A new reason onions make me cry

So we grow onions, and this year we grew a lot of onions.  Like many crops, onions were hard for me to plant sucssessionaly, so I ended up having about 100 onions ready at the same time.  One option for me was to leave them in the ground as long as possible.  But, I live in Alabama and anything and everything that could be attacked by bugs, WILL be attached and ruined by bugs.  Also, as usually I needed the space in my garden for the next season. 

As a result of having 100 onions laying around my kitchen, I am starting to feel like Buba Gump Onion Company.  I am always looking for some creative way to extend their life, and again I live in the hot \humid south without a good cold storage or root cellar (John reminds me I don't have one YET.)  I put many of them in pairs of tights that I wear in the winter that are made for someone three feet shorter than me. So now I have these random onion filled lumpy hanging tights in our kitchen.  John is perplexed and makes all sorts of rude jokes about it. 

One of the best ways I am learning to preserve my onions is to dehydrate them.  The problem with this is that I can only get about 4-6 onions on my dehydrator at a time.  And this is where we get to the life lesson in cutting and separating lots of little pieces of fresh onion, night after night. 

To shift gears, for those who know my family in real life, you probably know that my relationship with Isaac is rocky at times.  He seems to innately know my buttons, and instinctively can push them on demand.  I was having dinner with a fellow teacher the other night and we were talking about kids.  She mentioned in regards to someone close to her, how much she loved this person, but found it hard a times to like this person.  I find myself sadly in this position with Isaac at times.  Granted it is only like 10% of the time, but still. 

The biggest issue for me is his regressive behavior when he is stressed.  I have such a hard time keeping my cool when he starts acting like a baby, and I don't mean baby choices.  I mean, his physiology changes to a baby.  He crawls, baby talk only, sucking his thumb, refusing or unable to follow the most basic directions, and goes limp when I try to pick him up.  His cry in this mode even sounds like a babies.  It drives me nuts.  I know, I know...He is instinctively calling out for help in the most primitive sense, but it really puts a strain on our relationship. 

Fortunately, Isaac also really likes to help.  He loves to do little projects with me, and unfortunately for the both of us, I am not very crafty.  But, dehydrating onions appealed to Isaac as if it were a craft project. 

For the last few nights after dinner, Isaac has helped me clean trays of dehydrated onions, and to set up new trays with fresh onions.  During this time he is always a big boy, he talks to me about things he dreams of, he is interested in, and because Emerson could care less about onions, he gets to do it uninterrupted by his more outgoing talkative brother.  We both get to relax.  It is not a stressful process, there are very few rules, and it is pretty hard to mess up.  I can relax and just be with my son and see him for who he really is.  I find that I like and love him. 

So, yes, onions are an interesting beast to cut and preserve.  Isaac is an interesting child to parent.  Both make me tear up and want to leave the room when they get to intense.  And, they are both so worth it and deserve the time and attention it takes to preserve something wonderfully sweet and nourishing.