I love family dinners. We try a couple times a week to actually sit down together for dinner. By together- I mean all 6 of us. It seems to only get tougher to make it happen. Most my mom friends with older kids have given up or push dinner time to 730 or 8. Generally I eat with the kids- sometimes I feed them and make adult food for Phil and I when he gets home. Even then, we usually eat pretty late by my standards and sometimes that leads to gastrointestinal distress. I think there are still groups studying the effects of eating late and sleep patterns, but any mom can tell you- eating too late causes major disruptions.
The other day we had eaten a late lunch. The kids are always hungry so I fed them at the normal time and Phil and I opted for a later dinner. Since our lunch had consisted of mostly fruit and veggie leftovers from the birthday party, I felt like something bad for me. This equated to what we had on hand- which was hot wings. As I age, my stomach is a lot less tolerant of a variety of foods. I was surprised the last time I had hot wings that there were no ill effects. This time not so much. A few hours later I lay in bed with a bit of fire warming my digestive tract. The trade winds picked up on the island and were lashing through the blinds. I love the wind. Phil does not. Unfortunately for both of us- the wind flows most steadily through HIS window. He therefore generally blocks the deliciousness of the breeze and depending on his day's activities- sometimes all out spoils it. He proposed that we switch sides for the night.
Sides of the bed are a tricky thing. We've tried it before. It rarely works out. During sleep there is a gentle- and sometimes violent migration towards the accustomed side. But I thought the cool breeze would counteract the heat threatening to boil out of my stomach, so we gave it a shot. I closed my eyes and listened to the semi rythmic clapping of the blinds against the windowsill. It was a restless sleep. I remember being chased and then screaming. I woke to Phil shaking me with a look of terror on his face. In that weird twilight- half awake place I had been caught by whoever was chasing me. AS I regained consciousness- I realized it was Phil waking me. Thank you, I said and took a deep breath and rolled over to snuggle. He got up and walked around the room and finally laid back down. Then the laughing starts. And continues. And continues. When we both stop he tells me how the events transpired on his end. He woke to violent scissor kicks on my part that were shredding the sheets. I started rolling away from him and he thought I was going to roll off the bed, so he grabbed me. That's when the screaming started as he tried to deflect kicks and punches. Suddenly I stop, say Thank you and try to snuggle. Meanwhile he is recovering from combative evasive maneuvers. We laugh again, try to make sense of the tangle of sheets and finally go back to sleep. I notice he is a little punchy every time I move, so I try to be still.
The next night, we get to sit down as a family for dinner. We are reliving the nightmare for the kids who find it to be really amusing. The moral of the story was that eating junk late at night is not good for you, but mostly they just liked Phil's re-enactment of me thrashing around. The kids have standardized tests this week and I wanted to get them fed early and off to bed. Kiera has been really worried about the tests. She is worried they will affect her grades and since her social life is regulated by the state of such grades- she is panicking. We let her know that these tests are independent of school grades. She starts recounting her most recent grades.- I got an MP on my reading constructed response and an MP on the Math one a couple of weeks ago. I got mostly MP's but last week I got 2 DP's. Phillip chimes in that he is good- pretty much all MP's with some ME's. I notice that Lily is sitting there patiently with her hand raised. Yes, Lily.
Sometimes when I go swimming, I got a P. And then I get out and go. And the laughing starts again. That is precisely why I love family dinners.
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