BrainStream: I had fun spending Mother's

I had fun spending Mother's Day with my mom. Saturday, my brother (whom I was visiting) said he had to stop over at Mom's to plant some plants for her. I had originally intended to hang out as his place and get some work done but she had just gone through surgery so we offered to go with him and our younger brother followed since he had a few hours before he had to go to work. Lead by Kirky and constantly having to tell my mother to sit down and put her leg up, we wandered around the front and back yards based on a well-drawn map on graph paper checking in with Mom for where plants should be placed. About an hour and a half into it my one brother heads to work while the other disappeared downstairs to fix Mom's doorbell and extend the cable wiring throughout the house leaving Kirky and I out in the 90 degree weather to finish the planting. In retrospect we should have planted in the morning or late afternoon.

Anyway, the heat gets the better of us and we quit after finishing all but a handful of the plants. Jon and Nate were going to finish for her Sunday. I have to tell you - it's times like that that I really notice how overweight I am. I used to be able to deal with the heat, no problem. I remember as a teen living in a 9x9 tent for 9 weeks at a Boy Scout camp in the West Virginian mountains where I was staff. The heat used to get unbearable but I never seemed to sweat and got used to regulating it. Now I start huffing and puffing, get all chaffed, and the only way I can cool off is by taking a warm shower to clean all the sweat off and then sit under cold water for another 20min.

My body has always been weird like that - retaining heat. I remember walking around with a girlfriend on a cold fall day in HS. She was shivering and I was in short sleeves. We held hands and mine must have been on fire because she noticed it. When I did my Eagle Project for Boy Scouts, I spent 30min at a time putting 9 signs I had hand chiseled out of wood at various town conservation sites - it was 30 degrees and starting to snow. I got so hot, I took off my gloves and my hands were literally steaming putting off more white mist then my warm breath to the cold air. So that combined with the extra weight is going to be a real problem this summer. I'm guessing I'll get sick of all the extra showers and will resign myself to loosing as much as I can - I have to. There's no way I can survive having a kid at this point with my complete lack of energy.

Where was I? Oh yes. Mother's Day. I decided that since my mom was recovering from her recent surgery, that I'd cook her breakfast and invite my two brothers to attend as well. Of course, when I say "I'd cook her breakfast" I mean "Kirky would cook her breakfast and I'd do as much as I could to make sure she didn't think she had to do all the work." She had a fabulous menu and cooked an omlette with eggs, cheese, mushrooms and tomato for my mother, a hamd and cheese omlette for my youngest brother, scrambled eggs with cheese for my other brother and I, and she managed to whip herself up an egg-white omlette after she served everybody else and told us to eat while it was hot. We also had bacon, which I prepared via the microwave, fabulous red potato homefries with a little onion, corn beef hash, Pillsbury dinner roll croisants, and fresh OJ. Absolutely amazing. Afterwards, I did my part and cleaned the kitchen before we left since mother was not supposed to be on her feet.

One of the things I've noticed is that when we're cooking for other people, Kirky and I make an excellent team. Sure we play-bicker all the time and at home, Kirky will cook while I watch TV or work in my office and then she'll watch her shows while I clean up but there's something about tag-teaming whe making a meal for family. It wasn't just Mother's Day breakfast that I noticed it. Two weeks ago we were at mom's for a visit and decided to have some grilled seafood for lunch. I went shopping and came back with tons of food. While Kirky grilled the scallops, salmon, summer squash and some asperigus, I blanched the rest of the asparigus, de-veined the shrimp and boiled it. And cleanup wasn't just me - I washed while Kirky dried. A duet only a great marriage could produce.

I think I'm ready to get back in the swing of things house-wise. The last week, I let the laundry, kitchen and cleaning go until Friday when I ran around trying to pick up before we left. I really got into keeping the house clean when Kirky was gone in CA for a week and when she got back I managed to keep it up for 2 more weeks. However a complaint of hers was that I turned into a mother, complaining when she dropped the envelopes from open mail right onto the living room floor or left laundry on her side of the bedroom for me to pick up. So I'm intent on getting the cleaning back into order, this time leaving her be. :)

This week will be spent catching up on Attrition, working on the database for the online Artemisia Botanicals store, and looking for healthful alternatives for me to loose weight this summer. This weekend we're off to Maine to do a "walk for Hunger" with a HS friend of mine who's organization is coordinating the charity event.

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