A Full Day, A Full Heart

 It is Friday and you know what that means. Sheets and pillowcases on the line with whatever else needed washing. It's always a good Friday for me when the weather is conducive to line-drying. And it was today. Not conducive to human activity outside because of the heat, but good for drying laundry. 

I tried to take a walk. And I did walk a little bit but it was too much for me today. I got a few pictures though. 

A neighbor of mine cut down a large tree recently and I was secretly a little perturbed and upset but this is what she planted around the stump- beautiful sunflowers and black-eyed susans as well as some nice palms. 

Here we have the autograph, written in cement, of No Man Lord. How I've never noticed this I do not know although it is in a newer part of the sidewalk which has fairly recently been repaired. He walks to the Dollar General or the other convenience store frequently to get supplies and I suppose he just could not resist the temptation to leave his mark. 

When I got home, Mr. Moon had finished digging our sad crop of potatoes. Honestly- why did we bother?

"They will not last us through the winter," he said to me. 
He is right. They will not even last us through the summer. We are potato-famine fated. Good thing we don't really have to depend on them. Of course the volunteer sweet potatoes are taking over the entire garden so we can supplement with those, should we feel the need. This is why southerners grow sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. They just do better here. 

When I got back from my abbreviated walk, I was hot as hell and he was too, from doing the potato digging. 

"Let's go to the river," I said. 

And so we did. 

I had a hundred things I could have done, had meant to do, but this is the joy of retirement- we can make our own schedule. Even after a few years of this, we tend to forget that we can let things go and and enjoy ourselves, even in the middle of a weekday. We need to work on this. 

There were a whole lot of mamas and kids at the Wacissa today which was not unexpected. School is out. It seemed to me that many of the little ones were fascinated by Mr. Moon. Here's one of them, giving him the eye. He is waving to her. We took our new folding chairs which Mr. Moon won in a door prize situation. They are rocking chairs! They were quite comfortable and as I rocked in the shade I said, "Well, we really are a MawMaw and a PawPaw now." 

At one point, a smallish alligator was sighted in the duckweed not far at all from where everyone was swimming. Everyone sort of cleared away from that area and and stood and watched and then a little guy in a Jr. size kayak paddled over and splashed it and it retreated back into those water lilies you can see in that picture. And regular programming resumed. 
We dunked our bodies several times in that cold, cold water and watched the kids jumping off the rope swing. It used to be that hardly any girls did the rope swing jumping but today it was mostly all girls. Tough little southern girls with grit and no fear. It was awesome. 

We finally got hungry enough to fold up our chairs and come on back home. I had planned on picking green beans but I never did find the time. I brought in the laundry and then I did a bad, bad thing. 

I roasted tomatoes and made pie pastry. I broke the one-tomato-pie-a-year law. Of course I made it for my darling husband. 

And of course he will share it with me. 

All is well here at the Moon house on a Friday night. It's been a very fine day and having had our first Wacissa baptisms for the summer, we feel good and as always, renewed. We are sipping our martinis with pickled green beans in them. 
Lucky, lucky people we are. 

Forty-seven years ago right now I had been in labor with Hank for about ten hours and as I've gone about my day today, I have thought of that day and the following night so much. My labor with him was long and hard but ended with more joy than I knew I could experience. His birthday is tomorrow and he has invited friends and family to meet him at the state park on St. George Island to celebrate. Hank always makes his birthdays so special, as well he should. Rachel has made him a key lime pie and we may go tomorrow or we may not. We haven't made a final decision on that. But whether or not we go, I will be filled with the memories of how incredibly in love I was the instant I saw my very red-headed baby. I am so grateful that my maternal instincts have always kicked in so immediately when my babies were born. I know it's not the same for every woman and I consider myself lucky in this. 

I do believe that Hank has taught me more than anyone else on this earth. And he is still teaching me. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon