PROCRASTINATION

“Hey, Alex!” I called to my son. “Do you want me to make a cake?”

“Sure!” Alex came into the living room where I was sitting on the couch with my laptop. “Trying to get out of work again?” he asked as he laughed.

“You know me so well.” I smiled as I moved the computer on the couch and went into the kitchen to preheat the oven.

Alex followed me into the kitchen. “I love when you don't want to work.” He handed me a mixing bowl.

I had to laugh as I got the cake mix out. “I know you do.”

“Last week you washed all the windows, which was nice, but I think I'm liking the cake procrastination better.” he leaned against the counter while I made the batter.

“Yeah, I think I like this one better too.” I put the cake in the oven and set the timer on my watch. “Okay, I have about a half an hour before the timer goes off.” I looked over at Alex. “I guess it's time for me to get some work done.” I went back to the couch and picked up my laptop. “Okay, here goes.” I sighed.

Alex sat next to me and picked up the remote for the television. “Is it going to bother you if I watch some TV.?”

“Oh, not at all!” I said a little too quickly.

Alex looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. “Maybe I should watch it in another room, so you can work in peace.”

“No, no, no...” I motioned for him to sit back down. “What I have to do doesn't really need my full attention.”

“It doesn't?”

“Nope.” I sat up straighter. “So what do you want to watch?”

“Wait, this is just another way for you to put off getting your work done, isn't it?”

I tried to look innocent “Of course not. I told you I can do both.”

Alex turned on the television. “All right, but if I don't see your hands moving on that keyboard I'm turning off the television.”

I had to laugh. “Okay, now you're starting to sound like my Dad.”

“I'm serious!” he began scrolling through the menu until he reached Discovery Channel.

“Oh...Ultimate Homes! I love this one!” I cried. “Looking at homes I'll never be able to afford, built in gorgeous areas I'll never see! Perfect!”

Alex laughed as clicked on to the show.

We'd only been watching a few minutes when Alex cleared his throat. “I'm not hearing your fingers clicking on your keyboard.” he reminded me.

“Fine.” I went back to my laptop and began scrolling through the work I'd already finished. I began tapping away at the keys but secretly peeking over at the TV to see the next magnificent home they were showing.

Alex looked over at me. “Are you really typing something or are you just pretending?”

“What? Are you kidding?” I began erasing the nonsense words I'd been typing before he asked to see the screen.

That's when the timer went off. “Oh the cakes ready!” I jumped up to get it.

When I came back into the living room I was carrying my sneakers. “Do you want to go for a walk? It's beautiful out!”

Alex just laughed. “You really don't want to work, do you?”

“Nope, not right now.” I sat down to put on my sneakers. “But I swear I'll start as soon as we get back!”

“No you won't.” He'd gotten up to get his sneakers.

I looked up at him and smiled as he walked by. “You're probably right.”

SPRING CLEAN

I tucked a roll of paper towels under my arm and reached under the kitchen sink to get the bottle of Windex. “I'm ready!” I said as I closed the cabinet door and stood up.

My husband Steven was making his second cup of coffee. “What are you up to today?”

I held out the bottle of Windex. “Windowsill cleaning!”

“You're right! It's time to start opening the windows and getting some fresh air in here!” He poured his coffee and leaned against the counter as I reached over the sink and opened the window.

“Yuck!” There was a thick coat of dirt filled with tiny dead bugs. “How'd they all get in here?”

I sprayed the Windex and began wiping the spider webs off the screens. “Oh my gosh, this is more disgusting then usual!” Once I got that cleaned off I closed the window and began cleaning the inside of it.

“Aren't you going to clean the outside of the window?” he asked.

“It's still a little chilly out.” I began wiping it with a paper towel.

Steven reached over and opened the window, pulled the two tabs at the top, releasing it from the frame and tipping it towards me. “Here you go.”

I looked at it for a minute. “Oh, yeah. I forgot they did that.”

“See, now you can wash the whole window and not just the sills.”

“Yeah.” I said with very little enthusiasm.

“Oh, come on. It won't take you very long and just think how great you'll feel once it's done!”

I began spraying the outside of the window then switched to the paper towels when our son, Alex came in the room. “Morning!” he said walking around me to get a mug from the cabinet. “Wow! What made you want to tackle that job today?”

I looked over at him while he poured himself some coffee. “I don't know if you noticed or not, but these windows have been awful for weeks.”

Alex looked over at Steven with a look I couldn't figure out.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Alex said then put his cup down on the counter. “Why don't I unload the dishwasher for you.”

I looked over at Steven who started to laugh. “Okay, what so funny?” I asked.

“You don't know if we noticed or not?” he pointed to the front picture window. “You can barely see out of it, it's so dirty!”

I looked around the corner into the living room. He was right the window was pretty bad. “Wow! You're right. I wonder why I never noticed?”

“We were wondering the same thing!” Steven said.

“We?” I looked over at Alex who had just taken some glasses from the top rack.

He shook his head as he put the glasses in the cabinet. “Let's not get me in this one, okay?”

I looked back at Steven. “You know either one of you could have washed them yourselves if it was bothering you so much.”

Steven looked at Alex. “It wasn't bothering me that much.” He shrugged his shoulders. “How about you?”

Alex took the plates out of the dishwasher. “Still not wanting to get in this one.”

I opened the back glass door to spray some Windex on that. I looked at the siding. “You know the whole house could use a good power-washing.” I popped my head back in the door. “Steven?”

Alex looked at me as he closed the dishwasher door. “He went that way.” he pointed down the hallway. “Maybe he didn't hear you?” Alex shrugged his shoulders.

I had to laugh. “Sure. Let's go with that.”

STILL SICK

It was a rainy Sunday morning and I was laying on the couch looking out the window. “Are you still sick?” my son Alex asked as he came into the room.

I pointed to the box of tissues, can of Lysol, chap stick, saline spray and giant bottle of hand sanitizer that were lined up on the coffee table.“Yeah.” I sighed. “I can't seem to get rid of this cold.” I reached over to the bottle of hand sanitizer and pumped some into my hand. Quickly rubbing them together before picking up the television remote. “You want to watch Sunday Morning with me?”

“But you're sick.” Alex just stood next to the couch.

“I know, but that doesn't stop me from watching TV.” I moved over on the couch to make room for him.

He just stared at the couch.

“Oh, geez!” I picked up the can on Lysol and sprayed where I'd been sitting. “How's that?”

Alex just shook his head as he walked over to the chair on the other side of the coffee table. “Sorry but I'll sit over here. I really don't want what you have.”

“Fine.” I turned the television on. “Did you have breakfast yet?”

Alex had settled into the chair. “No, not yet.”

“I was thinking about making pork roll, egg and cheese. Do you want one?”

Alex looked over at me. “Sure! That sounds great!”

I went over to the sink and washed my hands before going back to the stove. “Can you put the English muffins in the toaster for me?”

“Sure.” He went over to the cabinet while I leaned over to grab a fork from the drawer. He turned around quickly and I was a few inches from him. “Whoa...don't want to get too close, you're sick you know.”

I rolled my eyes. “It amazes me that you guys treat me like I have the plague, won't get anywhere near me, but none of you seem to mind that I cook your food!”

“That's totally different.” Alex argued.

“Really?” I had to laugh. “How?”

“Well, you've had this cold for a week.”

“Yeah?”

“So none of us wants to cook for ourselves for a whole week!”

“Are you serious?” I put the pork roll into the pan.

“Yup.” He put the English muffins in the toaster and pushed the button down before turning to face me. “I figure you wash your hands, the food is cooked, it's all good.”

“You do know I'm breathing while I cook the food.”

“Yeah, but that's where the 'We don't want to cook for ourselves' comes in.”

TICK TOCK

“Time to change the clocks!” I sang as I walked into the living room. “Tick, tick, tick, tick tock!” I'd just finished cleaning the kitchen from dinner and could see my son Alex was laying on the couch, looking out the window. I went over to him and gave him a quick kiss on the top of his head. “Now you sing!”

Alex slowly shook his head. “Nope, not going to happen.”

“Oh, come on! It's an echo song.” I started to sing again. “Spring ahead, Fall back.”

Alex started to laugh. “Where did you learn that song?”

“In music class with my preschooler's.” I went over to the table where a small clock was sitting. I picked it up and turned it around so I could remove the back. “I should probably change the battery at the same time.” I pulled the battery out and went to the kitchen to get a new one from the drawer. Coming back to the living room, with my new battery, Alex sat up from the couch. “Aren't you changing the clocks a little early? I thought we changed them on Saturday night?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I like to get a head start on these things.” I turned the hands an hour ahead. “Besides the television cable box clock will change on it's own so I'll be able to see the real time for the next day.”

Alex looked confused. “It's not like we have a lot of clocks.”

“Well, actually I'm just really anxious to get this whole Spring thing going and I thought moving some of the clocks ahead early would make me feel better.” I set the clock down and looked over at the cable box. “See. It's already working!” I pointed out the window as the sun was setting. “It's 5:50 now but Sunday night it will be closer to 7 when the sun sets!” I looked over at him and smiled. “Doesn't that just make your day!”

Alex laughed. “I don't know if I'd say it made my day but, I get why you're excited.”

“Just think, it a few short weeks we'll be sitting on the back porch watching the hummingbirds chase each other away from the feeders!”

Alex laughed. “I do kind of miss them.”

I looked out the front window at all the bare branches on the trees. “Pretty soon it will be nothing but green when you look outside! Our chipmunks will be scurrying around the bird feeders, dragonflies will be zipping across the lawn!” I sighed and closed my eyes as I pictured the scene I'd just created.

I opened my eyes and Alex was standing next to me looking out the window. I gave him a little nudge with my arm. “Doesn't that sound wonderful?”

We watched as a few stray leaves blew across the lawn. “It does.” he sighed. “But you know they're calling for snow next weekend?”

“I hate you.” I whispered under my breath.

Alex laughed. “Just trying to keep you in reality.” he patted me on the shoulder as he went to his room. “It's still only March!” he called.

GROUP CROSSWORD

I was walking into the kitchen, ready to make my morning cup of tea, when I noticed the newspaper crossword puzzle laying on the kitchen table. There were several blank spots to be filled in so, I sat down and got right to work.

Twenty minutes later my son Alex walked in.

“What's a four letter word for cat's lives?” I asked.

“Don't they have nine?” he said, walking over to the cabinet to get out a box of cereal.

I shook my head. “I should have known that.” I took my pencil and filled in the blanks, then moved to the next clue. “Part of SWAK.” I said as I got up to finally get my cup of tea.

Alex took the newspaper from me. “How many letters?” he asked.

“Four.” I took the tea bag from the canister and placed it in my cup, waiting for the water to boil.

“That would be kiss.” he said, picking up the pencil and filling in the boxes.

I filled my cup with boiling water and headed back to the table.

That's when my husband, Steven walked into the room. “What are you two up to?” he asked.

It was then that I realized we'd been working on his puzzle. “I'm sorry.” I said as I looked over at Alex who was still filling in the boxes.

Alex looked up, “Wait a minute. Mom didn't tell me this was your puzzle. She was working on it when I came in!” He looked over at me then back to Steven before pushing the paper away from him.

“Thanks for giving me up so quickly!” I laughed. I looked over at Steven. “I'm really sorry. But I did my part in pencil so I can erase it in a second and you'll never know the difference.”

Steven started to laugh. “It's fine. I'm not that kind of crossword puzzle solver.”

“You're not?” I looked down at the puzzle. “But you've done your section in pen.”

“I always use pen.” He pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down at the table, looking over the section Alex and I had done.

“I could never us a pen.” I admitted. “What if I made a mistake?”

“You just have to be sure of yourself.” Steven said looking over at me. “It's the difference between people who use paper clips and people who use staplers.”

I thought about that for a moment, before I realized what he was saying. “Oh my gosh, I always use paper clips!”

Steven smiled as he picked up his pen. “And I use a stapler.”