An Update on the Ant Rant and the First Day of Autumn

For those inquiring minds, the ant infestation has been eradicated. After many product and method suggestions, I went with what I had in my house…water and vinegar.

It took the wiping down of cupboards and discovering an open bag of powdered sugar way in the back of my pantry that sent me on a full cleaning spree.

After the disposal of anything open and accessible to the ant population, along with wiping down all the shelves and cupboards with a vinegar/water solution, the ants have disappeared from the kitchen.

I was feeling pretty victorious about the whole ordeal until Friday evening.

I was lying in bed attempting to take in a good book while Emily sprawled across our bed and chit-chatted away. That’s when I noticed a teeny-tiny ant trying to sneak past my peripheral vision.

{Just so you know…that ain’t happening! I’ve got some highly trained peripheral eye muscles that hone in on any critter movement in my domain.}

I turned my head and noticed a flurry of activity coming out from under my bed skirt.

Emily was commissioned to grab the RAID spray — I wanted quick action extermination!

This is my sleeping domain, people! It’s the place where dreams of these creatures crawling into my facial cavities have awakened me at night.

The idea of this dream coming true brought on the total spray down of our hardwood floor, followed by massive ant death and a clean up of the excess spray and teeny-tiny carcasses.

I repeated the process of the vinegar/water solution wipe down on our bedroom floor and from that time on, there have been no teeny-tiny ant sightings in this domain.

Let’s hope the quick extermination and wipe down action have done the trick.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions of extermination and expressed sympathy toward my plight through this whole ordeal. I’m hoping we don’t have to travel this road again and that this will be the end of my teeny-tiny ant rant!

Tomorrow is the first day of Autumn…my absolute favorite season.

It’s now time for cute boots, cozy socks and snuggly scarfs. I’m already digging out the sweaters because WOW… it was cold today!

Despite the chill in the air, I love autumn.

The brilliant colors of harvest, pumpkins, and apple-picking all make autumn my favorite. It’s that little warmth of summer leftovers and the crisp air of winter trying to sneak in without completely taking over that make me want to hang out in the backyard with a good book, warm drink and cuddly blanket.

Every season brings new decorations for the front porch. Matt and I spent an afternoon last week, cleaning off summer and welcoming autumn.

Matt asked me why scarecrows were called scarecrows. And through my extensive “grownin-up Iowa” farmer knowledge, I explained how farmers dressed up sticks in the middle of the cornfield to scare crows away from the farmers fields…hence the name scarecrow.

He glanced down at the scarecrow in his hand….

“But these aren’t scary, Mom….they’re soooo cute!”