MUMTASTIC

I took my still-alive but fading pots of mums to the curb dumping them into a pile of leaves. “I finally did it!” I called to my son Alex who was on the front porch.

“Did what?”

I walked back to the porch with my empty pots. “I finally made it through a whole mum season without killing them.”

Alex looked confused. “What are you talking about? You buy mums every year.”

“I buy them over and over and over again.” I placed the pots on the porch and grabbed the pumpkin that had been next to the mums and headed back to the curb. “I have to say I was pretty nervous when your Dad brought home those huge pots. But I kept them alive for the whole season!” I called over my shoulder before tossing the pumpkin into the leaf pile. Brushing the dirt off my hands I headed back to the porch. “There’s something very satisfying about making it through the whole season without having to replace them.”

Alex laughed. “I bet.” He looked over at the leaf pile. “You know most of the flowers are still blooming on those plants.”

“I know.” I looked at my fall pillows on the rocking chairs. “But Thanksgiving is over and it’s time for Christmas.” I scooped up the pillows and went into the house.

Alex followed me in. “But we just finished eating turkey.”

“Yup.” The smell of turkey and stuffing still lingered in the air as I tossed the pillows on a dining room chair. I began walking around the house collecting pilgrims and pumpkins and carrying them back to the dining room, dropping them in a pile on the dining room table.

“Want to help me bring down the Christmas bins from the attic?” I asked as I walked toward the hallway where the pull down attic steps were.

As I walked past the front window something caught my eye. I stopped and looked out the window. “Hey, somebody took my mums!”

Alex came over and looked. The pile of leaves were still there but my purple mums were missing.

“They didn’t even have pots!” I looked over at Alex. “Who would have taken them?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “They were still alive. Maybe they had pots at home that they could put them in.”

My husband Steven came into the room. I pointed out the window. “I just threw our mums away and someone’s already taken them.”

Steven looked out the window and shrugged his shoulders. “They probably took them home to plant in their yard.” Steven looked over at me. “They were pretty big plants.”

I stopped and looked out the window then began shaking my head. “Oh my gosh! It never crossed my mind to plant them in the yard.” I slapped my hand against my forehead. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!”

Alex came over and patted me on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. How would you know about planting them in our yard when you usually kill them every year.”

I looked over at Alex and started to laugh. “You know, somehow that just made me feel better.”