Homelife

We’re back.  And I came home to…

peppers peppers everywhere!  Our garden is exploding with peppers.  I don’t know if you can tell, but this misshapen (?) “sweet bell pepper” is HUGE, like the size of my hand.  It was pulling the whole tiny little plant over.

…and our red bell pepper, which is green…

…and two huge Anaheim peppers.  And our tomato plants are (literally) 5 feet tall.

I have to go find a stake to hold them up, they are so big they’re pulling the cages out of the ground and taking over the entire garden box.  Out of control.

I also came home to some mild disarray.  The fridge was barren, the garden more or less ignored, things had been put in the wrong place.  (For the record, I’m not knocking Paul at all. He’s working 13 hour shifts and flipping back and forth between nights and days, I don’t expect him to come home and worry about which cupboard the blue bowls go in.  I’m impressed they made it into any cupboard at all.)

So this Sunday morning I woke up at 6 and got to work.  I fed the baby and cleaned the kitchen and tended the garden and did 3 loads of laundry and put the dishes back where they belong.  I unpacked, cleaned our bedroom, folded clothes, made some fresh hummingbird nectar and hung up the feeder so I can watch them out the front window while I do work.  All before 8:30am.  Humming the whole time I did it.  I like putting things where they belong, having a clean house and a neat, productive garden and a kitchen that smells like something delicious baking.  I don’t just endure making these things happen, I LIKE it.

Time out.  Hold on.  What is happening here.  Is…is this middle age?  Is this how it happens?  Gradually, your life becomes so mundane that you look forward to mopping the kitchen floor and begin using phrases like “tend the garden”?  Is this how it starts?  Oh my god, am I a boring mom?  Is this how it all goes down??

But I had plans!  I was going to lead a life of international intrigue!  Of adventure!  I was going to do big important things!  I was going to save the world!  I was going to–oh my, look how my squash plant has started to come back.

Do you see?  Do you see how that just happens?  Can you fight it?  Is there any going back?

It may be time for a dramatic re-evaluation of my life trajectory.  But until then (and because it’s time-sensitive), there are some overripe bananas that were neglected this week sitting in our kitchen that need to be made into banana bread.