“Okay, Thanksgiving is over.” I was standing in the middle of the living room, hands on my hips looking around the room. “Who’s helping me get the Christmas decorations down from the attic?”

My husband Steven and our son Alex were laying on the couch, both with their hands on their bellies.

“Seriously?” Steven groaned. “We just finished eating Thanksgiving dinner!”

“I know. But now it’s time to think about Christmas!” I began walking around the house collecting all my pilgrims and pumpkins and putting them on the dining room table. “I’m serious people! We’ve got things to do!”

Alex just groaned again while Steven slowly got up from the couch. “Okay, what do you need?”

I went into the linen closet to get the stick we used to pull down the attic stairs.

“I’ll go up and hand the bins down to you.” I’d already pulled the stairs down and was climbing up. Crawling on my hands and knees I reached the first bin. “Okay, this one is heavy.” I called as I dragged it to the opening and began lowering it down.

Steven grabbed it and took it into the living room while I turned around and crawled over to the next bin.

We repeated this a half a dozen times before Steven looked up at me and asked. “Exactly how many more are coming down?”

I looked over my shoulder and began counting. “Well, we still have the wreaths for outside, the tree and the tree decorations box.” I turned back and smiled at him. “That’s it!”

Steven looked over at the bins stacked in the living room. “Are you planning on decorating the whole house tonight?”

“I doubt it.” I was lowering the wreaths to him.

“Then why are we doing this now?” he cried as he carried the wreaths to the foyer and stacked them on the floor.

“Because I need help getting all this out of the attic.” I called. “Once that part is done I can take my time decorating the house.”

Steven just shook his head as he grabbed more wreaths that I was lowering down.

“I swear you’re almost done!” I called to him.

When he came back I was lowering an empty orange bin to him.

“What’s this for?” he asked.

“I need to put all the Thanksgiving decorations away.” I said as I climbed down the ladder.

Once I was down Steven started to fold the ladder, ready to put it away.

“Wait!” I cried. “Don’t close that yet.”

Steven stopped and looked at me. “Why?”

I pointed to the dining room table where all the pilgrims and pumpkins were stacked. “I need to put these away first.”

Steven sighed. “Do you want me to stand here and hand them up to you when you’re done?”

“You don’t have to.” I picked up a scarecrow and folded him in half so it fit in the bin. “This one will be light. I can get it up there myself.”

“Okay, well I’m going to go get some seconds of your stuffing.”

I watched as he went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.

“Weren’t you just laying on the couch groaning that you were so full?” I asked.

Steven shrugged his shoulders as he patted his stomach. “What can I say? I worked up an appetite lifting all those bins for you.” Steven looked in the living room where Alex was still on the couch. “You ready for second Thanksgiving?” he asked him.

Alex popped up from the couch. “I’m in!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You two are ridiculous.” I said as I snapped the lid closed on the fall bin and headed for the attic.

My son Alex walked into the kitchen and looked at me tossing a clementine up in the air, catching it in one hand and than the other.

“What are you doing?” he asked as he went over to the cabinet and pulled out a loaf of bread.

“Teaching myself to juggle.” I kept tossing it while he went and got the jar of peanut butter.

“You know juggling is done with more then one thing.” He got the jelly from the refrigerator and went over to the silverware drawer to get a knife.

“Very funny.” I tossed but missed and it landed on the floor making a wet squishy sound. “Oops!”

“I’m not eating that now.” Alex warned.

“No worries.” I picked it up and tossed it in the trash before going over to the bowl of clementines we had on the butcher block. “These aren’t in the best of shape anymore. I was going to throw them out but then…” I tossed a new one in the air. “Why not practice with them.”

Alex began making his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “What made you decide to learn how to juggle?”

“I was reading about how you should keep your brain active by learning new things.” I missed again and heard another splat as it landed on the floor. “Darn it!” Tossing it in the trash I grabbed another one.

“So why are you starting with just one?” He leaned back against the counter top and took a bite of his sandwich.

“Well, if I’m having trouble catching just one it seems ridiculous to move on to more don’t you think?”

Alex put his sandwich on a paper towel then came over to the butcher block and grabbed three clementines.

I stopped tossing mine and watched as he easily started juggling the three.

“You still remember how to do that?” I’d forgotten when he was younger we’d put a juggling kit in his Christmas stocking.

He caught all three and placed them back in the bowl. Shrugging his shoulders. “It’s like riding a bike. Once you know how you never forget.” He went back to eating his sandwich.

I raised my eyebrows. “You mean like that time we went bike shopping for all of us, and when I tried to ride mine I slipped and fell and took out a whole line of bikes?”

Alex started to laugh. “Oh, yeah! I remember that!” He began shaking his head. “What happened?”

“Clearly I forgot how to ride a bike.” I said in a monotone.

“No you didn’t! What happened again?”

“The bike salesman wouldn’t let me try a bike where I could put my foot flat on the ground. He said your leg was supposed to be fully extended on the pedal.” I shook my head still clearly annoyed at the memory. “Once I was done riding it I went to get off and my foot slipped and down I went!”

“Taking the whole line of bikes out with you!” Alex finished.

“I’m sure I taught that salesman a lesson.” I tossed the clementine up in the air again.

“Never let a customer get off a bike near all the other bikes?” Alex laughed.

“Something like that!” I laughed as I caught the clementine and tossed it in the trash.

My husband Steven and our son Alex and I were all sitting at the dining room table eating dinner when Steven stopped in mid-sentence and pointed past me.

“There’s a balloon floating in the woods.” he said.

Both Alex and I turned around to see what he was talking about.

“What balloon?” I asked.

Steven was already out of his chair and headed for the kitchen door.

“Where are you going?”

The blue balloon had lost some of its helium and was drifting out of our woods and headed for our back porch.

Alex and I watched as Steven reached out and caught the ribbon that was attached to it and brought it back in the house and handed it to me.

“Here you go.”

I took the balloon from his outstretched hand. “Um…thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He sat back down and continued his story from where he’d left off.

I sat there holding the balloon with one hand and eating with the other.

“You know you don’t have to keep holding it.” Steven smiled. “You can let it go and it will just float around the room.”

I let it go and I watched as it slowly drifted toward the kitchen.

Once dinner was over and we were all clearing our plates, I walked in the kitchen where the balloon was hovering near the sink. I gently swatted it out of the way and started rinsing the plates before stacking them in the dishwasher.

The balloon had made its way over to the refrigerator and once again I tapped it away to put the leftovers in.

Once the kitchen was cleaned I reached over and grabbed the ribbon attached to the balloon. “Okay, you’re coming with me.” I told it as I went into the living room.

Alex was sitting on the couch and when he looked up and saw me there holding the balloon he began to laugh.

“Taking your balloon for a walk?” he asked as he moved over on the couch to make a space for me to sit.

“I’m just bringing it in here so I can watch it float around the living room while I’m watching my shows tonight.” I let go of the ribbon and watched it drift over the coffee table.

“You really seem to like that balloon.”

“I like what it means.” I smiled. “Your Dad saw it outside and thought I’d like it and went out and got it for me.” I looked over at Alex. “It reminds me of all the times you and your brother would pick a dandelion for me and run into the house all excited to give it to me.”

Alex laughed again. “Dandelions and balloons. Good to know!”

“Hey,” I nudged his arm. “It’s the little things that make me happy.”

My son Alex and I were standing out on our back porch, bundled up in sweatshirts, looking at my potted herb garden.

“Are you going to bring any of them in?” He asked as he pulled off a yellow leaf from my basil plant.

“Nope.” I shook my head. “I’m not making that mistake again.”

Alex looked confused. “What does that mean?”

“You don’t remember the ant problem we had one year in the kitchen, when we lived on Riverside?”

Alex shook his head. “No.”

I pointed through the dining room window at the large pathos plant sitting on a tall pedestal table in the corner of the dining room. “I put that pathos plant out on the deck for the summer when we lived on Riverside. It looked so pretty out there on the table, and it really had a growth spurt while it was outside.” I shook my head. “But when I brought it inside, when it started to get cold out at night, I began to notice little black ants all around the kitchen.”

“So what did you do?” Alex asked as he bent down to get a closer look at the parsley plant.

“First, I couldn’t figure out where they were coming from!”

Alex looked up at me. “But didn’t you just say it was because you’d brought the plant inside?”

“Yes. But I didn’t know that at first.” I sighed. “I spent weeks trying to track down where they were coming in.”

“But they weren’t coming in.”

“Exactly!” I looked over at the bird feeder where a squirrel was hanging upside down, doing pull ups to eat the birdseed. “When I finally followed an ant trail back to the planter and began to pull the plant out of the pot I realized the entire thing had turned into an ant nest!”

“What did you do?”

“What anyone would have done if they’d been me.” I looked over at him and shrugged my shoulders. “I screamed and ran to the kitchen door, opened it, and threw the entire pot outside.”

“Seriously?” Alex started to laugh.

“Yup.” I had to laugh too. “The pot broke into a dozen pieces and ants were scurrying all around the deck.”

“So what happened next?”

“I waited until most of the ants left. Then I went outside, took the plant and shook all the dirt off it’s roots, brought it back into the house, found a new planter to put it in and re-potted it.” I pointed back in the window by the dining room. “And there it is now, looking as beautiful as ever!”

Alex bent down again and looked at the mint plant. “It doesn’t look like any ants are on any of these plants.”

I shook my head again. “Nope. Not worth it. Unless…” I looked over at him. “You’d like to bring them into your room?”

Alex stood up, brushing dirt off his pants. “On the other hand, they seem fine out here.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”

“What are you doing?” My son Alex had just pulled up in the driveway and was walking up our front walk when he’d noticed me crouching over our fall display.

“Never thought I’d be doing this but, it seems like I’m going to be weeding our decorations this season.” I complained as I yanked another patch of grass from our decorative hay bale. I pointed to the already growing pile of weeds that were next to the pumpkins and mums. “I bought this hay bale from the craft store wrapped in plastic, no less, and now I’m weeding it!”

“That’s weird.”

“Tell me about it!” I was tugging on another weed. “These weeds are really stuck in this thing!”

“Maybe it’s not suppose to get wet?” Alex asked.

I looked up at Alex. “I’ve had real hay bales from the farmers market that never did this.” I sighed as I grabbed another weed and began tugging. “I can’t believe I get a little decorative one and this happens.”

Just then my husband Steven came around the side of the house carrying his file case he wanted to put in his truck. “What are you two doing?” he asked.

“Mom’s weeding the decorations.” Alex called.

Steven came over to get a closer look.

By now the weed I was pulling on was actually lifting the small hay bale up from the ground. “Oh, this is getting ridiculous!” I cried.

“Why don’t you just flip it over?” Steven suggested.

I look confused. “What?”

“Take the gourds off and flip the hay bale over so the weeds are on the bottom.” He put the case down and began taking the gourds off and placing them on the sidewalk. He flipped the hay bale over and began stacking the gourds back on. “See, good as new!”

I looked over at him. “But they’re only going to start growing on this side.” I complained.

“Sure, and when they do, the weeds on the bottom will be dead and you can just flip it over again.”

I looked over at Alex who shrugged his shoulders. “Looks like it might work.”

I looked back at the hay bale with the grass now peeking out from under the bottom. “I guess I could do that.” I began scooping up the weeds I’d already pulled out.

Steven pointed to my handful of weeds before picking up his filing box. “Make sure those don’t get in the grass. We have enough weeds growing in our lawn already. We don’t need any extra.”

I nodded as I looked over at one of my pumpkins. “Oh, come on!” I cried.

Alex looked to where I was pointing. “That doesn’t look good.”

I tipped the pumpkin and could see the bottom had already rotted out. “I was hoping to have these around until Thanksgiving and it’s not even Halloween yet!”

“So throw that one away and go buy another one.” Steven called over his shoulder as he headed for his truck.

I looked over at Alex. “These were already the second ones I bought when the first ones rotted out.”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “Looks like you’re going to be keeping the garden center busy.”

“Ah, rats!” I cried as lost the game of Solitaire I’d been playing. I’d been sitting on the couch playing on my phone when my son Alex came into the room.

“What are we doing for lunch?” he asked.

“What?” I looked confused as I looked over at the clock. “Are you kidding me?” I cried. “How’d it get to be 12:30!” I reached over to my tea cup, that was sitting on the coffee table, and realized as I took a sip that it was cold. “Where’d the morning go?” I said shaking my head, getting up and adjusting my bathrobe. “I better get in the shower, I have a lot to get done today.” I slipped my phone in my bathrobe pocket and walked into the kitchen to pour the remainder of my tea in the sink and put the cup in the dishwasher.

“What time did you get up this morning?” Alex asked as he began going through the refrigerator looking for something to eat.

“I think around 7 o’clock.” I went to get a glass to fill with water.

“You’ve been on the couch playing Solitaire all this time?” He’d pulled some cold cuts from the drawer and placed them on the counter-top.

“Not the whole time.” I said feeling a bit of shame. “I was also watching some videos and scanning Facebook.”

“That’s a lot of time on your phone.” Alex said as he pulled a package of rolls from the cabinet and held them up. “You want me to make you a sandwich?”

“No thanks.” I sighed looking at the rolls. “But maybe you’re right. I did just waste the entire morning playing on my phone.”

Alex tossed the rolls on the counter-top and held out his hand. “Here. Give it to me.”

“What?” I protectively put my hand over the pocket my phone was in. “Why?”

“I’ll hold on to it while you take a shower.”

“But I might need it.” I took a step back.

Alex started to laugh. “Seriously?” His hand was still held out. “Are you taking it in the shower with you?”

“Well, no.” I took another step back. “But I like to have it on the vanity in case someone calls me.”

Alex stood there with his hand held out not saying another word, but the look in his eyes said everything.

I took a deep breath as I reached in my pocket and took out my phone. “Wow! This is so much harder then I thought it would be.”

“It’s for your own good.” Alex extended his hand further.

I placed my phone in his hand. “Okay fine. But I get it back when I get out of the shower, right?”

Alex slipped my phone in his jeans pocket. “Let’s see how it goes when you get out.” He went over to the sink to wash his hands.

“What?” I could feel myself getting anxious. “But I need my phone!” I cried. “I promise I’ll use it less tomorrow!”

Alex reached over to get a paper towel to dry his hands. “That’s exactly what everyone addicted to their phones say.”

It’s hard to argue with him when he was right.

“Fine.” I went to the linen closet to get a towel. “I’ll be out of the shower soon and we’ll discuss it then.” I called.

“I’m not doing it!” I said shaking my head. “Nope. I’m not calling an antipasti a charcuterie board.” Still shaking my head. “Nope. Not happening.”

Alex looked over at the advertisement I was holding, that had come in the mail, from a local farmers market I loved to shop at.

Alex started to laugh. “I can see you feel pretty strongly about that.”

“It’s ridiculous.” I pointed to the picture of the antipasti. “It’s clearly an antipasti. So now they put together the exact same ingredients and now it’s French?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “It’s doesn’t really matter what they call it. You know it’s antipasti.”

I tossed the flier onto the table. “Why do we have to keep renaming everything?” I said with a sigh.

“Maybe things get renamed because people don’t want something that sounds old and tired and so they rename it and it seems new again and everyone wants it.”

I thought about that for a second. “Maybe you’re right.” I began nodding my head. “I remember when my great Aunt decided to rename hot dogs.”

Alex looked confused. “She renamed hot dogs?”

“Yup.” I had to laugh. “When I was little, we were over at her house, she said she was serving tube steaks for lunch.”

Alex started to laugh. “Tube steaks?”

I nodded my head. “I’d never heard of it so I couldn’t wait for lunch. Then she served us hot dogs. But…” I held up my finger pausing for a second. “There was no bun. She served them on a plate and used a knife and fork, cutting them in little pieces to eat.”

Alex shook his head, still laughing. “Did anyone say anything to her?”

“No one wanted to hurt her feelings.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Clearly she was trying to make it a fancier lunch then it was. So, we all just played along.”

“So that’s what you do now.” Alex said pointing to the flier. “You order a antipasti, call it a charcuterie board and pretend it’s brand new and delicious!”

“Antipasti are delicious!”

“See!” Alex patted me on the shoulder. “You’re halfway there already!”

“Okay, fine.” I sighed as I shook my head.

“Hey, maybe next summer you can have a barbeque and serve hamburgers and tube steaks! You could start a whole new trend!” Alex laughed.

“Nope, not going to happen!” I said.

“We’ll see.” Alex said as he headed back to his room. “I got you to rethink the charcuterie board didn’t I?” he called over his shoulder.

“Not really!” I called back. “We all know it’s an antipasti!”

“Oh, good they’re here.” My husband Steve said as he walked to the front door.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I looked out my living room window early on a beautiful Saturday morning.

A pick-up truck had just pulled up to our house towing a flatbed that had a backhoe chained down to it.

I followed him but didn’t want to go outside with him because I was still in my pajamas.

“Why do we need a backhoe?” I asked.

“We talked about this.” Steven looked confused. “We’re putting a garden in the backyard.”

“Yes, we talked about a garden.” I looked out the front door watching two workers unchaining the backhoe and getting ready to back it off the flatbed. “But didn’t you say it was going to be a container garden?” I shook my head as I pointed to the backhoe that was now driving over my front yard headed around the house. “I wasn’t picturing needing heavy equipment for that.”

“Well, we have to get the ground level or my automatic watering system won’t work.”

“Automatic watering system?” Now I was really confused. “I was picturing using the garden hose that’s attached to the back of the house.”

He was out the front door trotting around the side of the house wanting to catch up with the workers. “Wait till you see the garden I’m planning!” he called over his shoulder before I lost sight of him as he went around the side of the house.

“Oh, boy.” I sighed as I shut the front door and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

By the time I was showered and dressed a half hour had passed. I went to the kitchen door to see what kind of progress they’d made.

Stepping out on the back porch I was blown away by what I was seeing. A huge part of our back yard was scraped away, with a dirt pile almost as tall as me pushed into the front of the woods.

Steven saw me and, with a huge smile on his face, walked over to me. “It’s it going to be great!” He pointed to the plot of land. “By next summer you’ll be able to walk right outside your back door and pick everything you’ll need for the salad we’ll be having for dinner!”

I could hear the excitement in his voice so I didn’t want to put too much of a damper on it. “Exactly how big is this garden going to be?”

“Don’t you remember we were out here the other day and I showed you how big it would be with a tape measure?”

“Yes.” I nodded my head. “ But I guess the dirt being scraped away is making me realize exactly how big it’s really going to be.”

Steven was still smiling. “The fencing guys are coming tomorrow.”

“We’re getting a fence too?”

“Of course. I’m thinking it should be a six foot chain link.”

“Six feet?” It was starting to be too much for me to take in.

“Well, yeah.” Steven looked confused. “We have to keep the deer out.”

“Steven I can barely keep my geraniums watered.” I looked over at my herb pots where my basil was looking a little weepy. “How are we going to manage a garden this size?”

“We’ll do it together.” He was smiling again. “It’ll be fun!” He turned around and headed back to the garden site.

I sighed again as I headed for the back door. “I’m pretty sure when you’re talking about planting that much land you’re not a gardener anymore.” I said under my breath. “You’re a farmer.”

My son Alex and I were in one of our favorite parks, taking an early morning walk, when he stopped and pointed to a slug inching its way across the blacktop path in front of us.

“He’s got quite a slime trail going.” I said as I noticed about a foot long silver trail behind him.

We both bent over to take a closer look.

“They are interesting looking.” Alex remarked.

I looked over at him and shrugged my shoulders. “I guess.” I looked back at the slug.

“Hey, do you remember in the movie ‘A Christmas Story’ when Ralphie and Randy were running away from the bullies and Randy fell down in the snow?”

“Yeah.”

“The narrator says, ‘Randy just laid there like a slug. It was his only defense.’” I started to laugh and looked back at Alex. “That line cracks me up every time I hear it!”

Alex started to laugh too.

I looked back at the slug. “So exactly how do slugs defend themselves?”

“Maybe it’s the slime they’re covered in?” Alex suggested.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Only one way to find out.” I started a Google search. After a few moments I looked back at Alex. “You’re right!” I held the phone out for him to see.

“Slugs have a very thick slime which protects them against drying out and has a disgusting taste that helps protect them against predators.” Alex read.

“How did you know that?” I asked as I slipped the phone back in my pocket.

Alex pointed back at the slug that had almost made it off the path and into the grass for a little more protection. “What else does he have?”

“True.”

We started to walk again when we noticed another slug on the path. “There’s another one.” I said.

A few steps further and we spotted another one. I looked over at Alex. “Why are there so many slugs out?”

“Well, we’ve been in a drought for most of the summer and it just rained last night.” He looked over at me and shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe they’re out to soak up some moisture from the grass?”

I was ready to reach for my phone again when I shook my head and tucked it back in my pocket. “You know I’m not even going to bother to look that up.”

“Really?” Alex laughed. “I could have made that up!”

“Nope.” I said as we began to walk again. “It sounds reasonable and I’m going to say you’re right.”

We were walking for a few minutes enjoying the beautiful day when Alex looked over at me and smiled. “You’re going to look it up later, when you get home, aren’t you?”

I had to laugh as I shook my head. “You know me so well.”

Alex patted me on the shoulder as we got closer to the car. “Let me know if I’m wrong.”

“Oh, you know I will.” I said with a laugh as I unlocked the car.

I paused as I looked over the roof of the car at him as he reached to open the passenger door. “But I’ll be fair.” I reminded him. “I’ll also let you know if you’re right.”

“That’s it, I’m decorating for fall.” I said as I pulled the attic stairs down.

My son Alex watched me climb up into the attic. “But it’s 80 degrees out.”

“Doesn’t matter.” I said as I crawled over to the bins marked fall decorations. “The calendar says it’s fall so I’m going to decorate.” I pulled the first bin over to the stairs and began lowering it down to Alex. “Be careful, this one is heavy.”

Once he had it I let go.

“Why’s it so heavy?” he asked as he maneuvered it through the hallway and out to the living room.

“No clue.” I called as I dragged another bin over to the ladder and began lowering it. “This one’s a lot lighter.”

Once I was sure he had it I crawled over to get the fall wreath that I always hung outside and handed it down to him. “This is the last of it.”

Once I was sure he had it, I clicked off the light and began climbing down. “Wow, it’s hot up there!” I said as I folded up the ladder and closed the hatch.

“That’s because it’s 80 degrees outside.” Alex reminded me.

“It was more like 100 degrees up there.” I pointed to the ceiling before using the sleeve of my short sleeved shirt to wipe the sweat off my forehead. “I have to say I’m usually not a big fan of the air conditioning cranked up in here but right now it feels pretty good.” I went over to the first bin and opened the lid. “Ah, it’s my scarecrows and pumpkins.” I pulled them out and began laying them on the floor.

I picked up the wreath and headed for the front door. “Once I get all of this stuff up I’m going to take a quick run to the garden center and pick up our pumpkins and mums.”

I left the front door open and went over to the hook on the wall by our garage. Reaching over the railing I took the summer wreath down and placed the fall wreath in its place.

Coming back inside I put the summer wreath on top of the empty bin and grabbed a scarecrow and pumpkin and headed for the stairs. “You want to go to the garden center with me?”

“No, I’ll pass.” Alex said as he followed me. “It doesn’t feel like fall to me yet.”

“Well, this might help.” I put the scarecrow at the top of the stairs placing the pumpkin next to its feet.

I stood back and looked. “It might not feel like fall outside but it sure feels like fall in here!”

I looked over at Alex and smiled. “So what do you think?”

“Still not feeling it.”

“Well, what if I said that after I’m done decorating and getting my real pumpkins and mums from the garden center, I swing by the store and pick up some pumpkin muffin mix and come home and make a batch?”

Alex smiled and nodded. “Yup, that would definitely get me feeling like it was fall.”

I laughed. “I thought that might help.” I went back to the bin and pulled out another scarecrow and pumpkin and handed them to Alex. “Why don’t you take these and put them at the end of the hallway by our bedrooms?”

“But I thought you liked to do all the decorating yourself?”

I looked over at him. “I usually do, but the quicker we get this done the sooner you’re going to be smelling pumpkin muffins baking in the oven.”

“Good point.” He took the scarecrow and pumpkin from my hands.

“It’s feeling more and more like fall in here!” I called to him as he headed down the hallway.