Restaurant Politics, Bamboo, Rolling Stones, aka The Cockroaches

We have determined that we will never go back to the Hilltop again. 
Okay. It's not like a sworn oath or the way I feel about never going to Chik-fil-A but we have had it. 
First of all, there are definite MAGA vibes there but you can sort of see past that when you think about the fact that it is a totally family-run joint as far as I can tell and that people of all colors, occupations, sizes, shapes, ages, and whatever else differences there may be, are always welcome. Step up to the counter, order something from the huge menu, wait for your food, go back to the front of the place to pay for it, and either take it home or eat it out back on a picnic table under a covered area. 
So you know, that's all right. The ladies (always ladies) who do the food preparation and take orders work as hard as anyone I've ever seen. They are not there to be sweet. They are there to do a damn job. And as I've mentioned, I've seen a lot of children of employees grow up there, from the mamas pregnant with them to carrying them in slings as they work which is probably illegal, to setting them in highchairs behind the cake and deviled egg display cooler. 
Again- all good.
But recently a sign appeared in front of the door saying, "Cash Only." And another one in front of the counter where orders are taken. And one where you make your payment to the man (always the same man) whose job it obviously is to handle all the money. 
I imagine they're tired of having to pay the credit card and debit card fees but boy, does that make it inconvenient for their customers. Also, one has to wonder if the cash-only policy has anything to do with reporting taxes? 
Oh, probably not. That would just be too obvious.
Still. 
And then today when Lily and her kids and August and Levon and Glen and I all met up there for lunch and I went to the counter to ask for hot sauce and they gave me small plastic cup of it and told me it was 75 cents and I could pay the man up front, that sort of did it for us. 
This is the deep south. We do NOT pay for hot sauce at a restaurant. That would be like charging for mustard or mayonnaise on a sandwich. Ketchup to go with your fries. It is not done. 

But today we did eat there and August and Levon were handed off to us. I was driving my car because Mr. Moon had gone in early in his truck to get bags of leaves for mulch and to go to a Maggie softball game. 
I did not go to the game and guess what? 
I don't even feel guilty. 
This is a newish development and I like it. Less guilt is always a good thing. 
Unless you're a murderer or something. 

The boys and I stopped on the way home at the GDDG to get the ice cream and root beer for their special dessert tonight and they didn't even beg me for anything. I was impressed. 

This afternoon's main activity has been bamboo-related. First Levon did my rounds with me and he kicked over most of the sprouts we found. And when I say "kick" I mean that kid kicks that bamboo like he's going for a field goal. I kick with the side of my foot but he doesn't mess with that. Sometimes, as he is demonstrating above, he likes to pull the whole thing as hard as he can. 

August came out to join us and I showed them the monster sprout I had somehow missed the last few days. It was growing directly in front of the front porch. 

I swear the thing is seven feet tall. And right beside it, another one was trying to copy its elder. 

I managed to get the small one kicked and the giant one on its side but when Levon saw it, he had to have it to make a sword and so he proceeded to pull on it and this is what the roots look like. 

Of course the bamboo is split there and that is actually a root ball but you get the idea. How can I have been kicking bamboo for 22 years and never seen the roots? I showed it to Glen and he says he's never seen them either. 

After we'd taken care of all the sprouts we found today, there were swords made but that must have become boring because next thing I knew, this was happening. 

They figured out how to clean out the insides where the joints were and had what looked and sounded like a merry time of it trying out the flute-like instruments they'd made and then August decided to make his not only a flute but also a bubble blowing contraption. 

After that they let me read them two books, one a Babar book, the other The Trouble With Mom. 
While I was reading the boys used their new instruments for sound effects (triumphal entrance music, for example) and August discovered that the flute could also be a percussion instrument. 
It was a lively time. 

And then I let them go do what they wanted to do which was to watch TV and I got the chicken and dumplings going. It seems to me that all I've been doing for the last few days is chop onions, carrots, and celery. I know this isn't true but today was the third time this week. So all of that, along with the chicken and mushrooms are simmering and all I have to do is make the dumplings and add them to the pot. As usual there will be cut up cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and sliced avocados. Let's keep this simple. 

All right. Here we go.

It would appear that the Rolling Stones are about to release a new album and a single from it dropped today. The Stones name was not used. The fake name is, as you can see- The Cockroaches. 
This is a take on the old Robin Williams joke that the only things that will survive a nuclear war are Keith Richards and cockroaches. 
In other words, the Old Boys are still here. 

I've listened to the single. Not sure what I think but it is definitely a Rolling Stones song. Bless them, bless them, bless their Old Boy Rock And Roll hearts. 

Love...Ms. Moon

One More Grandparents' Day In The Books

This is Mr. Moon's chair which lives in the room we lovingly call The Glen Den for obvious reasons. If I took pictures of the walls you would have even more of an insight on why it's called that as there are numerous examples of the taxidermy of deer, ducks, and fish. I would take photos but I'm afraid many of you just couldn't handle the reality.
There are also shelves full of his memorabilia which includes everything from beer steins he got in Europe when he was playing ball there, to antique irons, to old timey tools, to pictures, to a signed football (I have no idea the story behind that), to antique fishing lures, to a pillow that his mom needlepointed for him with the Auburn insignia on it. 
The TV is in that room. And I still have baby and child toys in a corner in baskets which I truly need to get rid of and somehow, just keep forgetting...
I have appropriated one end of the couch (also leather) and an end table and a nice lamp I got at Wag the Dog where I can do needlework of various sorts when I watch TV because I simply cannot just sit and watch TV. I have also claimed a few shelves on which I keep yarn and garments to be mended and so forth and I will admit I've got a lot of that sort of stuff in baskets and bags on the floor and on the end table. I rarely sit there and watch TV but it's all there for when I do. 
Anyway, back to The Chair.
When Mr. Moon is not working on something he is generally in that chair. Now he is working on something or other most of the time but he does spend time there with Maurice in his lap. They quite often have a little nap together. He does his computer research there and he sometimes does his paperwork there. As you can tell, that chair has been used. A lot. One of the sweetest things he ever did was to let me have it when I was recovering from broken ribs and could not get comfortable either lying down or sitting up. The recliner was perfect. I spent my days and my nights in it for a few weeks. 
But the thing has HIS body's impression on it. It has cradled him for many years. We can't even remember how long we've had it. As he said just a few minutes ago to me, it is his nest. I believe it was even once sent in to La-Z-Boy for a repair and then returned for many more years of service. 
But this morning, when he moved from our bed to the recliner to drink his coffee and peruse the news, a spring or something broke in the back of the recliner and well, folks, it is done. He can still sit in it with the back propped against the wall but that is not comfortable. 
So one of our missions today was to go recliner shopping. 
More on that in a minute. I know, I know. The anticipation is overwhelming but calm down and just hang on. 
Before we did that, we went to the Grandparents' Day lunch with Ms. Magnolia June. I made our lunches following Maggie's instructions as closely as I possibly could and off we went. Approximately 58,000 grandparents show up for this event which is pretty cool, really. It's only a thirty minute meal because they have all the grades to go through. 
Come to think of it, the brevity of the situation may be part of the attraction. 
You can preorder a Chic-fil-A lunch for you and your grandchild and pick it up at the school but I refuse to give one cent of my money to that bigoted, pseudo-Christian company. Which is why I make our lunch. And Maggie never complains. I think she likes the fact that I make her whatever she wants. 
So off we went and we found our girl in the massive crowd of Grade Fours and sat down and I unwrapped and presented the sandwiches, the Cheetos, the cut up cucumbers and peppers with ranch on the side
as per instructions, the juice, and the cookies. 
The cookies were the only slight problem as she had thought I would make them myself which I did not do but I bought the fanciest looking ones at Publix I could find with frosting stuff in between two cookies which were heavily sprinkled with sprinkles. 
She survived. 
Maggie's other grandmother came too, which was sweet. She did get a Chic-fil-A lunch and I will admit it looked pretty good. 
Not gonna lie. 
The sweetest thing was that Maggie kept saying, "I am so happy you wanted to come," and that made it all worthwhile. Her best friend at school, a girl named Mary, kept coming over and hugging her and that was pretty sweet too. 
Before we knew it, it was being announced that Maggie's class needed to clean up and prepare to go back to the classroom but we had to get a picture in front of the backdrop they'd set up for the purpose.

Shall we start taking bets on how long it will be before my granddaughter is taller than I am? 

After we walked her back to her classroom, we drove over to Hank and Rachel's house where I delivered the chicken soup. I hope they like it. I think it's pretty tasty. I got a chance while there to chat with them for a few minutes and it seems to me that Rachel, while not fully recovered yet of course, seems lighter and more relaxed than I've seen her in a long time. This healing is a process and I believe she is doing well with it although of course, it's always one step forward, two steps back. 

And then- off to look at recliners! 
Now here's the problem. 
Mr. Moon, being as tall as he is, cannot just go find the most comfortable recliner on the floor of the furniture store. He has to find one that extends far enough in the leg area to accommodate his height and the length of his legs. 
This is not easy. 
The one he has now has an extender at the foot of it which can be moved outward to offer support to long legs like his. 
Guess what? They don't make any models with that feature anymore. 
Sigh.
So he ended up sitting in many, many recliners to see if any of them would offer what he needed which was basically a foot rest in the reclining position that his feet did not extend past. 
Well. 
That didn't quite happen but he found one that was close and he generally puts a large pillow on the footrest to elevate his feet and that offers the length and support he needs. 
So. A work-around was found. 
And this recliner ROCKS. As in, it's a rocking chair too. Which is rather cool. 

Of course it's going to take at least six weeks to get a new chair. If he does indeed order it. He wanted it in leather of a certain shade of brown whereas the floor model was in a fabric which he found to be too warm (he is very sensitive to heat). I think he wants to check out a few more options. 
The whole process took the rest of the afternoon but I wasn't complaining. After awhile I went outside the store and sat on one of their outdoor chairs on display. That chair rocked and swiveled which I thought was quite keen. And this is what the sky was looking like from my perch.

I had had quite enough of the fluorescent lights in the store and my presence was not really required.
The sky was like that all afternoon and it would be a sin not to spend as much time contemplating and admiring it as I possibly could. 

And now we're home. Glen went to check on Tom, our friend who lives nearby and has many physical ailments. Glen spent months last year moving him out of a trailer that a tree had fallen on into a new tiny home on his property which took a great deal of time to get moved onto the property and set up to live in. He took him some of the vegetable beef soup I'd made which, to tell you the truth, will probably be the best thing Tom eats this spring. 
I asked Glen, when he got home, how Tom looked.
"Like he's going to live another twenty years," he said. 
"Good!" I said. "He can take care of us when we need help."
This is a man who's had at least one stroke and cancer and, oh, I can't even keep track of it all. He is alive simply through mulish stubbornness. He is a force of nature. 

In a different sort of news, Hank has taken Gibson to a show tonight. No, not a movie show. A show with a ska band that Hank likes. Here's a picture Hank sent to all of us.

Dang but Gibson's getting handsome. 
Hank is a terrific uncle and Gibson is a terrific kid. 

Once again- how lucky am I?

Tomorrow we get August and Levon. I truly hope to have some good conversations with those guys. 
Chicken and dumplings will be involved.

And it's Friday. Martini time has begun and clean sheets are on the bed. All is as it should be. 
Or mostly. 

Love...Ms. Moon

These Things Keep Me Out Of The Pool Halls. Also, The Opium Dens (Sigh)

Those two bunches of blooming oxalis cheer me several times a day as they are on my route from house to garden and also the compost pile.

Close-up. 

Yet another cluster. 

Because Mr. Moon is somewhat occupied with other things at the moment, he's not getting around to mowing the lawn very much which mostly I don't mind at all because I love seeing the tiny flowers that spring up this time of year. So many! And let's tell the truth and admit we do not have a lawn, per se, but we do have a yard and it does occasionally need mowing. Right now the front "yard" needs mowing because the skinny bamboo you can't get rid of by kicking is getting higher by the day and there are other plants growing which someone else needs to deal with because I already have enough on my plate when it comes to that. I am trying to keep up with fallen branches in that area and there are quite few because the trees growing there are mostly water oaks which I've been told by someone who knows, are quite old for that particular variety of oak tree. 
They are showing their age by spitefully throwing off their branches with no regard to person or property. 

Here's the one on the east side of our front yard.

I don't know if you can tell but there's a big ass dead branch just waiting for the right moment to come crashing down. 

Now this one is right by the fence which means it's also right by the power line and Glen has tried to convince the guys who trim the trees around the lines that they should take this tree down because when it falls, which it inevitably will someday, it's going to take the lines with it. 
So far they haven't bought the undeniable fact that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 
Which, yeah, sort of applies to this situation. 

I'm tired again tonight and was wondering why. I even told Glen, who came home a few hours ago that I really hadn't done that much today and then I thought about it and I'm not sure what I define as not doing much but I did enough to create a little fatigue in this old, albeit fairly strong, body. One of the things I did which I am most excited about was to weed parts of the garden and plant a row of marigolds from seeds I collected from last year's plants and also, two of the grow bags are now sprinkled with arugula seeds so that we shall have some sort of fresh salad stuff this summer. My zinnias are coming up and my beans are starting to climb the fence with their mysteriously intelligent tendrils who somehow know just where and what to reach out to. The potatoes are looking very fine and the tomatoes I've planted in grow bags don't look too shabby either. 
My peppers? 
Eh. We never have much luck with peppers here and I do not know why. They just never get very big. Same with the eggplant. The squashes and cucumbers and the Seminole pumpkins seem to be fine. The sugar snap peas we planted way too late are finally starting to bloom so perhaps we'll get a few of those. 
And oh! The Thai basil seeds I planted about a month ago (!) are showing up with great vigor and another basil I planted last year and can't remember what country it represents, froze all to hell and not only are there tiny sproutlings of it coming up in the grow bag I planted it in, they are also coming up all around that area in the general dirt. 
Maybe I should just grow a basil jungle. 

Write what you know
Plant what will grow.

Something like that? 

And I did laundry and made a chicken and rice soup for Rachel and Hank and perhaps hardest of all- I made an appointment with our beloved Melissa to get something done with my hair. So next Thursday I'll be sitting in her chair asking for help. The one drawback of the weight loss is that I have lost a lot of hair. At least some of it is growing back and it's all such old granny hair which is fine. It's very soft, sort of springy, and very white. And how the hell do we incorporate that with what I have? I wear my hair up 99% of the time so it doesn't really matter but it does matter a little bit. 

And oh yeah- I did some ironing. Just a little teeny tiny bit. 
And I kicked bamboo. 

I have every right to be mildly fatigued. 

Mr. Moon has come and gone. He had a fishing association of some sort dinner and then tomorrow morning, off we'll go to Magnolia's lunch and then on to soup delivery. On Saturday we'll be picking up August and Levon from Aunt Lily's house Of Fun And Abundant Joy and bringing them back here to spend the night so that Jessie and Vergil can go out of town to celebrate their 10th anniversary. 
Chicken and dumplings and pancakes will be involved.

Now- let me ask this- just where is this mythical land of retired relaxation? 
Steve Reed- are you paying attention? 

Love...Ms. Moon

Is There Such A Thing As Folk Pottery?

Pottery was fun today. The kind of fun where there was laughter and chat and more laughter. Some days we are quiet and everyone seems to turn inward to concentrate on what they're doing but some days seem more lighthearted and freer and today was one of those. 

Chicken pot pie dish was out of the kiln and although it is no work of art, it sort of makes me smile. The yellow does come through but I think I have learned that for an outline of something, another color needs to be used or at least used along with it. 
I rather like the braided rim. 

I doubt I'll be making individual sized chicken pot pies anytime soon so perhaps it can become my scrambled egg serving dish. 

Another piece had come out of the kiln but this one just from a first firing and it was a I have no idea what to do with these last forty-five minutes of class affair which the chicken dish was too, really. To be honest, I had forgotten I'd even made it. 

This one may be binned. It is so obviously lacking a stem or some sort of ending and it probably isn't even worth glazing. 
Live and learn. 
Today I started a new flower bowl, this one hopefully to be a hibiscus.

I plan on adding something hopefully resembling the stigman, style (pollen tube), and anther which make up that cool center part of a hibiscus flower. 

And of course I had to look that shit up. 

I do not know how I managed to even live without google. You have no idea how often I am sent there to search something from YOUR blogs and also, in aid of writing mine. This would be very educational if I could remember a damn thing from one day to another. 
I tried to use a photo I took of a hibiscus flower vase at an antique/vintage store a few months ago as an inspiration, a guideline. 

And yes, I have posted that picture before.

Due to the fact that I have the kind of brain that if you sat me down with a pencil and a piece of paper and said, "Draw a bicycle," I would instantly feel as if I had never seen a bicycle in my entire life. I would draw two wheels and be completely flummoxed. 
But that's okay. Many, many other people do indeed know how to draw a hibiscus and if I get help from their work, it's okay. 
I mean- when people throw bowls or pots on the wheel, they are not inventing a new shape. 
Is that a lousy comparison? You know what I mean. 

But the thing I really enjoy really, really enjoy, is the way I find myself, in the process of making these flower bowls, and yes, the fish too, figuring out things as I go. 
It seems almost magical to me as I have never, ever considered myself to be any good at all in the visual arts. And I'm not saying I am. I'm just saying that I am learning, with each and every piece I make, a little more about myself and what I can do. 
This alone is worth the time and money. It feels as if I am exploring rooms in myself I never suspected were there. 
Once again- thank you, Jessie.

So it was a good day in pottery and Jessie and I went to lunch because that's what we do. Lily couldn't come today because she was supposed to be getting color done on a tattoo she got a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the appointment had to be moved due to some glitch with delivery of needles but she said she got a nap instead and that is not a small thing. 
But I am quite excited to see the end result of this tattoo which is based on illustrations from this book which I think is just about the most charming book ever printed, whether for children or adults or both. 

All shall be revealed soon. 

Enough, enough, enough. I am tired as I always am on Wednesday nights. I get up early and I never sleep well the night before. I'm always glad I did get up early but it comes back to bite me at the end of the day. I've made a giant pot of vegetable beef soup because for whatever reason I've been craving that. As I always say, it has ALL the vegetables in it and I will freeze a good portion of it to send up to The Camp next week. 

The only problem with this soup is that it fills the pot to to the top, making it impossible to add the potatoes. I have two options here. I can either simply not put potatoes in, which is unthinkable, or I can take some of the soup out, put it into another pot, and add potatoes to both. 
I will probably go with Option B. 

Here's Glen's latest picture. 

That was from last night. He has finished one bedroom upstairs and I am sure he started in on the other one today. I am a bit astonished at how beautifully these floors are turning out. I had no idea he had that talent too. 

It's going to be an early night for me tonight. 

Love...Ms. Moon

 

If There's A Plan To Bomb An Entire Civilization Into The Stone Age, It Must Be Tuesday

I literally just sent one of the most heartfelt posts I've ever written into the ether. 
Or somewhere. Possibly the Stone Age. 
Wherever it is, I can't locate or retrieve it. 
Probably all for the best and I guess that picture really says everything I needed to say anyway. 

Breathe, y'all. 
Look up. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Learning To Play. Finally

I woke up this morning to discover that not only was it raining, it was also COLD. Well, you know- Florida cold. Okay, Florida cold for April. 
Okay, okay! It was sixty degrees.
And I was freezing. I had to dig out one of my sweaters that I'd already washed and put away for summer. I am so not complaining though. As long as it doesn't freeze, I'll take all the coolness we can get before the sun turns into a broiler unit and we all sizzle like bacon place under it. But my poor dollies just looked cold too with their naked little legs and bare feet poking out and so I covered them up with that piece of knitting I did years ago. It was supposed to be part of a poncho sort of thing but I never did sew the different pieces together so now I have that piece and Jessie has the other piece and sometimes the boys use it to snuggle under when they're sick. I tucked the little girls up and that made me feel so much better. I absolutely know that dolls cannot feel the cold. I'm not that insane. But I think maybe when I was a child my dolls became an immensely important part of my life because I needed something to love with all the fierceness of my little girl heart, and I can't stop thinking of them as needing me to take care of them. 
Or perhaps in taking care of them, I am taking care of little girl me. 
I don't know. But the fact is, I have always anthropomorphized my dolls and some stuffed animals, too, and I suppose I always will. 
Or perhaps this is just my adult way of playing with dolls. 
And I really, really appreciate the fact that Mr. Moon does not tease me or make fun of me about this. I believe he may understand. 

The point being being here though is- don't the babies look cozy? 

I was so tired last night that I felt as if I should get an Olympic medal for having the strength to floss and brush my teeth. I had pushed the physical activity for at least three days in a row and I think I'd just reached a point of exhaustion. So when I saw the rainy, gray day spread out ahead of me, I was happy. A good day to stay in and take it easy and I did! I did a few household things but the only steps I took outside were to kiss my darling goodbye when he left to go up to Lake Seminole. 
Yes, he's determined to finish up the doing the flooring in the upstairs bedroom he's been working on and getting the other bedroom's floor started at least. He also feels like he needs some fishing time and I agree. He hasn't even moved the boat from the dock for a few weeks and by golly, he did not buy that place to get it in shape for the Tour of Homes. 
It's a fishing camp.
Mostly. 

Before he left today, though, he decided to look around for a different carrier for our phones and internet. I told him about an experience I'd had the other day at Costco and was taking a quick stroll around the Mac display. I noticed a guy I thought was a Costco employee in the general area and I quickly told him that I was just browsing and he assured me that no, he wasn't selling computers, he was part of the AT&T kiosk that's always at Costco. I told him I wasn't looking for a new carrier plan either and he said, "Well, maybe you should be. We have some pretty amazing deals." 
Sure. Whatever. 
But I do tend to trust "the" Costco and if they've given space (or rented space, I have no idea how this works) to a company, it's not going to be a scam at the very least. So Glen said he'd stop by there on his quick trip to town to do some other things and he did. When he came home he was pretty excited because it turns out that yes, the AT&T guy had convinced him that we could indeed save money on switching to their plan AND we could get new iPhones without having to trade ours in. 
Excuse me? 
Now who knows if this is all as good as it sounds but Mr. Moon is pretty good at asking questions I'm sure most people don't even think about. I sure don't. And he got answers that satisfied him. 
I'm scared to death because I hate change and the carrier we're on now has served us fairly well and the phone I have now has not had one problem in years. Plus, I think the camera is pretty darn good.
But getting a new iPhone is the adult version of getting a new toy and who doesn't like that? 
(See above about the dolls.)
The phone will be an iPhone Air which I'd never heard of but after reading a little about it online, sounds pretty okay. My only issue may be the camera because I love the camera on my old iPhone 13 Pro (I think) and of course a camera is very important to me as my photos are an integral part of my blog life. I am no photographer and would never claim to be and have found the iPhone's capabilities in the photographic arena to be pretty fucking amazing, even if mine are not. 
But hey! Let's give it a shot. 
Pun not intended. 
So I guess all of that will be happening within the next week. 

Now- here's a story. Recently I bought three dresses from eBay. I was starting to panic a little because I have almost no summer wardrobe beyond tank tops and cargo shorts at all anymore. What I have been wearing for years in the summer for all of my trips to town and so forth, have been Flax brand linen dresses which are perfect for our summers. Cool as can be, breathable, pretty colors, extremely well-made and almost all of them have pockets. 
After I had bought the dresses, I realized that two of them were the exact same dress but in different colors. 
This does not bother me in the least. Not a soul in this world would ever notice because what women of my age are wearing does not generally appear on anyone's radar screen unless they are the sort of women who are either dressed so cool and beautifully or else are wearing something entirely inappropriate to their age and body size. 
Lord knows I do not fit the first category and I try not to be in the second. 
And also- I don't care at all whether anyone realizes I have two of the same dresses. 
Both of them arrived today, they fit perfectly, and are just what I wanted. One of them is red and the other is my favorite color of teal. 

And so when I am getting dressed, I'll be able to decide whether I feel more in a red mood or a teal mood. A tomato mood or a Caribbean mood? 
Choices!

And to add to the colorful day, I actually started glaze-painting what I hope will be Billy's spoon rest in his new kitchen. 
I cannot tell you how much I enjoy sitting down with my brushes and little bottles of Stroke and Coat with my ear buds in listening to a book and just letting myself use color without much premeditation or any judgement as to what is supposed to go together and what does not. 
My fish and my flowers are not made for any standards except for what make me happy. 

As always, the colors will look different after the fish comes out of the kiln. 

I think when I go in on Wednesday, my little pot pie dish with the chicken on it will have been fired and I am curious as to how that has turned out. 

I am having fun. 

Playing with dolls. Playing with clay and with color. Playing in the dirt and playing with words. Playing with photography. Playing with my husband. 
This is another part of aging that I did not foresee. 
I am having fun. 

It seems that because the congress and senate seemingly refuse to do what must be done to remove the demented, evil idiot who is somehow the president, the world as we know it may be ending any day now and I feel no guilt whatsoever in having as much fun in the meantime as I want. 
Well. You know- in a seventy-one year old lady way. One may wonder what sort of fun that would be. 
Now would be the time to find out. 

Love...Ms. Moon

This Is How We Do It

Well, here are the Weatherford/Hartmann kids which of course means the Moon grand-kids with their Easter booty and being part of this family, things were not exactly what we might call traditional.
What is Owen wearing?

And what is Gibson wearing?

Well, you see- Owen is Good Easter and Gibson is Bad Easter and as the younger kids raced about finding their eggs, Gibson would chase them and if he touched one, they had to freeze. Like Freeze Tag only for Easter and in costumes. 
Makes sense, right?
And the frozen person could not move until Good Easter Owen came and touched them and they could resume their racing about in search of eggs. 

I am not sure where this idea came from, nor do I know where the costumes came from but they're pretty hysterical. It did add interest to what can become a rather boring tradition over the years. The little kids loved it. Many eggs were found, most of them plastic with candy or money in them but there were some really truly dyed eggs too. 

Those were made into deviled eggs and since Lauren brought some she'd made, there were plenty for all.

Lauren has recently just become the deli manager at the same Publix where Lily works. She's been a deli manager for a long time but they move her around when things need shaking up and tightened up. This is a cool move for her because that Publix is very close to their house whereas the one she was working at was way over in Student Land by FSU. 
Cool, Lauren!

When May and Jessie got here, I gave them both lovely aprons to wear with their Easter finery. Here's May in hers, making her salad.

I did not get a full-on picture of Jessie in her fancy apron but here she makes an appearance in a picture I took of Lily and her eldest son.

Every time I see Owen I cry. How is this possible? 

We surely did miss Rachel and Hank. Rachel is doing quite well. Her incision is healing up nicely and the pain for which she got the surgery in the first place is better than before surgery and is supposed to improve as time goes on. Which is wonderful but I know she's bored out of her skull. Well, Hank told me that. "She's bored out of her skull," he said. 

Jessie and Vergil dropped off some of the dinner for them on their way home and here is what the meal looked like.

Do you like the serving dishes? 

It was a beautiful meal but not really overwhelming. By the time we'd eaten and people got their leftovers to take home, there wasn't much left. And I am proud that so much of it was homegrown. The lettuces in the salad, the peas, the collard and mustard greens. The deviled eggs were from a neighbor of Jessie's who has chickens. The bread and the biscuits were made with love as was everything else, really. 
But you may ask- what biscuits?

Y'all, I made a rather huge batch of biscuits, my biggest skillet full, and those things disappeared in a red hot second. 
Excuse me while I say, "They were fucking amazing."

Here we are at table. 

All except for these three who agreed to eat on a quilt picnic style. 

"Maggie," I said, "Do you really want to be remembered forever for having a biscuit in your mouth at Easter?"
"Yes," she said. "I do."

The kids had all been playing whiffle ball in the backyard before we got the meal on the table and afterwards too. They are going to sleep good tonight. 
Guess who else is going to sleep good tonight?

Xena, aka Large Marge. It looks like her eyes are open there but they aren't. She was already crashed out. She was a pretty good girl, considering she's still very much a puppy. She didn't jump on people, she sort of responds to commands, and she is absolutely filled with the joy of life. She was in ecstasy, playing ball with the kids, racing around the back yard.

Before everyone left, we had a Gibson birthday cake with candles ceremony, "Happy Birthday" being sung in our usual, uh, enthusiastic way. 

Our beautiful Gibson. Our sweet, sweet boy. 
He, too, towers over me now. 

Before everyone left, I told Lauren that I had something I needed to tell her. 
"You're mad because I didn't make the sweet potato casserole?"
"No. That was just a mild disappointment. What I wanted to tell you was," and here I lowered my voice, "My favorite part of the entire meal was your ambrosia salad."
I was not lying. 
I will go on about our healthy garden foods and I mean every word I say about them but I'd be a damn liar if I did not admit that Lauren's "salad" with baby marshmallows, pecans, coconut, maraschino cherries, pineapple and probably Cool Whip was the food on my plate that I saved until last because I wanted to keep that sweetness with me as long as I could. 

So it was a great day and I got to see all the grandchildren and get a little love from each and give back as much as they let me. I look around me and I see all these smiling beautiful faces and I hear our laughter as we discuss the profound and profane, the cosmic and the comic, recent events and long-ago memories. Oh, the memories. 
I feel like okay, maybe I didn't screw it all up. 
And when Owen hugs me, which he often does, he always says, "I love you Mer," and I think, "Yeah. I got a few things right." 

But I will say, as I always must- they were born this way. 
And how incredibly fortunate I am. 

Okay. So. Ms. Moon- what was your Easter outfit? Did you gussy up and be all fancy?
Well of course.
I wore my great-grandmother's pearls. What could be fancier than that? 

God I have a lot of shit hanging around my house. 

I wonder if it's time for a ham sandwich yet? I will ponder that. 

Love...Ms. Moon