Well, we finally got some rain. I'd say about four and a half feet.

It was coming down so hard I went out in it to check to see if the baby chickens were okay. Which of course they were. Flopsy had them tucked under her and she was sitting under her little nest on the highest piece of ground in the coop. I need to stop worrying about those babies so much. That's Flopsy's job and she's doing very, very well with it. She's a great chicken-mama.

I cleaned up Jessie's old room today. It's upstairs and I never go up there unless Owen convinces me to because he likes to plunder in her old things, and the last time we went up there fleas attacked him (yes, I swear- I am not making this shit up- and I haven't even discussed the big fat tick I found on my person this morning, swollen with my blood) but we put a flea bomb in the room before we left for Mobile so the fleas are gone. At least. But it was still a mess. Dusty as hell and really, it's time for Jessie to go through that stuff and get rid of a lot of it. As it stands, it is sort of the Museum Of Jessie's Younger Years and that's okay but I know she doesn't want that stuff and neither do I and we might actually move some day and I'll have enough of my own shit to deal with at that point.

So I threw away some very obviously non-wanted crap and I dusted and I swept and I mopped and I'm washing the sheets. She and Vergil are coming in tomorrow and I don't want them to have to sleep in filth. I mean, really. And Jessie has allergies to dust and there's only so much Benadryl in the world.

We're supposed to go to the island this weekend with them and Vergil's mama and his stepfather and I'm feeling some anxiety about that. You know me.

I wish I wasn't crazy sometimes. Okay, all the time.

I'm really, really glad it rained.

That's a magnolia blossom up there in that picture. Mr. Moon brought it home for me. It's making my hallway smell heavenly and it delights me, the way it looks in a blue bottle, sitting next to a vase of zinnias. My little Virgin of Guadalupe seems to approve. I swear, sometimes she seems to change expression. I know she doesn't. It's all in the observer.

The sun's back out. Sure is beautiful, everything washed clean and pure again, no effort on my part. It's nice when things are clean, whether it was my doing or not. Outside the birds are singing and the chickens are digging around to see what the rain kicked up and inside it smells of Fabuloso and white vinegar and Murphy's Oil Soap.

I may be crazy but I know goodness when I see it. I know blessings. I appreciate them too.

That includes you.