Last night was one of those nights.
I had one son who was off to scouts and then to soccer practice, another who went to his job before hitting the library and running somewhere around 23 errands and the third who had to do a history project before his hockey workout.
Meanwhile I was up to my armpits cleaning the garage that I optimistically thought “would only take a few hours” trying to get all the ABOP (Anti-freeze, batteries, oil and paint) center stuff ready to haul. And of course my husband decided to stay late at the office to chat.
Nine o’clock rolled around and they all stood there looking at me with Meguire’s Diamond Coat Car polish dripping from the end of my nose. The bottle had exploded when I tried to grab it with a broom handle from the top shelf that my step ladder and stubby legs wouldn’t reach. But I digress…..
Josh knowing that the end of the world would be here before I got anything cooked, piped up, “I’ll take care of dinner tonight, Mom”
I didn’t worry too much since all he knows how to do in a kitchen involves pouring and using a spoon.
“Okay, I’ll take you up on that offer but add a banana to the cereal so at least it’s a well balanced meal.” He smiled and headed back into the house.
Fifteen minutes and half a dozen rolls of paper towels later, the smell of the neighbors BBQ had my own stomach quivering at the thoughts of food. I went inside to find each of my sons with a hamburger in each hand.
Apparently in my maternal absence, Josh had learned how to use the grill without burning his eyebrows off – but that’s a story for another time. I grabbed one of the burgers and lifted the bun. No tomatoes, no lettuce - the closest thing to something from the fruit and vegetable group on those burgers was ketchup. There was plenty from the meat group however, since he’d done a double stack for each of them times two.
“Couldn’t you have at least pretended to care about a balanced meal?” I pleaded.
As only Josh can, he grinned that wonderful teenage smile with a mouth full of hamburger and gave me today’s “Life Saver”;
He then held up each hand with grease and ketchup dripping from his fists full of double stack hamburgers and said, “I did, Mom! My idea of a balanced meal is one in each hand!” And with that he took another bite and reveled in his creation. Who was I to argue? My own life has been a terrible balancing act as of late. At least I could gain comfort in the fact that someone in the family was thinking about some sort of balance,… even if it meant four all beef patties and ketchup on a couple of sesame seed buns
No comments:
Post a Comment