Gifts

I really do have two feet. 

Today was a day of receiving things. I went to the post office and retrieved a package holding a new nightgown and a dress. I sort of love this dress. The pockets are big enough to hold at least six very large eggs. Apiece. A girl can't ask for much more. 
I sent this picture to my kids and said, "Well, here's my dress from Vermont Country Store. I am now officially old." My mother used to get clothes from catalogs like the Vermont Country Store. They were infinitely practical and what one could kindly call uniquely stylish. Which is to say- just as stylish now as they were forty years ago and they weren't that stylish then. You could probably say the same for this dress. I was hoping for more of a hippie Indian print type fabric than what this one is made of. It is 100% cotton but as we have discussed before, there are all types of cotton when it comes to weave. I think when this dress has been washed a dozen times it will be much softer than it is now. But it's soft enough and, yes, practical, and is probably a nice change for my husband because all he ever sees me in is overalls and I feel like I should apologize every morning when I get dressed. 
Change is good. 
Sometimes. 

I still haven't even started on sewing the dress I cut out bias strips for yet. Every day I think, "Today is the day!" and then the day inevitably gets away from me. The sewing machine is out, up, and threaded but all I've used it for was to repair overalls, as I said. Yesterday I did chores around here and then Jessie came out with the boys. That was fun until we figured out that Levon, who had arrived asleep and continued to sleep on the couch for most of the visit, was running a fever. Both pairs of mama-lip-thermometers confirmed this. He told us his head hurt and his little cheeks got those pink fever roses on them and he tried to participate in Bop activities but you could just tell he was miserable. Is there anything sadder than a sick child? 
After they left I called my neighbor who had invited us for supper and told her that I'd been exposed to a child with a fever of, at that point, unknown origin- did they still want us to come over? She consulted the CDC website and called back saying, yes, all should be well. We ate on their porch, which had been the plan anyway. We've all been vaccinated. 
Jessie took him to Urgent Care and they tested him for flu and covid, both negative. Possible ear infection. He's feeling better today, still a little fever but he's perked up and his sturdy little body has been doing a good job of fighting off whatever it is he has. 

After I hung some laundry this morning and went to the post office, I picked more mulberries. I cannot possibly keep up with these things. Look at this!

I didn't pick half of what was ripe but I did snip each stem with my thumbnail as I went and I picked so many that I have tiny stinging cuts on the finger I use as a cutting platform. The ground is covered in ripe berries. I mean- carpeted, y'all. Anyway, I picked another gallon and will start making jam tomorrow. Hopefully. 

And then Hank and Rachel came out. Today was the day that they were fully immunized after their last shot and so, for the first time in over a year, I got to see their beautiful faces, hold them close in long, tight hugs, and kiss them. 
And that was the best thing I received today. 

Hank was ready for some Mama-Cooking and I heated up the rest of the soup and Mr. Moon came in and we all ate lunch together on the back porch. I had given Jessie enough soup yesterday to feed her family last night and so today's lunch finished it all up.
Hurray! It was good soup. 
Hank and Rachel and I chatted and chatted, laughed and laughed. It was so good to be able to do that without masks, without the worry that has haunted us for such a long time. I know that the vaccines aren't 100% safe but we are all responsible mask-wearers in public, still, and besides that, none of us really goes out much. So we felt okay about it all. 

Sweetness. 

Before they left there was another round of hugs and of kisses. 

Thank you, Science! 

Things may change with variations and needing to get boosters but for right this second, we are good. And right this second is all we have, really, isn't it? 

After they left I gathered the laundry from the line, folded it, put it away. I tidied the kitchen, started the dishwasher and it was suddenly five o'clock. How in the world does this happen? 

In chicken news, I have noticed that Miss Dotty's tail feathers are fanned out dramatically. 

As I recall, both she and her sister Darla displayed this fan before they began to brood last year. I also recall that between the two of them, there was not one baby hatched. But, who knows? It was so hot when they brooded last year that I thought perhaps that was why no peeps appeared. We shall see if tail-fanning does indicate an imminent egg-sitting. Funny, isn't it, how although I've been keeping chickens for quite awhile now, there's still so much I do not know? 

And what I do know, I so frequently forget. 

One more thing- for awhile I've been on a streak of not being able to find audio books from the library's collection that keep my attention. I was listening to one so vile that my phone actually made the decision to quit listening for me and suddenly and abruptly cut it off and switched to a podcast. 
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
But I found one that has absolutely captured my heart and mind. I sort of want every parent in the world to read it. 

You can read about the novel HERE. 

It's the story of a family whose youngest child, at the age of three, tells her parents that she wants to be a girl when she grows up. Because she was born with male genitalia and they had thought she was a boy, this complicates things. 
But it's not just the way her parents deal with this particular issue that makes me want every parent to read it. It's also the way they love, deal, and support all of their children. I've not finished reading it but it's beautiful and heart-rending and well-written and I am loving it. 

That's it for April 26, 2021 in the tiny, tiny world in which I live. 

Love...Ms. Moon