A Very Fine Visit And A Little Time Travel

Supper last night made Maggie so happy. She loved the grouper and the macaroni and cheese and had plenty of cut-up vegetables to go with it all. She was sincerely a happy girl. And she kept telling me how glad she was to be here and how much she loves it here and she kissed me about one million times. I mean, she was just pure sweet. 

She didn't fight me at all when I told her it was time for her bath and she didn't get water all over the bathroom and she brushed her teeth without being asked. Twice. She brushed them and then she had ice cream and so she brushed them again. 
We got the light situation in the guest room all figured out along with the quilt and pillows. And she wanted me to read to her and I loved that with all of my little ol' meemaw heart. 
She slept fine and told me this morning that she'd loved having that whole big bed to herself to roll around in all she wanted. She was still in a fabulous mood when she got up and I made the pancakes and bacon and eggs. I put blueberries and pecans in Glen's pancakes but Magnolia didn't want anything to cover up the delicious flavor of the pancakes. That's what she said, anyway. And she didn't want butter or syrup on them for the same reason.

After breakfast it was time for us to play some card games. Go Fish and Battle. I won Go Fish. She won Battle. At that point she was really ready to do something with her grandfather but Glen was on the phone and drowning in paperwork, trying to get insurance on Owen's car so that Lily can drive it and so can O. And I am not sure what else he was doing but it looked and sounded like a lot. He tried to explain this to our girl but she did not like it. 
She sulked a bit. I really don't blame her. I had some things I needed to do so she was on her own for a while and eventually, she got out the old toy tent and filled it with pillows and dolls, crawled in with them and had some sort of pretend thing going. I finally asked if she'd like me to show her how to crochet and she said she would so we tried that but she got frustrated. Then we did some other things which I cannot remember and finally Glen was done with what he was doing but by then it was early afternoon and he had things to do in town, of course, so he took her home. By then she was over her deep sorrow and there were more kisses and hugs and off she went with Boppy. 

So it was a very good visit. Of course I was fairly exhausted by the time it was over. I've been having a lot of what I am 99% sure is kidney stone related pain and that's wearying too. 

Fridays are my day to weigh and even stepping on that scale once a week stresses me out. I even had a dream about Weight Watchers this morning. I've been consistently and slowly losing, which is good and today it seemed like the scale caught up with the way my clothes have been fitting. I've lost an average of two pounds a week and I think that is great. 
I took my ninth dose of Zepbound this morning, up one more increment in dosage. I always respond to the injection so quickly and today is no different. I made a pot of red beans this morning after soaking the beans all night and I'll make some rice to go with them. I'll air fry some okra to round out the cajun theme. Or is it Creole? Don't ask me. At this moment though, I have absolutely no desire to eat beans and rice or okra either. Or anything else for that matter. However, I will eat some, of course. I am still absolutely amazed at how my relationship with food has changed. 
I heard two hosts on a podcast the other day talking about a friend of theirs who has lost three hundred pounds without the use of any medication and how much they admire him for that. So do I! I mean, that is fucking amazing and shows dedication like I'll never have. But the way they talked about people losing weight on the GLP-1's, made it sound like they believe you just take the medication and the weight magically melts off. 
This is so not true. 
The drugs allow someone to make the good choices for healthy weight loss without the feeling of deprivation, constant hunger, or the massive guilt that can occur with a "slip." And I say this as someone who has lost at least a hundred or more pounds over her lifetime, only to gain them back. 
In a way, it has felt like magic to me but a very biological and sensible magic that I had never imagined possible. 
So. There is that. 

Glen brought the chair home. Of course Mr. Eagle Eye had to ask me if I'd noticed all the stains on it and so on and so forth and I said, "Yeah. And they don't bother me."
They're not that bad at all. 
I helped him bring it in from his 4Runner and I can attest that it is a good, solid chair and after sitting in it again, I hereby designate it as a Comfy Chair. 

For the moment it is in the library where it looks very much at home. 

It's hard to see the true color there but Glen, too, thinks it will go well with the rug. 

It's funny how Glen and I have such different feelings about new things versus old. We agree on the fact that many older things are made better, look better, and are just more generally pleasing than new things. Unlike him, though, I do not mind the signs of use and wear whereas he likes to defunkify things. And I guess that's what he's doing with the lake house which in this case does not bother me a bit because the funk there is not the sort of funk I have the least bit of fondness for. 

I discovered today that the pinecone lilies are sending up their cones.

Those pale yellow things are what I think are the blooms of the plant. When I noticed the cones I couldn't believe it was already that time of year. And yet it is. And Maggie will be taller than me soon and how did that happen already? 

Here's a picture that my brother White sent me today which I had never seen before as far as I can remember.

That's Lily and me sometime around 1990? Lily would have been about five, I would have been about thirty-six. Hank? Do you know? I could be completely wrong but we were at a family reunion down in Vero Beach and it seems to me that Jessie was still very much a baby whom I carried in a sling most of the time. I do not remember those glasses, I do not remember that dress, nor do I really remember that woman who appears to be so incredibly sure of herself and her place in the world. 

But I do remember that little girl in the Seminole skirt and reunion T-shirt who grew up to be the mother of my granddaughter, Magnolia June, the one and only. 

Time. Phew. 

Happy Friday, y'all.

Love...Ms. Moon

P.S. Just got this from Lily.

She says Maggie refuses to take it off. Oh well. Mermaids gonna mermaid. It does look pretty cool. And Mermaid Magnolia looks pretty happy.