First of all, I need to say THANK YOU to whoever the 3 people were that voted to make this blog a finalist in the 2012 Mom’s Choice Award that Triad Moms on Main is holding. Actually I don’t know how many voted.. I just made that number up. I know I sound like Julia Roberts at the Oscars, but I really AM honored just to be nominated especially considering the other blogs that are finalists. The nomination made my day and was a kick ass way to start the  month. So take that, crappy January.

If you’re inclined to honor Four Hens and a Rooster with your vote (or you’re family and then you have no option), you can cast your vote by clicking here. Seriously – thank you again.. you have no idea how much this meant to me.

Okay… back to our regularly scheduled program already in progress.

So the theme this month for NaBloPoMo is supposed to be Family. I think it’s safe to say that for every post that I write about my family, there are four that I don’t. The only problem is that my family is so small, that even if I tried to change names to protect the innocent (or guilty) someone would figure it out pretty quick and then there’d be hell to pay. So for now, I’m going to go for a more “surface level” approach.

Anyone with more than two kids will tell you that if you ask someone to take all of your kids for more than a day, there better be a hefty monetary bonus packed in their bags. Apparently when you only have one child, it’s a lot easier to get rid of them for extended periods of time. A feat my mom was able to do with me quite often when I was growing up. (To clarify – I have two sisters, Carla and Erin from my Dad’s second marriage. There’s a pretty significant age difference between us, so for all intents and purposes, I grew up as an only child.)

The place that I remember getting sent to the most was my Aunt Mary’s who was my Grandmother’s sister. My Aunt Mary had six kids, so how my mom ever got her to say “yes! send me one more” is beyond me. All I can think is that when you have six, really – what the hell is one more?

Both my Uncle and Aunt were both in the Army and my Aunt was part of the W.A.C. Their six kids – my cousins were split into two groups.. the first set (Earl Jr, Ginny and Sarah Gail) was older than the second set (Joe, David and Lloyd), so when I was in town it was me, my cousins Lloyd and quite often David that ran together. They were stationed in Ft. Lee, NJ when I first started visiting and eventually moved to the base at Jacksonville, NC.  I have so many amazing memories and stories of my times spent with them but I thought it only appropriate to start with the Matriarch of their family – My Aunt Mary. She was a hoot and hands down, my favorite Aunt.

One of my most vivid memories of Aunt Mary was while I was staying at their house in NJ I remember walking thru the backdoor to a complete disaster area. Dishes from the morning were still on the table, laundry was everywhere, trash overflowing and there was my Aunt Mary sitting in a chair, on the phone, chain-smoking enough cigarettes to make the Marlboro Man wince. And there I was, in complete 6-year-old shock that the normally ship-shape house looked that way – my Uncle Earl was a tough nut who didn’t pull punches and ran a pretty tight ship. I remember thinking – Aunt Mary!! Uncle Earl can never see the house this way! You have to do something before he gets home! You must be crazy to let this happen!

As it turns out, my Aunt hadn’t lost her mind – she had just officially gone on strike. She had reached the point that every single one of us moms hit when we realize that no one else is picking up after themselves and relying on MOM – the live in maid. And she was done with it.  She wasn’t cooking, cleaning, doing laundry or driving anyone anywhere. You want it, you get it now leave me the hell alone.  I have no idea how long her “strike” lasted but I think she held out for at least a few days.

Now, every time that I get to the point where I’ve HadItUpToHere with, obviously, being the only one who can bend over at the waist to pick something up or the only one who knows that the dishwasher is magically located 5 inches to the left of the sink and that’s where dirty dishes go, I think of that day when Aunt Mary went on strike and smile my own little smile.

Last updated by Kristen Daukas at 13 October, 2012.

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