The Fall of Summer

       Summer has gone, lost in the brisk winds that whip the colorful fall leaves around. Neighborhood squirrels are very busy burying peanuts in the soil around my blueberry bushes. The soil is nice and soft and they seem to think it's just for them. In the spring the peanuts they haven't eaten will sprout but around here they don't grow much. Right now that seems like projects in my life, they've sprouted but if the weather in the next six months is too harsh they will wither and die. So I will have to keep praying for a lot of sunshine after this winter.
       I almost ran over a poor little squirrel the other day. I was riding my mountain bike on the bike path when he started darting in front of me. I slowed down, knowing that he had plenty of time to reach the other side. (And please, no 'why did the squirrel cross the road jokes.')
       But the poor little thing freaked out and right in the middle of the path decided he didn't know which way to go, and in his indecision he started doing a frantic circle in front of my bike tire. I hit the brakes hard, only pulling out a few of his tail hairs as he finally decided to continue across the path to the other side. I suppose that's a lot like life, we do circles in the middle of our decisions, finally choosing a path only after we lose a bit of our tail hairs. Of course, it's usually the decision we were going to follow to begin with but it takes us forever to figure that part out.
       This week has been a hodge podge of different things, wonderful things like dinner with the neighbors (grin), fun things like lunch with my niece and frustrating 'it's hard to be a parent' things with Bean.
        My niece, CT was so funny though, reminding me that I love the logical of three years old. We were at the sub shop having lunch when she looked at my drink.
       "What did you get?" She studies it intently because most of time Aunt Christy buys water.
        "I got root beer. Do you want a sip?"
        She looks at me horrified. "Oh, no, Aunt Christy. I can't drink beer."
        I laughed.

        On another note I learned today that Hallmark is offering sympathy cards for the unemployed. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Unfortunately, there must be enough unemployment going around to catch the greeting card industry's attention if they're going to offer cards. On the other hand, I don't know many people that would want a card reminding them that they just lost their job, their source of income, their security and telling them good luck finding a new job in today's economy. But I suppose it at least keeps more people employed at Hallmark. Still, I'm waiting for the sympathy cards to express my concern over zombie attacks. I can see that card now. 'Sorry about the zombie attack that burned down your house and ate your dog. But aren't you glad I got you a card?' 

        To finish up today's blog, I'm including pictures of Autumn. Hope you enjoy.

                  Flowers are absolutely beautiful but sometimes I think their dried shapes, especially in the right light can be nice too.
                                                     

                      I have to say, I do love the colors of Autumn. :) 

                                          I love the colors!

                                                  I actually beat the squirrels!!

                                                   It's almost time for Halloween.

          Do you know how many pumpkin pies are right there?


       

Kids are Crazy

       I was walking through the health food store, which I shop at constantly since my kids have food allergies, when Chris, one of the managers there asked how I was doing.
       I stopped, pausing for a second as I debated giving the usual response we all give to most people when asked, which is 'good or fine' even if our world is in turmoil or I could tell him how my wonderful kids are driving me insane this past week.
       "Kids are crazy." I said with a slight laugh and a shake of my head. He chuckled heartily and then a few seconds caught up with me in the store.
       "It's funny you should say that because this morning my son was driving me crazy."
       I stopped shopping and turned towards him. If there is one person in the world who understands a parent it's another parent. They know. They understand.  And they completely agree with you when you say things like, 'kids are crazy.'
      "For the past three weeks we have been riding our bikes to school." He's laughing now but I can just imagine he wasn't finding the humor earlier. "But today since it's so windy and we were running late I told him that after I took the trash out we would be driving to school. I get the trash to the curb, walk back up the drive way and there he is...on his bike, helmet on and ready to go."
      I grinned and nodded, waiting for him to continue his story.
      "I reminded him that we were driving. And you would have thought I told him I shot the family dog." He shakes his head and then gives me that look. You know the one; I shouldn't have given in but I did 'look'.
       "We rode our bikes to school."
       I laughed.


      In the meantime, I started writing this blog entry two days ago and the kids have been so crazy that I'm just now finishing and that's only because I'm keeping them busy with chocolate chip cookies. They aren't even great tasting cookies. I had bought a new gluten free mix that we haven't tried before and then made the mistake of putting a precious bag of gluten and dairy free chocolate chips in it. It was nearly a waste, all those lovely chocolate pieces lost in a horrible baking mix. The kids are still eating the gross cookies but only for the chocolate chips. 
      
       Yesterday I was interrupted by my youngest daughter, nickname Abu, yelling and hollering and informing me that she found my lost money.
        For the last three weeks I haven't been able to find an envelope with eighty dollars in it. Not the highlight of my month but suddenly it was found....in the inside of the piano. We had to take the top off and then the front of the piano to reach it. But at least it was found. And all four kids thought we had discovered hidden treasure, finding it was the highlight of their day.
        "I wonder who put it in there." I said aloud, not really expecting an answer as we put the piano back together.
        "I put it in there, Aunt Christy." My niece, CT said with a grin. "I kept pushing it until it got stuck."
        I shook my head in resignation and humor. I should have just asked the three year old to begin with. What was I thinking? :)

       And then with everything being hectic and chaotic around here, my youngest niece who is almost one, nickname Bug, for reasons about to be clear, has decided that her fascination right now is...bugs. She wants to touch them and capture them and when you're not looking- eat them. The other day she grins at me, her eyes glinting with trouble and her mouth full of something. When I told her to say 'ahh', she opens her mouth wide and sitting on her tongue was the remains of a dead wasp. She had been happily chewing on it and luckily hadn't been stung. This was only the first bug she has decided to try to munch on since then. Yuck!! I'm guessing she will either be the next Andrew Zimmerman and have her own Bizarre Foods show or she will be an entomologist. (grin) Hopefully not an exterminator.

      Today marks the last day of summer and I could just cry, if I wasn't so busy chasing after crazy kids. In the meantime, now that the cookies are gone, I have sent the oldest ones outside to enjoy this beautiful day we're having, especially since tomorrow is Autumn and just a reminder that we're that much closer to a horribly cold winter. At least there won't be as many bugs for Bug to eat. :)
     
     

Retreat into the Familiar

      My oldest daughter, her nickname is Bean, turned ten years old at the beginning of summer and has entered the last year of elementary school this fall. Change has been like a roller coaster ride for her and yesterday I think she almost fell off. Retreated back into the safe and warm folds of childhood.
    
       Already she has started to give up toys, now her dolls wait in carefully placed poses on her nightstand or in the dollhouse, rarely played with but still enjoyed nevertheless. Her preparations for school take a whole lot more time, with the shoes absolutely having to match the outfit, the hair style matching the shirt and the backpack an accessory that just happens to carry her homework. Nails are painted every weekend and this summer she got her ears pierced. Whew, I can't keep up, I'm not sure how she does it. Maybe that's why she gets a bit crabby sometimes, torn between still wanting to be cuddled and treated like a child and wanting to find the path that will lead to her adulthood. I didn't realize it started quite so young but all journeys do have a beginning and watching her fumble towards the right path makes me proud of her for the wonderful job she's doing and the intense need to cry because she'll never be my small child again.
       I didn't remember how much change I went through in fifth grade until Bean came home yesterday completely upset and in a temper. That girl is tough, and a lot like Wolverine. The temper flares when pain is experienced. Tears are rarely seen, which is not like me at all. So she comes home quite mad at this girl at school.
      "We were having lunch together and talking just like every day since school started. Oh, she's such..." She breaks off, controlling her temper, especially since name calling isn't allowed in our household.
        "What happened?" I asked, quite concerned because she seemed so vulnerable and not like the sassy fifth grader I have been sending to school the last two weeks, all confident and sure of herself.
        "We were talking and then suddenly, just suddenly Mom. She asks me 'why do you sit with us?" She frowns and obviously this question has confused her for the abruptness of how it had been asked. "I said it was because I liked to." She takes a deep breath, her fists clenched, her face lined with anger but it's the hurt in her green gold eyes that has me wanting to take her in a big hug.
        "Then what happened?" I asked quietly.
         "She said I was annoying. That everything I said was annoying. That I was just annoying and I wasn't welcomed to sit with them anymore. And she was so rude about it. Just snotty and rude. I wanted to punch her."  Angry. Hurt. And totally confused how one second they could be getting along and then suddenly thrown into the lion's den.
         I asked her what happened then. Apparently the conversation had been interrupted before Bean had a chance to respond. The lunch room was put into quiet mode and under the threat of losing recess they dared not speak. But later at recess the girl was not nice to Bean either and I must have taught my daughter something because she responded firmly but didn't resort to name calling or rudeness. And I know she would have been angry and hurt.
        I went through the usual cliches of how some people just aren't nice, there might be reasons, such as a terrible home life, or they're having a bad day but we still didn't have to spend time with them and the best thing to do was avoid rude people like that. Don't let her be a bully but we don't have to allow them a chance to ruin our day. I reassured her that she had plenty of other friends, ones that weren't suddenly rude and hurtful and she shouldn't let this girl bother her.
       But I know it hurts. I remember fifth grade and the day my best friend from fourth grade stood up and told everyone it was her last day because her parents were getting a divorce and she was moving. I was shocked because she hadn't told me. The summer before she had decided to play with someone else and had told me we weren't best friends anymore. I had been horribly hurt and had hoped that once the school year started we would be friends again. Apparently not.
      So I knew Bean was hurting, it's hard to learn lessons on how to deal with people. How to deal with ourselves. So I did the only other thing I knew how to do to make it better. I gathered her into a huge bear hug and held her close for a minute, telling her that no matter what she was My Bean and would always have a family that loved her.
      I don't know how much it helped except she wasn't as angry but for the rest of the afternoon she pulled out my childhood collection of My Little Ponies and started playing with her sister and her nieces. And then she picked a few of her favorites and took them to the corner of the room and played by herself. Making them talk and play. The sounds of pretend were warmly familiar but just a bit solemn because I knew she was finding comfort with a tactical retreat back into childhood.
     And sometimes don't we all have to make tactical retreats from life and the world?

McDegrees...Can I Supersize It?

       If I was living in the UK I suppose I can make my Mum proud and earn a degree...from McDonald's. Yes, I'm seriously talking about that fast food joint that sells a ton of food to children because it comes with a toy. When I was a child I didn't want a Happy Meal because of the burger, it was the toy. Why couldn't all meals come with a toy?
       'Mom, I'll eat my mixed veggies if I can get a toy.'
       Yeah, that never worked and that's why mixed veggies (a horrible combo of peas, carrots, lima beans and corn) always ended up in weird and unusual places. Such as below the rim of my plate, in napkins and in the bottom of milk glasses. If the dog managed to hide under the kitchen table, he was rewarded for his cleverness with mixed veggies, not the chicken he was hoping. (Grin)
      I'm not a big fan of McDonald's. My children have food allergies and can not consume most of their products and after a while of cooking food from scratch because of the aforementioned food allergies, McDonald's food just doesn't taste that great.
     But the toys can still be pretty tempting, especially for adults...I mean children.

     Toys and food aside, who actually wants a business degree from McDonald's? Are there teenagers working at the drive thru and deciding to working at McDonald's forever? Do they want and dream about  obtaining a degree that I would doubt is transferable into other college programs? If I'm wrong, then someone correct me but colleges are ridiculously picky about accepting credits from other schools, do you think a private university is going to look at a business degree from McDonald's and put them right into the fast track of obtaining their MBA. Of course, with how horrible Europe's and America's financial situations are right now, perhaps those MBA's in charge of our countries and large companies do have degrees from McDonald's. On the other hand, as far as I understand from a financial point of view, McDonald's isn't doing too bad, so perhaps the MBA's should have obtained their business degrees from the fast food giant, rather than from books and professors teaching them that to pay your debt you just borrow more money. Mmmm, I tried that once, it didn't work out well.
       Still, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of my child growing up and deciding that she wants to work at McDonald's forever.
       I can hear the commercials now to convince parents of this opportunity. It would be like the armed forces commercials. (Disclaimer, I'm not making fun of the Armed Forces and our troops, just silly commercials.)

      'Mom, I thought long and hard about this and I really need you to understand.' Daughter says, while we're in the kitchen together. The music builds up, I have a look of doubt and worry on my face.
      'I want you to do what makes you happy Daughter, but are you sure this is what you want to do. This is a big decision and then I have to convince your Father.' I wring my hands together.
      "I want to be part of something bigger than me. I want to be part of something I can be proud of. I want you to be proud of me.' She is earnest, full of sincerity and obviously not a real teenager since she's not crying, yelling or slamming doors.
      I take a deep breath. 'I know. But are you sure you want to join...McDonald's?'
     Then the narrator comes on, convincing all parents that a degree from McDonald's in the best thing for their children and besides it comes with a Happy Meal.


       I had siblings that worked fast food, they left as soon as possible. The smell of stale fry oil that clings to everything; your clothes, your shoes, in your car; is not pleasant. The long hours, the cranky customers, the lazy workers, was never a career goal for them. So I supposed to believe that people are eager to obtain a business degree from a fast food company? Perhaps I'm wrong, a career at McDonald's might be a great opportunity in this poor economy and that's probably why the idea of a McDegree is bothering me. I could never see my free spirited children slaving away as a manager in a company that tries to convince everyone that it's a great and wonderful thing because they handed you a degree to do it.
      Call me hopeful, but as a mother I only want big and bright things for my children and working fast food, with or without a degree, isn't something that they will find happiness in.
      Even if it comes with a toy.