Monday Night is the Full Moon--the Worm Moon

A year ago I wrote about how this time of year the worms are under ground getting potential gardens ready. I have a garden that goes untouched from October until April.
(here is a view looking down on it in late October)

Yesterday I took a walk jog around our neighborhood. In the distance there was thunder and I imagined lightning and I freaked myself out thinking I was going to be hit by lightning at any second and so I ran all the way up a hill.

Back at home I remembered about the Worm Moon and so I took a stick and poked it around my garden's dirt in four different places. Each time I didn't have to dig far to see some busy worms. (Has anyone read the book "Diary of a Worm" to his or her kids? It's a hoot.)

(here is a bunch of basil from last summer)

I'll keep letting the worms do their composting undisturbed until after April 15th. That is the date I always use as a guideline to not plant before then. The April we got married it snowed about 5 days before our wedding. Which was held outside. Luckily it ended up being a gorgeous day in the low 70's.

Enjoy the full moon tonight!

The Saga of the Souvenir

My youngest son who is in third grade had his only field trip of the year last week. The destination was The World of Coca-Cola (since Coke was invented here in Atlanta there is a museum downtown). As soon as the permission slip came home weeks and weeks ago he asked if I could sign it and write a check that night for $18, making sure it went into his backpack for the next day. Every day for 3 or 4 weeks I heard him counting the days. There was no invite for any parental chaperoning so it was a regular work day for me.The excitement and anticipation was immense!

At the end of the field trip day I spoke to my husband, which is the usual routine, to check in on what is going on that evening—who has to be where and when or is nothing going on. He tells me that our youngest son (who is with him in the afternoons) is a little upset because there was a souvenir that he didn’t get. So I am thinking-hmmm, that’s weird, I knew nothing about bringing money for a souvenir. Well, what happened is that each teacher was given a box of glass-bottled Cokes to take back to the classroom and give to the students. Once back at the classroom there was about an hour left of school for the day. At the end of the day the teacher told the students that instead of handing them out she was going to give the box of Cokes to charity. For reals.

In the meantime the students saw that the other six classes went home with their souvenir Coke bottle. So instead of hearing about the field trip deets, the first thing my Hubs heard, and then later on the phone to me, is an upset son giving us this news. Seems the teacher is still deciding what to do because after the weekend the students were asking her again if they would be getting the Cokes and she said she is thinking of giving them to Relay for Life or selling them and then she tried to engage them in a math problem such as “if there are 47 bottles and each sold for $ .50 then how much would that be? So my son is asking us if he can take in $ .50 to buy one. (ummm, I think we were one of the few in the class who paid the $18 field trip money).

I pasted this from the facility's website under school field trips:

A visit to this dynamic facility will be educational, entertaining and inspiring for the whole class. From a thrilling multisensory 4-D theater to a marvelously restored 1880’s soda fountain, you’ll experience something new and inviting around every corner. You and your students have so much to learn and will also take home

a special one-of-a-kind World of Coca-Cola glass bottle produced exclusively for our guests on our fully-functioning bottling line.

The other evening my son and I were in the grocery store at the Coke aisle (that is what soft drinks are called in Georgia: Coke is the generic name for all soda) and saw six-packs of the small glass-bottled Cokes, VERY similar to the souvenir, and cost about $5.00. I have contemplated buying them and sending them in for the class. There will be a Spring party in a couple of weeks that I will probably end up coordinating—I should bring them in then!

In my adult brain, full of other tragic stories in our day to day world, this is annoying small-stuff, but not to my son and the 17 other kids in the class. To him it is a big teacher fail—and honestly extremely oddball to my Hubs and I (one of his comments: the kid works too hard for this...). I’m sure tonight I will hear another update on the latest because I know these students know something wishy-washy is going on and I have no doubt a student will ask the teacher again for an update. Not sure of my next steps yet--I'm giving it a couple more days.

I Just Leave My Clothes on Hangers

I never have to remind my middle son to get together the clothes he wants to wear the night before a school day. This is what you'll find on his closet floor each night. No, this is not a crime scene:


What, you don't lay out each piece all smooth like Flat Stanley on your closet floor? With the shoes placed at the ankle of the pant leg? I'm surprised the socks are still rolled up.

Of this I am not complaining at all. In fact, just the other day he picked out those pants, that shirt and another shirt that is green that he wanted for St. Patrick's Day. And I thought to myself how easy it is dressing boys (easy = inexpensive and not much time involved). Not that they don't care about how they look, or their clothes, because they do. But get them a couple pairs of shoes, some jeans (shorts when it's warmer) and T-shirts and you score. In fact, the latest were bought online at PacSun....very, very easy.

There has actually been more pickiness over shampoo lately. I do the weekly Target run and pick out the shampoo and select whatever strikes my fancy, which means--do I have a coupon for it or is it on sale. Apparently my husband likes Pantene. We ran out and I replaced it on Sunday with a bottle of Herbal Essence shampoo. I thought it was pretty neat because when you squirt it in the palm of your hand there are two shades of pink all swirled around. And it smelled best out of the 8 sniff tests I did. Well, he complained. This, from a man whose hair is about one half inch long. I don't get that.

The next night I was in my sons' bathroom and saw that they had a bottle of Pantene shampoo in there, so I put it in our shower and replaced theirs with that rejected bottle of pink Herbal Essence shampoo. My youngest son used it and loved the swirly shades of pink that he stirred up in his palm before rubbing on his head. I was saying goodnight to him on his bed as my middle son was getting into the shower. Then he comes out and wants to know what happened to the Pantene shampoo. "Just use the new one that I put in there", I said. He then said, "Well, I like it when the shampoo and conditioner match and we now have Pantene conditioner in here and no matching Pantene shampoo."

I have the most hair in this house so what is with these guys?

(And ya know I grumble in jest cuz this is EASY stuff).

Are you all ready for St. Patrick's Day:

Bodies in the Hallway

I was running around between three floors last night, catching the new season of America's Next Top Model (I know, I have a problem!) on the basement TV, while the main TV was recording both Modern Family and American Idol. I went up to the top floor where I was expecting to find the Youngest in bed and the Middle son studying for final exams or in the shower.

Instead I saw this:

What was on the TV that had them glued? South Park. Yep, that's us. One big TV together family, especially with a loft type top floor. I ratted on them and sent them away. Then I had a chat with Hubs (who assumed that they were in bed/in the shower). He felt bad but defended himself saying that it was shown on MTV, which cuts out a lot of stuff.

But this is why when a few weeks back I rented The Hangover to watch with Hubs and the kids were banished to the basement for two hours. (Oh, who am I kidding? Yes, I banished them for that movie but I can't win with the war/violence/epic/sci-fi fantasy stuff that dominates around here).

We have never, ever been a TV-in-the-bedroom type of a couple. But I have a TV and DVR in the bedroom for myself. I have to have somewhere to be alone in this house to watch a chick flick.

Flying, Spines, and Hanging Upside Down

I thought I’d compile all these miscellaneous thoughts and get random today. Random Tuesday is the creation of Keely over at The Un Mom. Check her out!

I survived another flight last week. I never posted about a traumatic flight I had in December— it really slayed me. Coming back from FL visiting my 88 year-old grandmother, the plane got hit by lightning and I quietly cried and the lady next to me tried to comfort me but she was praying to Jesus. The pilot or flight attendant never said anything. A man behind me yelled, “OMG the plane was just hit by lightning” after a huge boom and a flash of white light right outside my window. I knew that my trip in March for work was coming up and in February when I made my reservation online I was hot flashing and out of breath.

Here’s what helped with this trip last week. Besides flying in very nice weather, after waiting an extra 90 minutes for a delayed flight, I happened to be standing in the tall window right next to the pilots who were going to pilot the plane. They were nice, they provided the "human" reminder of who is up front, and one was really cute. Then, on the plane, I happened to sit next to a lady about my age and I think she was nervous too and we talked. That makes a huge difference for me: someone friendly to talk to during take off and landing times. And the nice Southern gentleman pilot (the more mature one) stood by the cockpit and thanked everyone for the business and I thanked him for a good flight. The flight back went well too. I feel perhaps I am moving forward with the plane anxiety.

Besides this plane trip in which I spent way too much time sitting in two airports, I also spent an extra 10 hours in my car for some day trips, which has done havoc to my neck. So yesterday I visited the chiropractor who is a no frills type (just visit when you want to, adjusts my neck and spine and I’m good to go).

But then last night I went to my youngest son’s baseball practice and I sat there for 90 minutes overestimating how the weather has turned balmy—I was not dressed warm enough. So I was all tense and I should have walked but it was dark out so I just sat there cracking and spitting (sort of) sunflower seeds. My middle son hung out skateboarding, as there is a skate bowl nearby. I teased him that I was going to join him on my rollerblades and he said, “Oh, the skateboarders don’t really like it when rollerbladers go in the skatebowl. Especially a middle aged woman.” Ouch.

Later that night I hung upside down on our new inversion bench. I surprised my husband last month for his birthday and had it delivered fro

m Amazon. He put it together the same day and after rolling my eyes about his desire for an inversion bench for the past few years, I have to admit I really like it. It looks like some sort of fitness equipment but you clamp your ankles down (must wear shoes) and then lean back slowly and you can control via your arms how much of an angle you want to lean back. The Hubs goes completely upside down for several minutes but I am working up to that point. The pull of the spine feels great. Afterwards I felt like I had done some good yoga without the Cat and Cow poses.

It’s boy sports season around here again. In January and February only one son was enrolled in sports and now all three are: baseball, roller hockey and baseball. I will be sitting at lots of games and practices (or maybe rollerblading nearby, hah!) and something tells me I will be on that inversion bench nightly.