Baptism Ritual At The Wacissa River

The flat dumplings came out fine and the boys said they did like them but not as much as the fluffy ones so we'll go back to the tried tried and true for future sleepover suppers. 

Would you look at those children's eyelashes? 

They gobbled them down and then Boppy headed them off to the shower while I sat at the table and leisurely finished my own bowl. After they were clean and in their pajamas, Boppy did the honors and made the root beer floats. Then teeth-brushing and tucking-into-bed where we read a book called The Little Tiny Rooster or something like that. The little tiny rooster saved the flock from a fox and all was well. That's the basic plot. 
I kissed them good-night and told them not to get up until 7:00 and they didn't. 
As far as I know, anyway. 

I really thought I slept poorly last night. It seemed to me that I was awake every ten minutes. However, this morning I discovered that we'd had a huge thunderstorm around two a.m. and I missed the whole thing so I guess I slept better than I thought. We didn't get much rain but I guess even a little is better than none. 

This morning after pancakes and bacon Levon asked me if I'd read him some books and of course that is nothing short of glory for me. He wanted to hear Amos and Boris for at least the thirtieth time and I was so very happy to read it to him. If there's another children's book as filled with feelings and philosophy as this book, I don't know what it is. I think that Levon has BIG feelings himself and perhaps he can identify with the tiny mouse and the huge whale who also have such immense emotions. By then August had joined us and he reminded me that we had not yet read Babar and the Wully-Wully so we read that too. I could have gone on all day long but if we were going to the river, we needed to get on with it and so we did. I packed watermelon and tortilla chips and salsa and we all put on our bathing suits and I sunscreened them up and off we went. There weren't too many people there and the teenagers obviously don't make it until afternoon because there were few there, doing their preening and daredevil jumping from the rope swing and walking in groups in front of opposite sex groups, and all the attention-getting things that teenagers must do because hormones force them into such displays. They have no more control over these activities than a peacock has when it comes time to spread his tailfeathers. 

The boys mostly played in the sand.

When Boppy and I got into the cold water though, they followed us and soon they were swimming around like little guppies and jumping off the dock with other little boys who all looked exactly alike. I am so very anxious when I'm the one in charge of making sure my grandchildren do not drown or get eaten by a gator. Overly anxious, to tell the truth, but I can't help it. It's the way I am. And of course the children all dart and run and go underwater and so I am constantly wondering where each of them is, having one tiny panic attack after another. 
But I did enjoy being there and I loved that first mermaid dive into the cold, cold water, feeling re-baptized once again. Washed clean of the heat, the stickiness, my sins and sorrows. 

After a few hours we came home and Levon wanted a peanut butter, honey, and raisin sandwich and I heated up chicken and dumplings for the rest of us for our late lunch. And then, after awhile, it was time to take August and Levon home and so I did. Levon fell asleep and August read his book, laughing out loud at the funniest parts. I delivered them to their mama and I am not going to talk about how hard it was to leave. 

I know. I KNOW. I'll see them very soon. 

There's a hawk in the back yard. He or she was sitting on one of the Bradford pear stumps a few minutes ago and then flew up into the magnolia branches. I rarely see a hawk perched that close to the ground. A Carolina wren whistled alarm notes for quite awhile and just now I saw the hawk swoop through the yard again. I have no idea what it's looking for. No babies chicks, that's for sure. But all activity at the bird feeder has ceased and I do not hear even a single chirp from the birds. 

Here's what August built today out of Lincoln Logs.

A two-room house and a very fine wagon. Could architecture be in his future? I had an uncle who was a well-known architect and of course, his daddy is an engineer. It is nice to see a child building something that does not involve Legos. 

And here's a picture of the African basil. 

Wasps are doing dizzy dives all over those blossoms getting drunk on sweet nectar, I guess. 

I'm going to make another squash soup. Tomorrow I have to pick beans. 

This is summer. And here come the cicadas, tuning up once again. 

Love...Ms. Moon