Out of House & Home

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

No I did not fall off the face of the earth. I am being held hostage. By teenagers. Hungry. Emotional. Hormonal. Teenagers.

As you know, there are a variety of reasons why I made the move to Vashon (instead of somewhere else in Seattle) but the biggest factor was moving closer to Paige’s school and friends. It got to the point where Paige was on the island every single weekend and it seemed like I never got to see her. Ever.

So I moved to an island and things are a bit topsy turvy around these parts. But in a good way. Sorta. My old schedule has been thrown under the bus and I haven’t gotten into a good rhythm yet. Plus, Paige has been around a lot these days – she hasn’t spent the night at anyone else’s house all month. In fact, she actually hasn’t been anywhere all month. SHE IS AT HOME ALL OF THE TIME.

Don’t get me wrong, I love our new family dynamic. But it also means that I am constantly in Mommy mode. And it is exhausting. As much as I missed having Paige around when we lived in Seattle – I did appreciate that from time to time I could come home wasted and anticipate a hangover while Paige was at a sleepover. Not that I did that all of the time, but it’s always a good thing to have in your pocket when you are contemplating that third or sixth beer.

Plus, it hasn’t been just her around here. In the last few weeks, every single one of her girlfriends has spent the night at our house. Or been over for dinner. Or for study dates. Or for no reason at all. Herds of them. I half expect that a teenager will pop up from behind the couch at any given moment shouting, “I’M HUNGRY! FEED ME!”

Here’s an example of the volume of food that’s running through our house on the weekend – 9 kids over for dinner and 4 girls spending the night:

4 large pizzas
18 cans of soda
2 quarts of juice
2 jumbo bags of potato chips
1 gallon of ice cream
1 – 12 inch round birthday cake
1 dozen chocolate cupcakes
1 dozen blueberry muffins
1 pound of bacon

Yeah, it was a birthday party but they really do eat this much on other nights.

So lately, when I come home it’s like I am punching in for the 2nd shift – kitchen duty. When it was just Paige and I, I could give her a fruit roll up and some Goldfish crackers and pass that off as dinner. But heaven help us if we don’t have a balanced meal when we have company over! God forbid that there are any outside witnesses to those eight o’clock dinners over the sink! We eat home cooked meals every night of the week now.

I know. I know. I shouldn’t worry about it. It’s just that it’s early in the game and I don’t know anyone here and I definitely don’t want to be known as that single mother whose got a frozen pizza in the oven as she sips on bourbon and cokes while watching The Real Housewives (Bethenny is engaged!) on Bravo. This is a small island, after all. (Okay, maybe I don’t watch TRH, but the other two are true.)

But enough is enough. I am determined to get back to writing and blogging on a regular basis (really! I promise!) and back to the old exercise routine. And the dieting. And sending my kid off to other people’s houses.

But for now, in this moment in time, we are living the life that we always wished for and things are exactly how they should to be.

Tags: finding happiness, paige, vashon
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