The Good Life

Yesterday was just perfect in every way. The weather had taken a turn for the better and it was cool all day and we just had so much fun with Owen and then with all the kids. We laughed and laughed and there most definitely were cheese and crackers and May made a pasta salad that couldn't be beat and we ate some shrimp too. And had gin and tonics. And iced tea. And it was just all good.
And oh yes, that carrot cake May brought which she knows I love.

We went out after supper and fed the shrimp shells to the chickens who eat them like popcorn and passed Owen around. He was getting fussy by the end of the day because he'd refused much of a nap due to so much goodness happening.



I mean- would YOU want to take a nap?

And although I had said over and over and OVER again- NO PRESENTS! the disobedient children got me some.
Jessie brought a card and the gin and chocolate (now that she's 21, she can go into a liquor store and buy gin which- let me say- is a fine reason to have a 21-year old child) and she gave me a heavenly and incredibly long foot and then back massage while we were watching some of what Hank got me which was Season Three of Northern Exposure on DVD and that may have been the best hour or so of my life. Just about, anyway. Ah, how I have missed those people of Cicely, Alaska. Or at least, the pretend Cicely, Alaska. I felt so loved and pampered.

And May got me a charm for my charm bracelet that I've always wanted, ever since I was a kid because all the cool Florida girls had one and I didn't but NOW I DO!


A tiny silver crate of fresh, Florida oranges. Is the cool or what?

And Lily and Jason got me, uh, a GRANDSON, and some flowers and a beautiful card.
I got Lily a card too. Unfortunately, it was the same card I had given her for something else. Maybe her and Jason's anniversary. I'm bad like that. I forget. But hell, I wrote something different in it this time, right? That counts. I think.

And Mr. Moon got me some pretty flowers. Really pretty flowers.

And also a present which may, at first glance, seem a bit odd for a Mother's Day present, but one that he knew I'd love which was a BRAND...NEW...SHOVEL!!!!

I'm not being sarcastic here, either. I love my new shovel. He and I have different ideas on what a shovel should be and so we each need our own. This one even comes with a little platform place so that if you should happen to be digging while wearing flip-flops (yes, this sometimes happens to me), you won't hurt your foot. Check it out:


I was talking to Mr. Moon a few minutes ago, thanking him for my beautiful day yesterday and especially for the shovel and he said, and I quote, "Now get out there and get them damn weeds out of the garden."

He's such a kidder!
Actually, I think he really meant it. So I'll probably put on my sunscreen and go get them damn weeds out of the garden. Or some of them, anyway. And yes, we have weeds in the garden big enough and with deep enough roots to require shovel-action.

And so it was a beautiful day yesterday. I couldn't have asked for anything better, anything more and in fact, it was far more than I even thought I wanted. I kept looking around at my sweet family and thinking how much I wanted to tell them what they all mean to me- how incredibly blessed I am to have all of them, how special they all are to me, how absolutely the finest family I could ever have and to know they love me- well. But I couldn't find the words. It would have sounded too much like "Oh, that's Mama. She's had some gin and tonics!" But you know, I feel that way today, too, and there are no gin and tonics involved and the thought of this family that I have, just the thought of them, makes me cry.
Is making me cry.

And it's another beautiful day, cool and with not so much humidity and I went with a friend early this morning to a doctor's appointment because she might need some one to hold her hand and it wasn't as bad as it could have been and I did hold her hand when they had to stick a needle in her arms for TB tests and then we went to the Waffle House and I ate BACON and a bunch of other delicious Waffle House goodness that I did not need but which I surely appreciated and it was actually not so bad. In fact, by the time we got to the Waffle House, I think we were both feeling a lot better.

I was anxious yesterday, some, but I had this feeling that the Universe was going to shove over and make everything as okay as it could be and you know, it did. I'm mighty grateful for that, too.

Yeah. I am.

And it's a good day to go dig up some weeds. A fine day for it, in fact, and that's what I'm going to go do. Dig up some weeds with the chickens staying nearby the way they do to keep me company on a relatively cool day in May. I have everything in the world to be grateful for and today, well, I am.

I have laughing children, a darling grandson, friends whose hands I can hold and who have held mine as well, and I have a man who brings me orchids and also, a shovel to dig up weeds. And this house and this yard where wrens make nests in an old tarpon mount and we have potatoes and beans growing and where my grandson can spend hours exploring.



I'd say that about covers it. I'd say I'm good.
I hope you are too.