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It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! (I'll bet you're going to have that song stuck in your head all day long now, aren't you? LOL!) Yes, that's right, folks, it's BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!!!! I love school. I love the happy, smiling bus driver who cheerfully arrives at the street corner bright and early every morning and takes all of the children away for 8 hours. I love the other Moms who all come out of their houses still dressed in their bathrobes, clutching their coffee cups, doing the happy dance in their driveway. I love the peace and quiet that falls on the neighborhood, and the way you can actually go for a walk and hear birds chirping sweetly instead of hearing 'I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie' pouring from the garage down the street where the skateboard kids hang out and spend the afternoon working on their spitting skills. Yes, it's true, I love school. When my kids were little, my neighbor, Keri, and I used to threaten to make signs and form a picket line in front of the school every June, shouting “What do we want?” “Year-round school!” “When do we want it?” “NOW!” but then we decided that, really, a two person picket line is neither exciting nor impressive, so we just stayed home. 

There’s only one problem with school this year, and that’s the fact that I now have a child who is a senior in high school. Which is quite remarkable, given that I myself am only 26 years old. Okay, 27. Oh, fine. 47. This means that I am now in the midst of going Back-To-School shopping with him for the last time, which is a bittersweet experience, to say the least. I am not sure how he got to be a senior in high school, since just last week he was 8 years old and still liked hanging out with Mommy. Now he’s 17 and we hardly ever see him anymore. Does everybody go through this stage? One minute I’m thinking I wish he’d hurry up and move out tomorrow so I can try to somehow reclaim his bedroom, which looks and smells like a Turkish prison and is decorated with posters featuring one of two themes; cars nobody can afford, or young women whose fathers would be mortified if they had any inkling of how little clothing their daughters are wearing in those posters, and the next minute I am close to tears at the thought of him being a grown-up and having a life of his own out in the big world. Do you think that if I suddenly (miraculously) learned how to cook decently, he would at least come home for dinner ever Sunday so I could still see him? 

Now, you might think that those two paragraphs conflict with one another. First I say I love school and wish it would last all year long, and then I say I’m a train wreck because my son is going to graduate from school soon and move away, which would, in effect, be sort of like year round school for the rest of his life. But, really, they don’t conflict at all. I just want my kids to stay little forever, and never move away, but still go to school every day of the year so I don’t have to listen to the Big Butts song every time I go outside. Is that so wrong? 

To comfort myself, I am going to make a quilt. A frilly, pretty, girly colored quilt that will cheer me up considerably. I am going to go to the quilt shop and buy all new fabric, which is stupid considering the fact that I have fourteen million yards of fabric jammed into my studio downstairs, but that fabric is old and dumb and I want new fabric. I’m sure you understand, don’t you? Who wants to make a quilt with old, dumb fabric, when there’s all of that shiny new fabric waiting to come home with me? What comfort would an old dumb fabric quilt be to me in my Hour of Woe and Need? No, it’s new fabric that’s needed, so I’m going to go buy some, and that’s that. I want a quilt that is soft pink and fresh green, with maybe a little bit of plaid thrown in on the sashing and stop border, and some crisp white fabric to set off the freshness of the pink and green. And I want the borders to be plain white and very wide, so I can do some cool feather designs when I quilt it. What I will do with this quilt when it’s done is anybody’s guess, because with Augie the Giant Melon Headed Golden Retriever and Toby the Fruit Bat Eared Shetland Sheepdog spraying dog hair onto every single surface of this house, it’s not very likely that this quilt will ever be allowed out of the cupboard lest it be infested with fluffy little remnants of Toby. But I’m sure it will be quite comforting just the same, so off to the quilt shop I go, checkbook in hand. 

Now, on to the important part of this blog entry; the part where I answer everyone’s prayers and give you the recipe for the Mango Martinis that everyone has been emailing me about. This is the perfect summer-evening drink, because A. Hello, it’s a martini, and B. It’s a really pretty shade of pink, which goes so well with summer evenings in general. If you wish, you can mix a large batch of it in a pitcher and bring the pitcher out to the patio with you, but just make sure you stir it well each time you want to top off your glass, otherwise the ingredients start to settle and then it’s not so wonderful. Also, I do not recommend bringing this drink to quilting retreats, because I did that last year and am still trying to figure out why none of my seam allowances match up on the quilt I was trying to piece that weekend. I’m just sayin.’ 

Kimmy’s Delicious Mango Martinis 

Pour the following into a martini shaker; 

One shot Captain Morgan Parrot Bay Mango Rum (you can use a different brand of mango rum if you wish, but I find that the Captain Morgan really does have a superior flavor for this particular drink) 

One half shot Peach Schnapps (I prefer Peachtree Schnapps) 

Splash of Cointreau (use Triple Sec if you don’t have Cointreau, but like the Capt. Morgan, the Cointreau has a better flavor) 

Splash of pineapple juice 

Just enough cranberry juice to make everything blush a nice shade of clear medium lipstick pink. 

Add ice, shake vigorously for a minute or two, then strain and pour. Yummy!

Comments

• 8. Kim (26 August 2008 at 12:54 a.m.)

  I have so missed your articles in the UP mag. It was great to find your blog. My son left last year for college, and my stepsom left this fall. We tease the kids that we are counting the days til the last one leaves, since we have a timeshare in Florida we are looking forward to using again. We have one left at home and she is a junior. I do feel like we run more that our kids are older than we did when they were in elementary school.

• 7. Ann (21 August 2008 at 9:47 a.m.)

  Don't worry Kimmy, he will make frequent visits when the move out time comes, after all he is a boy...u can expect monthly visits complete with 4 overstuffed bulging garbage bags full of the smelliest nastiest socks, boxers, etc you have ever seen. He will look at u innocently, "how long do u think it will be before you can have this done Mum?, cause I kinda need this shirt and pants for clubbing in one hour" But u know what? It will make ur heart smile and sing when he comes over purposely around dinner time (no warning of course), not only eat w/e u put in front of him, he will thank you and tell u how good it was (I cant cook either). Shocked the heck out of me first time, he even took his plate to the sink...wow, they do know how to do it! =) During his difficult teen years I kept myself sane by making a quilt that I called Mikes Chaos, when he turned 21 this year I made him a quilt of fabrics I'd collected over his lifespan that meant something to him. I quilted it with words from underground hiphop songs we listened to together (its how he used to communicate with me), words of thing s he loved as a lil boy, accomplishments etc. When I gave it to him his eyes actually welled up, there are wonderful things that happen as they mature. He is my best friend and the shining light in my life, I miss him too, I miss his laughter and the way he lights up a room, but I'm proud of who he has become. hugzzz Ann

• 6. Jeanette (21 August 2008 at 8:38 a.m.)

  I forgot to mention that with the kids growing up, they provide you with oodles of grandkids to make quilts for!

• 5. Jeanette (21 August 2008 at 6:13 a.m.)

  One word comes to mind - bittersweet. I can totally relate to your feelings about kids growing up. We have 6 of them and now that they are grown and have kids of their own, they have come to the conclusion that I must have been a closet drinker to put up with them. That's really pretty funny considering I MIGHT have a glass of Bailey's at Christmas time. Your Mango drink sounds pretty yummy though, so if I ever felt the need to turn to alcohol, I would go there first.

• 4. Mary in Iowa (20 August 2008 at 10:56 p.m.)

  My son graduated in 2003. Never left home. Attended a 2-year college. Never left home. Got married last summer. Finally moved out (it was close - I thought she was moving in). A week later his bedroom was my quilting room and his TV room was my sewing room. Do I miss him? Yes. But he better stay married. No room at the inn.

• 3. Kim Mason (19 August 2008 at 2:05 p.m.)

  Oh, AND I absolutely ADORE your pink and green quilt, real genius!

• 2. Kim Mason (19 August 2008 at 2:03 p.m.)

  LMAO. You're hilarious! Your mango drinks and my table dancers should get together... http://kimquiltz.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/another-table-runneri-hate-table-runnersor-do-i/

• 1. Rona Duncan (13 August 2008 at 2:24 p.m.)

  Oh my gosh! Love reading your blog. I have a Senior this year also and can't wait for May to get here to make sure that he graduates. Still have another one as a sophomore this year. So three more years and there is a empty nest that should be filled with many more hours of sewing machine/quilting machine sounds. Keep writing the good stuff. You make me smile.

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