mending

There is nothing more satisfying to a Mom at home all the time
then feeling needed by a grateful family.

I now recommend, if you feel your husband is getting soft
and your children are beginning to leave their shoes on the table
and living like they have skipped straight to some university frat house,
go away for a few weeks.

Just pack up and trust that husband will be able to find emergency
childcare and rustle up food from the freezer... or from every restaurant in town.
Go away for a few weeks.

Mine seemed to be just fine when I arrived home. Clean clothes and house, no one
was starving or particularly dirty. Nails were trimmed - but I knew they must be
longing for their mother on the inside. I figured they didn't want to hurt their father's
feelings that he was not quite good enough.

A few days went by and they still seemed unable to admit that
things were much better when I was around.

To soften them all up, (maybe a touch of domestic wiles)
I began baking blueberry pies.

It was after a few bites that son and even husband declared with a smile,
"We are very glad that Mom is back, aren't we?"

Victory!

P.S. On a more serious note, as I dressed my wound this morning Alice considered it carefully
and declared it to look like a giraffe. I would describe it more simply: a hole. A hole where there should not be one unless one has just been caught in the path of a bullet.