Ants, Part III

I read (and everything I read is true, I'm sure!) that plain old household borax can take care of your ant problem.  So I scooted right down to the store (we were out of it in the laundry room) and got me some borax.  I used to recognize it by its green box, but now the box is white.  By the looks of the box redesign, they wanted to appear more natural and... green.  But the box isn't green anymore.  I digress.

I sprinkled borax around the areas the ants like to hang out.  I even blocked off some of their supply routes.  And the ants disappeared.  For a day.  Now they are back, and they have scooted the powdery borax over so they could have more room to crawl and creep and scurry.  They are even tricky enough to make my camera not take nice pictures of them.

They are tiny little things, so frightened by the giant penny that they tried to run under my lovely vintage plastic floor trim.  Trent calls them sugar ants, but I know there is no sugar in my bathroom.  If there was, I would have eaten it.

Maybe I need to pull out my Wonder Woman arm bands and try something else.

Quiet?

It's unusually quiet around here.  The very air is thick with silence, and it feels strange.  Normally, afternoons are a wild hodge-podge of boyish horseplay, mother-reminders of chores, questions about available edibles, pencil-finding homeworkers, doors opening with coming-home traffic and closing again with out-goers.  It's a veritable Grand Central Station, and although I become harried by the relentless motion, there is nowhere I'd rather be than in the midst of my children's lives.

For now, I wonder at, and revel in the stillness.  Trent is quiet in his office.  Alec is at his after-school job.  Ben is at Latin Club (I think).  Cub Scouts claims Chris, David, and Eddy, as den chief, Webelos, and Bear respectively.  The Angel and the babies are taking a late nap after our mid-day outing to the bi-monthly Aunts of the Knapp Family Luncheon.  So still.  Whatever shall I do with myself?  For a moment I am a lost empty nester.  Then I slip into a deliciously stolen nap.  Bliss!

Now the phone rings, then the sliding door moves aside to allow entrance.  The hush is broken by the den chief coming home from a busy meeting of making bird posters.  The Scrub Sprouts start straggling in, treasuring a bit of obsidian and a homemade catapult.  I hear Trent making calls behind the office door.  A sleeping baby rolls drowsily off the couch.  The timer beeps on the baking bread.  I wonder what I can whip up for dinner, and the world resumes its usual pace.  I head into the kitchen with a smile on my face, functional again because

I snuck a nap today.

Daughters In My Kingdom

I taught the lesson in church yesterday.  I've taught the children's classes, or been a part of the music, on a regular basis.  But yesterday, I got to teach the women, and  I really enjoyed it.

For a topic, I was given the fourth chapter of the wonderful book, Daughters In My Kingdom.  It's a book about the beginnings of  the Relief Society, the women's organization in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It uses the history to teach lessons and principles of topics that are pertinent to all women:  charity, service, how to speak articulately, family, our relationship with Jesus, using our talents, reaching our potential... It's chock full of good stuff, and I feel inspired every time I open it up.  Maybe I ought to read it more often, hmmm?

Here is the link to the lesson I taught, entitled "A Wide and Expansive Sphere of Action."

Ants, Part II

The ants are back.

These ants are kicking my pants.

Footwear

From the leading fashion mavens of home, we bring you this season's eagerly-anticipated debut of winter footwear.  It is just now cold enough to justify such warmth, but we welcome the first real snowfall of the year.  Modeling this year's pink styles are our very own models:

For added loveliness, Freddy is sporting a black eye (from walking into a desk), and Georgie dons a green headband (from his sister's drawer).  They rest nonchalantly against a soft backdrop of mother's cozy pajamas.  The pink flat shown poking out from under the couch is a sneak peek at spring fashions to come.

Tough as Nails

I have great fingernails.  The skin around them is always raggedy, so I'll never be a hand model, but I do have nice nails.  They grow fast, they are well-proportioned, and they are strong.  I used to always keep them short and practical.  Now, Tom thinks they look nice, so I let them grow out - and I even occasionally paint them.  Someone has to do a bit of girl around here.  They grow longer until I get sick of them.  Like when I start wondering if I could type with my knuckles.  Then I chop them off and they start to grow again.

I was recently asked (by Ben) to accompany a trombone solo at a school concert.  Of course.  I am a pianist, even if I haven't played for a while.  It's like riding a bicycle, isn't it?

And all I'm going to say is that my lovely, painted nails and a piano performance don't mix very well.  I knew that.  Sorry, Ben.

Ants

They came into the downstairs bathroom first.  Little, tiny ants.  They were few at first, wandering aimlessly across our fashionably dated linoleum, but then they invited all of their friends to join the party.  And they migrated to the upstairs bathroom.  I asked the boys to clean the floors in the bathrooms.

But last night, I noticed that they had invaded MY bathroom.  My personal floor space had tiny critters scurrying around on it.  I'm not squeamish about bugs and things, but I'd rather not share my space with them.  They did give me the creepy-crawlies when I had to go in at night, when I couldn't see them.

Today, I declared war.  To prepare, I put a celebratory batch of cinnamon rolls in the oven.  Then, I donned my cat-woman outfit.   Super heroes always work better when they have on their outfits.  I swept and mopped and took the (crawling) garbage all the way out to the curb (running, because it was snowing and I wasn't wearing cat-woman shoes).  I wiped and disinfected.  And by gum, I won.

Yup.  I got rid of them varmints.  I can take on ants.  I'm just super hero awesome like that.