Do They Sell "I Survived the Great College Move of 2013" T-Shirts?

Well, first up, I apologize for not updating the blog or Facebook for little while but we were doing something heartbreaking and wonderful... moving DD#1 to college.  I've spent the last month helping her pack, reviewing general "living on your own skills" (like making pasta, doing laundry properly, grocery shopping, etc.), buying tons of supplies (while I love the fact the room came "fully furnished", I really wish the dorm offered a meal plan - more on that later), and moving her 500 miles from home.

We just arrived back home this afternoon and I'm still amazed that it all happened so seamlessly.  The only "forgotten" thing was a corded telephone for her desk, in case they lose power and she can't use her cell phone, and that was fixed by a quick trip to Radio Shack.

So, let's recap the last 4 days...

Friday morning, up at regular time and get the youngest 2 off to school (DD#2 is capable of waking up and getting herself off to high school by herself.)  After getting the girls on the bus, DD#1 visited quickly with a couple of our neighbors while we started to load the car.  Rather than putting the mileage on my (very recently repaired) SUV, we decided to rent one for the trip.  Unfortunately it was a little smaller than mine and, naturally, not everything fit in the back or on the back seat with DD#1, so we had to improvise a bit.  All the groceries DD#1 purchased in advance of her trip (we figured it would be easier - and cheaper - to shop here at home instead of in NYC) were moved from the large storage tote box and moved to the reusable shopping bags I gave her for her use while at school.  Then we had to be "creative" with storing the remaining 2 storage bins of clothing, the kitchen-sized trash can (no, the room didn't come with one), the cleaning supplies (because she actually expects me to believe she'll keep her dorm room cleaner than her bedroom at home - ha!), bedding, etc.  Finally, we were off for a lovely 500+ mile drive from our house to my brother-in-law's home, where we were staying for the trip.  (He's beyond awesome to allow us to stay with him whenever we visit back east.  Considering he's single and lives alone, it's got to be a HUGE culture shock to have guests and children at his house every time.)

Saturday morning, DH, DD#1, and I headed from Stamford, CT to NYC, and I remembered why I hated driving into the city.  An approximate 45 mile drive should NOT have to take over 90 minutes.  (Another reason I love living where I do in the Midwest is that this almost never happens here unless there's a horrible accident or tons of snow... none of which were factor on Saturday in NYC.)  We were lucky to find on-street parking less than 3 blocks from the dorm.  Score!  Over two hours later, DD#1's side of the room was organized and unpacked.  (Her roommate still hasn't moved in yet but I was nice enough to clean her side of the room as well, so she doesn't have to come in to dust bunnies in the corners.)  All that remained was for a final trip to Ikea for dishes, cookware, etc.  To my dismay, DD#1 didn't want to go with us, so DH, his brother, and I went up to the one in New Haven on Sunday morning, then DH & I (and my BFF's mother) drove back down to the city afterwards.

DD#1's dorm is really in a fantastic neighborhood.  NYC's Upper East Side, on Third Avenue.  The view from her room is very nice and the building is SO cool (24 hour security, full gym, laundry facilities, fridge and microwave in every dorm room and a full kitchen on every couple of floors -- DD#1's room is about 3 rooms away from the one on her floor, etc.)  The only thing that would make it perfect is if her college or her dorm had a meal plan.  Unfortunately, the school is a small fine arts college (less than 1,000 students!) and it's not feasible for them to offer one and the dorm is used by at least 8 different colleges around the city and it would be overwhelming for them to offer one.  So, in what could be really good (or really bad, but I'm going to focus on the good) move, DD#1 is being forced to shop for groceries and cook her meals.  In theory, it will be healthier and probably cost less; however, I'm afraid she'll decide to live on a diet of Ramen noodles and "Easy Mac".

And today was the lonely drive home.  For the first time in years, DH & I were able to make the drive home in under 9 hours.  And it would have been shorter if we didn't have a side trip to my favorite Italian bakery in Port Chester, NY (a girl's gotta have her NY deli-style hard rolls and I promised DD#2's boyfriend's mother a box of Italian butter cookies) and 2 pit stops for coffee (we packed sandwiches at my brother-in-law's house, so we didn't have to eat fast food on the road.)

Coming home was great (my sister and one of her adult children stayed at our house over the weekend and babysat DD#2, 3 & 4 because they started school already and I didn't want them to miss 2 days the first week.)  My house was clean!  They even cleaned up the mess we made when, at the last minute, we had to remove some stuff that couldn't fit in the car.  Love them for that!  Actually, I'm not sure "great" is the right word.  Coming home to only 3 kids was definitely bittersweet.  DD#1 is really an adult and is living on her own, albeit in a dorm, and while I'm happy for her, I'm still sad that she doesn't need me to make sure she's going to school and doing her homework and going to bed at a reasonable time.  But watching her eat dinner on Sunday, knowing she prepared it herself, with her own groceries, using her own kitchen pots and pans and utensils really made me tear up.  Her telling me about running to the market to buy some broccoli for a snack the night before was good.  And when she told me that she found a Unitarian church (the faith she's been raised in since she was about 7 years old) near her dorm and that she's considering going to church while away at school choked me up big time, as she said she was "taking a break" from church earlier this year.

She's sweet, smart, living on her own, and grabbing life with both hands.  She's doing something that I didn't do at that age (I lived at home while going to a local university when I was her age.)  I'm proud of her!  To think I had something to do with creating and molding this amazing young woman makes me choke up... again.  This time next year is going to suck because it'll be both DD#1 and 2 going away to school.  (Might be a good time to buy stock in tissue companies.  lol)

And now I'm off to finish unpacking and doing laundry.

Good night!

Simplify

Nine years ago this month, DH and I made the decision to move from the suburbs of NYC to the suburbs of Cleveland.  We just decided that we could not afford (financially, spiritually, mentally) to live the life we wanted in that part of the country.  For the “perk” of being able to say we lived in Greenwich, CT (our hometown, actually), we would have to continue working an obscene number of hours (in my case, it was anywhere between 50 and 70 hours a week at “salary” – a/k/a no paid overtime), never seeing each other as our work schedules didn’t completely mesh,  and just not having the time/energy/money to do anything on the days we both were off from work.  Plus the kids were either at school or with the nanny.  They definitely weren’t having fun.

So we decided, "Let's move to a different area!"  An area where I could (and did) take several years off from work and raise our kids.  An area where DH could putter around in the garden and enjoy the property we had.  (Did I mention that our previous back and front yards put together were smaller than our current house’s front yard?)  An area where our kids would end up with friends all over the block.  The town we picked, Mentor, was chosen because my father’s company had transferred my family out there for several years when I was growing up and I “knew” the area.  It’s actually still a surprise at how fast it all came together.  We bought the second house we saw on our first trip out here, and closed on it in less than 8 weeks.  We decided our family needed a simpler, more relaxed lifestyle and living here was going to do that for us.  I even bought a rustic rectangular painting of the word “Simplify” for our new home, to remind me (and us) that we were going to simplify our lives.

DH and DD’s #1, 2, and 3 (#4 wasn’t born yet) adjusted almost immediately.  Me?  The one who actually spent a good chunk of my childhood here, it took a while longer.  I began to miss being able to hop a train and be in NYC in 45 minutes, even though I hated working there.  I missed the ocean, even though I hardly went to the beach for fear of yet another horrid sunburn.  I missed good bagels, hard rolls, pizza, and being able to find a 24 hour deli or diner every couple of blocks, even though it had been years since I had a 3:00am breakfast after a crazy night out with friends.

While I truly enjoyed being home with my kids, it took a long period of adjustment for me to get to that point.  I have worked since three days after my 16^th birthday.  The longest periods I had taken off were maternity leaves after having DD’s #1, 2, and 3.  Heck, I even worked from home (with an “at the time state of the art” 14.4 baud modem!) after having DD #1!  I didn’t know what to do with myself.  I threw myself into volunteering (school, Girl Scouts, church, etc.), Gymboree, and hosting “craft days” on days off from school with a huge slew of neighborhood kids (which I TOTALLY loved -and miss- doing!)  DH came home every night to a nice dinner, a fairly organized home, and happy kids.  But not a happy wife.  Why?  What happened to “simplify”?  What about all those articles and books I read, toting how amazing a simpler life would and could be?  My life was perfect… and I still wasn’t happy.  Why, indeed?

After several years of therapy (I have major depressive disorder and a bunch of other issues that I won’t bore you with… today), I realized that I somehow tied my feeling of worth to receiving a paycheck.  WTF?!?  I was doing the most important job of my life, tending to my family, and I was having trouble finding worth in it?  What was wrong with me?  My therapist encouraged me to go back to work and, quite frankly, not only did I need to work for an emotional level, we were really hitting the point where I had to, from a financial level, as well.  (I have always been the primary breadwinner and, lucky me, DH doesn’t have a problem with that!)  Unfortunately, after being home for a couple of years, plus my “network” was 500 miles away, it wasn’t that easy.  I couldn't even get an interview with Macy's because my college education made me "too qualified".  Eventually, though, I lucked into an amazing job that actually WANTS me to have a healthy work/life balance.  One that understands I have priorities outside of the four walls of my office.  By taking a step back and sideways, careerwise, I could get "me" back.  And even though I may get stressed and annoyed by work (like this week, where I’m covering for another co-worker and having to do two jobs when all I want to do is be home with my kids, since DD#1 returned home last night!), I’m grateful for it. 

So how does “simplify” fit into all this?  Easy.  By cutting my workload in half and getting away from a fairly toxic lifestyle, DH and I have had the best years of our marriage.  My kids get to see me and have a less exhausted and very happy mom.  I get to enjoy being able to put the brakes on life and enjoy.  Like Ferris said in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”  That, in my mind, is the definition of “simplify.”  Stopping to smell the roses… and maybe pick one or two to enjoy later.

Now I’m going to have lunch with one of my wonderful coworkers and enjoy my beautiful, simple life.

Cheers!

Mary

PS:  Did you know that Zabar’s ships via UPS?  And that hard rolls from Neri’s (Port Chester, NY) freeze rather well, so you can bring home several dozen each trip back east, to enjoy at your leisure?  Oh, and that Mentor has a really good Italian import store (Verdi’s) with fantastic sausage & pepper wedges… uh, I mean “subs”?  (No one outside of the metro NYC area seems to know what a wedge is.  *sigh*)  Life is simply better here.

Quick Update: One Day I'll Learn to Relax on Saturdays

Today was spent running around, hitting two different grocery stores to get our weekly shopping done.  Oh, did I mention I did this with the two youngest in tow?  Yeah...  Thankfully my sister was able to go with us and that helped keep the "Oh Mommy I've GOTTA have this!" whines to a minimum.  In fact, the only things they asked for (and I caved in on) were bananas, Greek yogurt, and organic bunny-shaped pretzels.  Not too bad, if you ask me.  It could have been much worse (thank you, Whole Foods, for NOT having huge candy displays at the cash registers!)

So then we came home and I spend the rest of the afternoon "prepping".  I don't know if anyone else does this but I find it makes my life a little easier during the week.  I start off by rinsing all the fresh fruit and vegetables.  Then I assemble bags of pre-cut salad greens (I store them in the reusable produce bags found in the $1 bins at Target) for quick weeknight salads, hull the strawberries and pop the grapes off the stems and put them in kid-friendly plastic boxes (they're plastic and look like the cardboard strawberry containers at the farmer's market, again from the $1 bins at Target), separate the broccoli crowns into good size pieces and store them in reusable produce bags, etc.  I find that, by doing all this right when I get home, that:

1. I actually use all the produce I buy because I've taken away the "oh but I still have to clean, chop, etc. before using it" excuse.
2. The kids actually eat the easy to access fruits and veggies, and they don't ask for junk food.  Seriously, this happens in our house!  All they might ask for is a small container of ranch dressing for dipping the celery, carrots, or broccoli.  Love this!

After that, DD#3 and I decided to make oatmeal/peanut butter energy balls (see recipe below.)  It takes about 5 minutes to prepare them and the kids LOVE them!  They're all natural and are comprised of things we usually have on hand, so they're convenient.  Plus they're healthy enough that they can be a quick morning breakfast on hectic school mornings.  (Our kids go back on August 21st this year, so I'm already in "back to school" mode.)  They're so good that the kids don't even realize they're healthy and good for them.

Well now I'm going to relax a bit, grab a couple of strawberries, and get ready for tonight's dinner (meatloaf, macaroni & alfredo cheese side dish from Whole Foods - a nice grown-up take on macaroni & cheese, and a big salad.)

Hope everyone's having a great day!

Mary

RECIPE:  Oatmeal/Peanut Butter Energy Balls
1 C dry oatmeal
1/2 C peanut butter (you could substitute sunflower butter, if there's an issue with nut allergies in your home)
1/2 C ground flax seed
1/2 C chocolate chips
1/2 C raisins or dried cranberries (or you can mix them, if you like)
1/3 C honey or maple syrup (I used maple syrup because I just bought a couple of bottles from the kids' summer camp, where they make their own syrup - super awesome stuff!)
1 tsp. vanilla (optional, but I do tend to use it)
2/3 C toasted coconut flakes (optional)

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Put the bowl in the refrigerator until chilled and firm.  When firm, take out and roll the mixture into 1" to 1 1/2" balls, and enjoy!

Amazed

Holy Cow!  First off, let me say I’m amazed.  Two really awesome Facebook groups linked to posts of mine and, well, my Facebook page more than DOUBLED our followers/”likers” in less than 24 hours!  I’m still stunned.  J

I’m also amazed, in a different way, at how fast this summer is going by.  In a little over a week, DD#1 will be back home from her 3 weeks in FL with her bio-dad.  My other 3 DD’s are all back from their week at summer camp.  Oh, and DD#1 forwarded me an email discussing her college orientation (one month from yesterday.)  How did this happen?  Weren’t we just scheduling DD#1’s high school senior portraits?  And now we’re packing her up to move… and scheduling DD#2’s high school senior portrait session and finding time to buy all the back to school stuff needed before school starts again on August 21^st.  Is there a “slow motion” button I can hit, so these next 4 weeks slow down to an absolute crawl?  I want more time with my kids.  We haven’t even been to the beach (granted, it’s been raining and/or in the low 70s for an obscene amount of time this summer) or had one of our annual outdoor picnics yet this year.  DD’s #3 & 4 haven’t had a lemonade stand yet. 

I’m also amazed (in a bad way) at how much I’ve spent on my car this summer.  Without going into too much detail, what started off as needing new wheel bearings lead to needing a new (rebuilt) transmission which lead to needing a new (rebuilt) engine.  I’m so sick of feeling like we’re hemorrhaging cash. 

And now I’m amazed that tonight is the first night of DD#3’s cheerleading practices for the fall season.  Whoa!  There go my weeknights for the next month and my weekends until October.  I love that she loves doing it, and that DD#2 is her squad’s junior advisor, but it does take up a bit of time and it’s yet another reminder that school is starting in 3 weeks… and DD#1 moves away to college in 4 weeks… and that I’m getting older.

*sigh*

I should be happy, as I LOVE early fall.  It’s my favorite time of the year.  Seriously.  I love when it starts getting chilly enough to wear a sweater and I can pull tights and my favorite boots out of the closet.  When I can make a huge batch of beef stew or chili and it won’t cause the A/C to kick on in the house.  When I don’t have to shave my legs every damned day.  (Hey, just being honest!) 

Oh well, life goes on.  Gotta learn to relax and enjoy.  And now I’m off to cheerleading.  Catch you all later!

Too Much to Do and Not Enough Time

So yesterday DD#1 left for 3 weeks in Florida with her father… and even with 3 other kids still running around, the house felt empty.  What’s it going to be like when she moves on campus next month? 

Sunday, the remaining 3 DD’s head off to a week of sleep-away summer camp.   This will be the first time in 18 YEARS that I will be child-free for more than 48 hours (excluding my hospitalization 7 years ago but I don’t think that really counts.)  You’d think I’d be planning on a week of vacation days, spa days, and leisurely dinners out with the DH.  And you would be wrong.  I’m working 3 days (DH is working 4) and I plan on using my 2 days off to:

·         Clean the basement pantry (we have a ranch-style house and because of lack of space in the kitchen, I’ve carved a part of our basement into a second pantry)

·         Clean the lower-level family room/den (time to dispose of all those toys that no one has touched in 4 years but still refuse to dispose of on their own because “I might want it later!”)

·         Donate blood (seriously, folks, it takes half an hour and is so important – check out www.redcross.org)

Saturday will be a hellish nightmare of trips to Walmart, Target, the sporting goods store, etc., so I can finalize the stuff the kids need for camp.  Oh, and I need to find time to hit the mall because Sunday is DD#3’s 10^th birthday.  Naturally I haven’t started shopping yet (don’t judge!)  She got one of her presents earlier this week, when DH & I took her and her younger sister to see The Jonas Brothers in concert.  Nothing like seeing an aging boy band with an almost 10 year old and a 7 year old, I’ll tell you that.  Hopefully I can see another concert soon, so if I’m ever asked “What’s the last concert you saw?”, I can answer without feeling too embarrassed. 

Okay, let’s get back to today though.  I’m at work, trying to enjoy the last little bits of my lunch break, and an email comes across that there’s a going-away party for a departing employee in the canteen as we speak.  And it wouldn’t be my workplace if there wasn’t some sort of fattening goodies.  Today it’s punch and cake.  Enough with the food, coworkers!!!  Or maybe someone can help me find some will power, so I can resist the siren call of buttercream icing.  Seriously, the last thing I need is a huge piece of cake on top of the BLT I had for lunch and the pizza we're having for dinner.  Uggh!

Bye for now!

Here Comes the Rain Again

It’s almost the middle of July, right?  Because I’m in Northeast Ohio and it hasn’t been warmer than mid 80s in a few weeks.  Right now, we’re getting hit with a thunderstorm and the temperature dropped into the 70s.  We've usually had some 90+ degree days by now but not this year.  I know I shouldn't be complaining but it's just weird.  In fact, the weather’s been all wonky this year, though.  When our old hometown of Greenwich, CT gets more snow than we do here, in the Snow Belt of the United States, you know something's wrong.

Today was the first day back at work after a weird work week (we had Thursday off for the holiday but had to work on Friday) and, naturally, the day took forever.  Between the email server screwing up for a good part of the morning (and again after lunch, but just for me because I'm special - no comments) and having to start the leg work for our FY13 audit (we haven't even closed last fiscal year yet but the auditors want us to start sending out bank confirmation already), it definitely wasn't my day.  The only thing that really worked was I managed to sneak in a 1 mile walk during lunch, and that was really nice.

Then I get home and what do I hear?  DD#3 asking for a human-eating lizard and DD#4 asking why we don’t own a thundershirt.  No, we don’t have a dog and, thus, have no need for a thundershirt.  Apparently she thought it might help her with thunderstorms.  I know she’s 7 and that she’s creative (putting it nicely) but DD#4 really takes the “I’m almost as weird as my Daddy” thing too far.  (Those who know DH in real life can vouch that DD#4's comments sound like something her father would say.)  At least she’s now arguing with DH about watching Doctor Who on his computer because the TV keeps going out because of the storm.  (Why yes, we do have DirecTV?  How could you possibly have guessed?  *snert*)  Listening to him repeat over and over that the storm has no effect on Netflix and that streams to the television via our Wii system is definitely amusing.  Nice that someone else in the house has to deal with the typical barrage of "Why?  Why?  Why?" questions for tonight. 

Wisely though, DD's #1 & 2 have been avoiding me.  Maybe they're afraid of getting in trouble for not doing chores or because they overheard the younger 2's conversations with me and figured I need a break.  Either way, I'm a little grateful because it allows me some "alone" time.  With 4 kids living at home, that doesn't happen all that often but when it does, it's appreciated.

I spent yesterday afternoon cooking meals for use during the week (breaded pork chops – which were last night’s dinner, barbecued chicken, and Yankee pot roast) and what does everyone want for dinner tonight?  Yep, you guessed it.  Hot dogs and baked French fries.  WTF?  DH was off work today (as he worked yesterday) so he could have cooked something or just reheated one of my pre-cooked frozen dinner options.  But, no, everyone wanted my lazy “OMG I totally forgot about getting dinner ready!” fallback dinner.  *grrr*  Although it was nice that when my ex-husband called, while I was in the middle of getting dinner prepared, that I had the handy "I'm in the middle of making dinner and can't talk" line available for use.  I really wish he'd remember that we're divorced, we're not friends (I tolerate him for the sake of our daughters), and I don't really care that he's nowhere near the area in Florida that's under hurricane warning.  It's like he forgets that we've been divorced 15 years.  I only have 1 1/2 years left of being nice to him, because that's when DD#2 turns 18.  I'll be civil to him for the girls' sake but I definitely don't want to be friends with him.  (Those who know the circumstances of our divorce definitely know why I don't want to deal with him any more than necessary.  Suffice to say, he's not a pleasant person.)

OMG, DD#2 just came out and told me that her conversation with my ex-MIL involved her weight.  DD#2 put on a few pounds this year but is definitely not obese by any stretch of the imagination.  Apparently her grandmother wanted to know how the dieting is going (note:  she isn't on one) and if she lost any of that weight she put on.  Seriously?!  Because she's no longer a size 3, you're going to start in on her?  Is it because DD#1 lost a full dress size since graduation, thanks to no longer eating the over-processed crap sold in the school cafeteria and actually exercising in the mornings?  One of these days, my ex-MIL is going to understand that I've always struggled with my weight (slow metabolism) and my girls seem to have the same problem.  They're not skinny twigs like their cousins.  My girls have to keep active to keep their weight at healthy levels and no matter how much they work out, they're never going to be a size 0.  (I can't believe I'm going to have to explain to her, yet again, that it's okay that my daughters wear a size 3 or 5.  As long as their doctor says they're healthy and they stay active, I'm not going to jump on them for gaining 10 lbs. or throw a party for them losing 10.)

Tonight I should be dying my hair (thanks again to my father for passing on the “graying WAY too early in life” gene) and maybe painting my nails.  Instead I’ll end up doing the chores that the kids blew off today because, silly me, I didn’t write a list of what I wanted them to do.  You’d think they would be capable of looking around, see stuff to be done, and (oh I don’t know) just do it.  Or that DH could remind them during the day.  But no, if it’s not written down by Mom on the Boogie Board (love that thing!) on the refrigerator, apparently it doesn’t get done.  Then, again, there have been MANY days where I’ve written stuff down and they still didn’t do it.  *double grrr*  I should be happy that at least the dishes were washed, even though they weren't put away.

Well, since I’m the one doing chores tonight, I guess I’ll pop on some Foo Fighters and grab the broom.   ¯¯One of these days... the ground will drop out… from... beneath your feet¯¯

See you later.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. I Am My Mother After All.

It’s official.  I have become my mother.  I’m not sure how (or even when) it happened but it happened.  I’ve turned into my mother.  Now don’t get me wrong.  My mother was an awesome, amazing woman who lived through so much that I sometimes shake my head that she even lived as long as she did (my mother passed in 2001 at the age of 68.)  However, my mother was your typical Irish/Italian woman.  She was the one who yelled if you didn’t eat enough.  She yelled if you ate too much.  She complained if I had my hair in my face but, when I would cut it short, she would say “It looked better longer.”  Always with the contradictions.  The main thing about my mother, though, was food.  She was ALWAYS cooking.  Granted, I come from a blended family and am the youngest of 8 children, so there was a time where it would be only natural for my mother to be cooking all day.  But, even after everyone moved out, she still did so.  And still cooked in the same, absurd amount (enough to feed a small army.)

Yesterday was Independence Day here in the US and where was I?  In the kitchen, at the stove, just like her.  And that was where I spent most of my day, just like her.  Baking two batches of buttermilk biscuits (the first batch didn’t rise enough and definitely weren’t flaky enough for me to be happy, so I had to make a second batch), making potato salad, baked beans (well, doctoring up a can of Bush’s baked beans but I like theirs and, well, I didn’t feel like making them from scratch), corn on the cob, corn/pepper relish (which I made and canned last weekend) and fried chicken.  Keep in mind, I’m using a modified version of my mother’s recipe, which is a "little piece of heaven" on a plate.  Actually, it’s more like a "little heart attack waiting to happen" on a plate.  (The stuff is fried in lard.)  And, by the time it was done, I made enough food to feed at least a dozen people… and there were only the six of us, and two of us are under 10 years old.

I know by today’s standards, I have a large family.  Not too many families are having four (or more) kids.  But I know I’m not alone in this.  Every mother I talk to does the same thing.  We cook like there’s no tomorrow.  Why?  Granted, I like having leftovers and homemade always tastes better than buying it pre-made or getting takeout.  But why do I feel this need to constantly feed people?  Am I going to be like my mom and continue going at this level even when my kids start moving away from home.  DD#1 is moving to college 500 miles from home next month.  What about next year when DD#2 leaves for college? Am I going to keep cooking for six (or more) people at every meal, even though I can’t just pack it up and ship it to them at school?  Like I said, I like having leftovers but, in 15 years, am I going to want to eat leftover fried chicken and potato salad for lunch every day for a week?

Maybe I’ve inherited the “show ‘em you love ‘em by feeding ‘em” gene from Mom.  In high school and college, all my friends loved coming to my house because my mom would feed them like no one’s business.  (She’d also kick their butts playing “quarters” but that’s a different post all together.)  Perhaps I’ll do the same with my kids’ friends.  I’ve already had one of my daughter’s friends ask if I can send her care packages when she leaves home.  And maybe one of my kids will inherit this gene from me, and the legacy of taking care of the ones you love with food will continue.  In the meantime, I’ll just keep feeding my family and friends (as an expression of love), one piece of juicy southern fried chicken at a time.  Pass the biscuits, please.