Menopausal Mother

     Welcome to another edition of Fly On The Wall group blog postings, hosted by Karen of Baking In A Tornado. Today, seven brave bloggers are inviting you into their homes to be a fly on
the wall to see what REALLY goes on behind closed doors.

     At the Doyle abode, we've been preoccupied with hurricanes. It has been an active season in the tropics with many of the storms hitting Cat 4 status and above, destroying property not only on the coastal regions but inland as well. I live in south Florida, and Hurricane Irma left her mark here, too. Our family and our home survived, thank God, but my lovely yard is a different story. Yes, we can replant, but it was hard to see 12 years worth of labor destroyed in a matter of hours. My husband wept the morning after the storm when he saw what was left of our yard. But in typical Doyle fashion, the entire family pitched in to clean up the debris and start the replanting process. And through it all, we never lost our sense of humor. Because that's what Doyles do in the worst of times.


     When Hurricane Irma made landfall, it sounded like the hounds of hell were outside my window. The god-awful howling lasted a good 14 hours, with tornadoes and microbursts whirling through our neighborhood. There were nine of us hunkered down here (plus four dogs, a rabbit, and three chinchillas) in my small home, and when we lost power for several days, things got interesting. We entertained ourselves with card games, silly stories and a LOT of stupid photographs. We were sweaty and tired and bloated from eating SO MANY HURRICANE SNACKS. That might have been the biggest casualty of all; most of us gained at least five pounds in just four days from a diet of cookies, chips, vodka, and beer.


     If you were a fly on the wall in my home this past month, you would have seen a lot of panic, sleepless nights, and binge-eating. But you also would have seen our own special brand of humor when it comes to handling stress:

"I see that you tried to sneak some healthy snacks in with the regular hurricane snacks. Don't you know by now that non-GMO means non-tasty?"

"I'm using Hurricane Irma as my excuse for this week's online retail therapy."

"Mom, you need to get out more in the sun. You're starting to look like Casper The Ghost."
"I don't think going outside right now during a hurricane is gonna help me get much of a tan....."

On hurricane snacking: "It's all fun and games until the hurricane is over and you can no longer fit into your jeans."

"My God, I wish the power would come back on soon, because this house smells like sweat, dog pee, and the ghost of old farts."

Me, panicked: "The internet just went out, and I heard we won't get it back for at least a week
Hubs, smirking: "Hon, you'll just have to learn how to entertain yourself now without spending hours on social media."
Me: "Yes, but it also means you can't play War Machine or virtual basketball on your iPad, either."
Hubs: **blinks** "Wait----what?"

"Remember all those times I said I wished that I could have lived during the romantic Renaissance era? Scratch that. I'm already sick of pooping by candlelight and bathing in cold water."


     Fingers crossed that there are no more hurricanes this season. If there are, I'll to be forced to buy the next size up in jeans.