When cleaning out the pantry isn't enough

There were moments for celebration this past weekend: date night with my husband (who has been out of town for many days), watching my brother's tennis match and Gabe tearing it up on the basketball court, dinner with friends, a nice Sunday lunch with Jordan's mom and visiting with our new home teachers. Great times.

But then there were some not so great moments as well.

I'll just say it: My 16 year old son was NOT very happy with me.

Translation: I was NOT very happy with him.

Translation: We were not very happy with each other.

In fact, I woke up Monday morning with that nagging "at odds with the world" feeling. It didn't help that there was no traditional : "Bye. Have a good day. Love you" said as he headed out the door for school. I tried to shake the yuck with exercise but the whole time I felt like I was trying to swim upstream.

Still looking for some relief I decided to tackle the long over-due task of cleaning out my pantry. After all, I reasoned, I needed some event that would create resolution.

As fate would have it, that same son came home for lunch as I was pulling empty bags of chips and dried out marshmallows out of the pantry.

For once, he was by himself.

I offered to make him some lunch but he mumbled something about wanting a hot pocket instead. I searched the recesses of my brain for some really engaging topic of conversation.

I came up with: "How's your day been so far?" and "Cleaning out the pantry has made me see that there are some things I need to get at Wal-Mart." "Do you want to go to Wal-Mart?"

grunt

Clearly, we needed an intervention. (And by that I should probably be referring to my lack of ability to come up with a conversation topic). Seeing him rinse his dish and get ready to head back to school I quickly walked over and stood in front of him blocking his pathway to the door.

"What?" he asked.

"You forgot something," I said. And I reached up and put my arms around his neck. "I still really like you," I whispered (I aimed for his ear but I hit more around the neck area). Hugging me back he said, "Really? Because I still really like you too."

And then as he was closing the door: "Make me a list and I'll run to the store for you when I get home."

Floating, I tell ya. No amount of organization in my pantry could have had that kind of effect.

I really, really love that kid.