Susiej

• It’s 3:30 p.m.  We have exactly 2.5 hours before trick or treat starts.
• This comes with impending porch parties up and down the street with their enticing hot dogs, mulled cider and bowls of popcorn… and CANDY!
• It’s Friday night; and it’s warm.

We’ve already had enough excitement today to last us until Christmas, so, we’re hunkered down in the basement, watching Mr. Magorium.  We need our rest.

Following today’s REVISED Halloween schedule (note changes underlined), I had exactly 85 minutes to pick up the kids at school, feed them something nutritious to last through the night’s sugar feast, transform them into their costume, and get them back to school in time for the, voila!, parade, and class Halloween parties.

Heaven help you if you plan to drive back and forth to school on this mayhem day. I did, as I was bringing a cooler full of water bottles; I thought it would be too much to carry the cooler for 3 blocks.

The closest parking spot was 1/2 block from my house.  Big savings on the steps there.

I did cook up an awesome barley pilaf, as it’s supposed to stabilize blood sugar for hours. Cooked with lots of butter and a dash of salt.  I know, I couldn’t help myself; I worry about their diet. They each ate one tablespoon — good enough. But can you blame them, when they had these mummy dogs waiting?

Picture courtesy of the Picky Palate.

And I made lots of tea, which I savored in every sweet rare moment I had to sip today.  I think I’ll whip myself up a big mug of chai latte and pour it into a thermos to keep me grounded and centered throughout the inevitable excitement tonight.  But you know, my hands will be full, holding pillow cases full of candy, so I’ll barely have a chance for a sip.

Just like every other parent tonight, I will watch and savor each sweet nothing that will tumble out of the kids adorable mouths tonight, as they walk in awe from house to house, freely collecting their goodies. Stuff I swear I’ll remember forever, but will probably be fleetingly gone out of my mind by morning. Now that I have a 7th grader, I can just relish the fact that some of my kids still think it’s cool to have Mom at their side on trick or treat night — even if she is dressed up as Bat Girl.

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I am crazy busy getting these kids ready for Halloween, and also busy with a little surprise about a new writing gig (more later). So, here’s an archive post from last year.

Happy Halloween!

You would think that after spending the summer at the lake that I saw just about all there was to see. How wrong I was. I found something hiding behind these trees. The same trees I looked at across the lake all summer; the same trees you saw in the photos of all of those lake pictures I posted. Right there, in the tree line, something sinister is hiding. Maybe, this is that Nancy Drew Mystery I’ve been looking for all along. Think of Ruth Brown’s delightfully scary book, A Dark, Dark Tale.

I. There is a dark, dark road that takes you to a dark, dark lake.

II. And on that dark, dark, lake, there is a dark, dark dock.
III. And on that dark, dark dock, is a bright shinny canoe.

IV. As you glide on your bright shinny canoe, you see a dark, dark woods.
V. And through the dark, dark trees, you see a dark, dark house.

VI. And on that dark, dark house are dark, broken windows.

VII. And through the dark, dark windows, there is a dark, dark kitchen.

VIII. And in that dark, dark, kitchen, there is a dark, old, refrigerator.
IX. And through that dark, dark window, you see a dark, dark hallway.

X. And down the dark, dark hallway, you see on a dark, dark doorknob, a dark, dark jacket.

XI. And around the dark, dark house, you see a dark, dark, open door.

XII. And by the dark, dark door, you see a dark, DARK SHOE!

XIII. And then you scream, and run through the woods, trip on the trees, and jump back into your boat. And start paddling.

Happy Halloween!

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Filed under: Life, Thursday 13, holidays, the lake house by SusieJ - 41 Comments →

Their cheeks were flushed bright red from the cold as they filled the room after their first morning recess. While their teacher began to explain their morning work of filling in the number line and counting by 2s and 3s, the kids settled themselves on the floor in a circle. I barely noticed that his head was down, and he was blushing. Ahhh, the teacher noticed; she stopped her talk, smiled, and looked at him and said, “Would you like to introduce our special guest this morning?”

“Surrre,” he quietly said, as he jumped off the floor and ran to stand beside me, “This is my Mom,” he said before hiding his face behind my arm for just a brief shy pause. After the class said, “Hi Miss Susie,” the teacher continued with her explanation of the worksheet, saying that she or I would be around to help them if they let us know by raising their hands. But, he was still there, standing by my side, fingering the sleeve of my coat.

When you become a mother, or even when you’re just thinking about becoming a mother, you hear a lot of myths (all true), and even more talk about how much you will love your child. A love stronger than anything you’ll ever know, they’ll tell you.  This I found to be true. But what came with the love was a whole new sense of worry. The love changes you; you become fiercely protective; concerned; and wiser, and weary. Thank God they have adorable faces; it keeps us going.

Not until that moment, as he continued to stand beside me, did I realize how reciprocal this love is. I had always seen myself as the one and only starting point. From me, love filtered down, and occasionally made its way back up. In that moment, I realized how this love has evolved into a circle, flowing back and forth, no ending, no beginning, constant, pulsating… and fierce.

I allowed myself the luxury of standing there in suspension, leaning on his love, while he buoyed me up by fingering the sleeve of my coat. Caught in that split second pause just before the water stops as it reverses itself to rush back to the ocean. That gap just before the next breath comes in, just after the exhale.

He refused to wear long pants that morning, despite the cold. He’s a stubborn little man, never one to yield easily to the passing seasons.

The children scurried from the floor to their tables to begin their counting work, taking me back to the world of number 2 pencils with erasers that were always worn down, as I helped some of them understand that 8 comes after 6, when you count by 2s, and yes, “You did it,” when they rounded that corner of 95, knowing that the next five is 100. That’s always a big step, but the real test is figuring out 110 from 105.

My time was up, and so it was their lunchtime. The thought of him running out to that playground for a good 40 minutes in air that was blowing a couple of snow flurries, in his shorts, compelled me to say, “Why don’t you bring your lunch home with me, and we can get you some warm pants.”

“Sure,” he said. I felt a wave of relief as I anticipated the dissonance of watching those little knees suffer in the bitter cold air, coming to a resolution. Back home, he ate his lunch, while I combed his room for suitable pants. Just as he put one leg through the pant leg, he dropped the pants, and said, “I changed my mind. I’m ready to go back to school now.” In his shorts.

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Filed under: Life, Tears, boy by SusieJ - 8 Comments →

If I could grow a pumpkin, I would etch my lad’s name in the pumpkin’s green skin when the pumpkin was just a baby. As the pumpkin grew, so would the name, in an earthy version of having a “name in lights.”

The problem, of course, was getting the pumpkins to grow. Each year, the blossoms would come, wither and die, without leaving that green little pumpkin ball. This year, inspired by the Jack-In-The-Beanstalk seeds from Seeds of Change, I decided to give the pumpkins one more try and ordered pumpkins seeds. The pumpkin variety I ordered was a small pumpkin that would make a delicious pie, the packet promised. My neighbor advised me to plant them mid-June; to tie their maturation to Halloween. I dutifully planted them, with the boys, in the mulch bed, full of evergreens, in the front of our house. The large leaves, growing in the formal front bed, would give the neighbors lots to talk about while we were at the lake, I thought.

A few days after we made our migration home from the lake, we spotted a pumpkin, tucked under the evergreens, in the front flower bed. To my amazement, four pumpkins (one for each boy) continued their surprising steady growth. I will add here, this was a very SMALL space.

The pumpkins soaked up all the water we gave them, and responded in kind by bulbing out into perfect pie-sized pumpkin spheres. Their timing was absolute perfection… although, I will probably hold off until the third week in June next Spring.

If home-grown pumpkins are anything like home-grown tomatoes, I couldn’t wait to taste my first bite of a home-grown pumpkin pie.

The boys were quite proud, naturally, of the pumpkins they grew. While they had visions of Jack-O-Lanterns, and I had visions of a DELICIOUS pie, we took our parental responsibility to heart and Dad carved these cute little Jack-O-Lanterns. Still, I salvaged what I could from the cut pieces of the jigsaw teeth, eyes and nose to cook down for a mini pie. Of course, I saved the seeds to roast too.

At least the kids aren’t the only ones to enjoy these pumpkins.  The ants, unfortunately, are too.

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This is the snack you want sitting on your counter on trick or treat night for the kids. Pumpkin Seeds are loaded with protein, zinc, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and phytosterols — good stuff that boost your immune system. Pumpkin seeds, also known as pepitas, are at their nutritional best when eaten raw. Still, eating them roasted is a treat you’ll savor until next Halloween.

Here is how to roast pumpkin seeds:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups raw pumpkin seeds
• 2 teaspoons butter, melted
• 1 pinch of salt, optional. I have one who insists: NO SALT

1. As you carve your pumpkins, scoop out the inside goop with the seeds.
2. Rinse seeds, although it is fine to leave some of the pulp on the seeds.
3. Drain seeds and place them on paper towels to dry overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
5. Combine melted butter, and salt, if using, in a large bowl.
6. Add dried pumpkin seeds to the butter mixture and toss until well coated.
7. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet I like to use the cast iron skillet.
8. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
9. Remove from oven, and allow to cool.

Store leftover pumpkin seeds in an air-tight contianer in your freezer.

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Mom, can we keep him?
Sure, a few frogs might be nice,
Keepsake of the lake!

We picked out the frogs
an aquarium was bought,
The pet frogs were loved.

A piece of the lake
now, as real as it could be,
right in our kitchen.

Food turned out to be
our one really big problem;
crickets — and that’s it.

The store-bought ones died.
So the boys dug up their own
big, fat, black crickets.

They barely fit in
each frog’s mouth: black legs hung out!
Yet, the frogs were fed.

The next problem was,
the tank became polluted!
The frogs ate so much.

The piece of the lake
was now a gross, smelly mess,
we’d rather not have.

So, we learned that frogs
hibernate in the winter.
They must miss the lake.

We loaded them up,
A journey back to their home.
Safe, sound, in the lake.

So, Sleep tight, dear frogs

we’ll now say our goodbyes

See you this Spring.

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Filed under: Laugh, Life, boy, the lake house by SusieJ - 11 Comments →