All the meteorologist have been telling us to check out this awesome “Super Moon”. The biggest since 1948, won’t happen again until 2034…. Well, praise the Lord for that. You see, I used to love the beauty of a full moon. And, a bright orange full moon that is really close to Earth- amazing. I could stare at it all night. Except one huge problem….. I live with 2 children and a dementia patient. You may be like me, before kids and a dementia patient. That person who thinks the moon’s cycles could not possibly have anything to do with mood cycles. Come on over my friend, let me just show you…. Super Moon = Super Crazy.

So, if you’re in my stage of life, sandwiched in between caring for 2 (not so) small kids and an 82 year old dementia patient, you pray that we never see another full moon, much less a Super Moon. There have been a few studies on the subject, and not many have been able to fully explain why a full moon has an effect on dementia patients. I’ll be real honest, I don’t care what scientist have figured out. Unless they have a solution, it doesn’t matter. I know what happens in my house. Wandering, increased anxiety, more confusion, verbal and physical aggression, and just down right paranoia. Oh, and my kids. Well, they’re a little off their rocker 70% of the time, complete angels 15% of the time, and down right crazy 15% of the time. And, that 15% of the time they’re crazy almost always just so happens to be during a full moon. I think any elementary school teacher would tend to agree…..

And, while I am lamenting about Mother Nature wrecking havoc on the attitudes and behaviors in my house, can we just talk about it being dark at 4:45pm? For real, serious. Again, dementia and darkness, bad bad bad news. Sundowners syndrome is for realz. I love June and July. I can go about my business, have a full day, and make sure I have Gran in bed before 8:45-9:00 with no real repercussions. Sun is out, we are all happy as a clam- well as happy as Gran knows how to be. But, when the sun starts going down, I go into “it is bedtime for Bonzo routine” like the Mad Hatter. If her head isn’t on the pillow by dark fall, I am going to need a seriously large glass of wine. Here’s the problem. It is freaking dark at 4:45. I can’t even get the kids from school, do dance carpool and fix a bologna sandwich before 4:45. So, I have at least an hour and a half of “It’s dark outside and Gran is still awake witching hour”. Right now, it’s not even 5:00 and I’ve been called everything but a white woman, swung at, cussed at, and told I should be ashamed for being such a terrible person. All because I haven’t been able to cook dinner, dose dinner medicine, and wait an hour to dose bedtime medicine. We went the wean you off medicines route and let Mother Nature control the outcome route. One problem…. the night doses of medicines are our “happy pills”. I didn’t think they were doing much good until she didn’t take them for a week. We’ll be having those….

So, I hope all of the rest of you fully enjoyed the Super Moon, because it has pretty much ruined my week.