The Group Hug

Yesterday my house was chock full of emotions. The people inside it, I mean.

The kids beat me home--they from school and me from my second run of the day to the grocery store. (I needed matches to light the stove that hasn't worked properly in years for dinner preparations...quite possibly another post.)

Enter Emotion #1: Happiness (the kids felt it because they were free...free from questions about their day, free from kisses they'll wipe right off their faces, free to raid the pantry for expensive snacks normally reserved for school lunches). Unsupervised, they'll eat the floorboards if packed individually in a box of 5 for $3.98.

Disappointment is probably the second emotion they felt when I walked in to foil their plans.

"We're having smoothies for snack," I said. "I have fresh strawberries firming up in the freezer." (OK, maybe that's worded a bit better than how I really said it, but you get the idea.) Plus, secretly I knew we had to eat up the homemade yogurt no one will touch unless it's buried deep beneath or hidden inside something. By the way, I also hide it in mashed potatoes, since it really does taste like sour cream.

Fueled up and sugar levels elevated, the kids entered Emotion #3, Excitement. Let the wrestling and floor sliding begin. And the laughter, hysterical almost. Then the playful teasing, which inevitably goes too far, leading to Emotion #4, Anger.

A bit on the slow side these days, I was still stuck back at the laughter part.

"Everybody come here. I think we need a group hug," I cajoled. Because they're 11, 12, and 13, this takes some effort, but in good time everyone was hanging on one another, smiling, giggling, and, quite frankly, having trouble standing. Not until I caught a foot in my stomach did I realized we had some simultaneous kicking going on. The whole emotional ball of wax, these kids are.

Group hugs, at least around our house, can be very deceiving.

How are the emotions and group hugs at your house?