that we had no other families with us and I was giving away free tickets near the entrance to Six Flags. People actually looked at me all suspicious--one even declined. The tickets expire that day--the day before school begins and it is typically less crowded than usual.

Anyway, a couple of Sundays ago we had my family of five, another Dad, and FIVE other boys with us. All jammed into one Suburban because we like to pay the extra $$ and park real close so that we can easily get back to the vehicle and the cooler for a picnic.

I do not do any scary rides and neither does my 8 year old so we are a team and go off on our own. Then we meet up for lunch. And then we walked around together for a little bit before I took off on my own again with Youngest. At that time it occurred to me that I was walking around Six Flags with 10 males. And it even became apparent to me that enough is enough and I really need to devote some time to me. And then on the way home I sat really close to the window because boys smell after they play.

I announced to the Hubs that I was taking some time for me the next weekend. I wanted to see Julie and Julia, which I had just finished reading. The author writes sentences that are really really long like usually 40 words long and I really like that. He said I should. "Or, get a manicure", I said. He said I should.

But it didn't happen because the next weekend I had all sorts of errands to do as usual which involved buying and making food. And cleaning stuff at home. And cleaning more stuff at home with Hubs because he is a clean fanatic and wanted to clean out closets and if I am not there he will throw stuff out. In the trash bag near one closet I found miscellaneous papers and office supplies including a legal pad with scribbles on the pages, but about ten pages in I saw he had written me an unfinished love letter a few years ago and it was four pages long and those things are pretty valuable since my Love Language is words.

I also ended up making necklaces for the boys as seen in the three pictures below. Well, I still plan on having some time for myself, which I'm thinking now instead of 2 hours for a movie might need to be a Full Day, but I don't think it will happen this weekend. Maybe over Labor Day weekend. Because after that baseball season starts.
(plain brown and white for Oldest with no dangling doodads)

(black cord necklace is for Youngest and has a fosselized shark tooth on it found this summer by Hubs on Tybee Island near Savannah)

(the white shark tooth necklace is actually the Middle Son's 1st necklace bought on an island vacation when he was three but it had been broken for years and I restrung it and added some brown and red and silver beads)

Two in Middle School is Not Too Fun

Hopefully I can add more to this blog post tonight. Because we are back in school now which means I am up early making everyone's lunches in shifts, cooking dinner every night while still in the work day's skirt and strappy sandals, up late cleaning the messes after reading to our 8 year old and checking the already hours of homework of all three of them, shopping for more school supplies, and not to mention the middle school paper work. This involves signing forms for 10 middle school teachers who want to make sure that I have read each of their class rules, their goals and expectations, their own supply lists and provided my email addresses so they can send me weekly Friday grade updates on now two boys in middle school.

I have one left in elementary school. People, enjoy the elementary school years. More updates later....

They have taken over my Store

In the 13 years that I have had my boys, it is very rare that I have bought them anything from T.J. Maxx, except for when they were babies I used to buy those chunky books such as Good Night Moon, Carl the Dog, Brown Bear Brown Bear, and more. And maybe the occasional item once or twice. No, it was my store where I would score anything from housewares to shoes to bras, to lotion, clothes, and the purses! and more.

Well this past spring we were in Famous Footwear shopping for boy shoes and told them since we were right next door to TJ Maxx we were going in so I could look for shoes for me and they moaned and groaned. They went to look at boy clothes and the next thing I knew they had found a bunch of t-shirt brands they liked, previously only found at skate shops and I feel bad for the retail stores because they were so much less expensive. We bought some.

So with school starting on Monday we went to TJ Maxx last week and they are all set: T-shirts, Polo shirts, plaid shorts, and socks. And plenty of variety which is good because the oldest two, who are spaced by 20 months, wear the same size as they differ only by 3 pounds of weight, one quarter inch in height and just a smidge at the waist. A few pairs of jeans for the oldest two will be needed by October, and new shoes for all and that's it. How easy is that? My eight year old youngest son was happy with a smaller loot of just two pairs of shorts and two shirts and a hooded zippered sweat jacket for later (his drawers are stuffed at home with khaki and jean shorts the other two wore).

So, nothing for me from TJ Maxx this summer but I'll go back this fall for some alone time. But it is for sure that I have converted these boys to the joys of scoring cool stuff at the TJ Maxx.

Full Moon on Wednesday Night

The August full moon is called the Full Sturgeon moon, in honor of the Native Americans who lived in areas able for hunting fish. The August full moon was the best time of the year for the catch.

I don't have anything else to say about that except that tonight I made a simple fish dinner that we have been making for 10 years. We learned how to do this when we were on vacation many years ago at a small island in the Exumas (chain of islands in the Bahamas). There is an island called Stocking Island and we'd would boat on over to it from Georgetown in the 18 foot rental boat. It has private houses (many, many more now I'm sure) and an incredible beach on the Atlantic side with a half-buried crashed small plane in the water from the drug-running years in the 70's. It also has Kenny Rolle who served us lunch several times in his restaurant which has a few tables and a small bar and he was the only one there. Lunch was either fresh conch salad, or fish in foil that he'd caught that day. It would be rare to have more than two or three other people there. The conch were in the nearby bay, tied together with a rope so they would not get away. We had a lesson on how to remove the conch, and what parts to toss in the water to the sting rays hanging out by us in one foot of water and that the penis could be eaten for virility (Kenny liked to talk a lot). The fish in the foil packet would be placed on a small grill on the sand and once the fish is poached lunch would be ready. And now that I think of it we were there, with another couple, the first week of August and it was also a full moon. Weird.

Fish in foil for two:
--1 lb or so of fish such as grouper, tilapia, sea bass, etc.
--two small potatoes, cut thin
--one large carrot, sliced thin
--some sliced inion
--one green pepper, sliced in pieces
--sea salt and seasoning such as old bay
--lemon wedges
Layer the vegetables as listed above onto a large piece of foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray or just put olive oil on it (I lay down two overlapping sheets of foil). Sprinkle salt/pepper/seasoning as desired.
Add the fish on top in large pieces.
Add in about 1/2 cup of water and some lemon juice.
Fold the foil so that it is all closed. Put it on the grill for about 20 minutes. We close our grill.
Then when my husband brings it in the house, I usually have to put it back on the grill because it is not cooked enough...
Open up the packet and spoon the goodies and the broth into a shallow dish. Enjoy!

When I think of sturgeon I think of caviar, or roe (eggs). Hmmm, eggs, puberty, full moon... Last night we called the boys out to the screened porch for a "family conference". School starts on Monday and the furious, non-stop video gaming will be gone from weeknights, homework will be done first, rooms cleaned, dishwasher unloaded, You-Oldest will help Middle if he needs any middle school brother-type support, etc. And then my husband began The Talk which in our house the boys get in 3rd grade. And for support and a good reminder to them, the older boys were present too. He started by asking our 3rd grader what does it mean when we talk about bodies changing and his answer was, "It means puberty is starting and in 4th grade I will want to wear deoderant". (how old is this kid? This talk won't have to take long). I left and went into the kitchen to make popcorn. That fish dinner was good, it was too healthy and I was hungry again. From the kitchen I saw our youngest all ears, smiling, and asking questions and talking as usual. The hubs used hand gestures as is his style. And he added that we talk about these things in our family, and other families don't, which is OK, but we don't discuss these things with kids at school, and bodies are private, and you don't talk about anyone else's body. And I felt a ping inside with a little ache that he was my baby and now he has even more knowledge and he sleeps with a bunch of flippen stuffed animals and will he feel weird tonight and will he still want nightly book reading and a snuggle. All that good snuggle stuff still happened, and I have to remember they will always be my boys even though they keep getting older.