A Lovely Fall Break Day

My grandson, CJ, now wears glasses.  His mom, Yolie, has worn 'em since early elementary school as has his birth uncle, Big Joe, and later Daniel, plus his own Daddy, Chuck.  Guess this was inevitable, but could he possibly look cuter?

Yesterday was a gorgeous fall day.  One in which all my kids volunteered to help Grandma and I in our usual get outside and work days.  Yolie and Sarah both brought their laptops over so they could work outside while supervising the cousins CJ, Mae, Ray and Hazel on the trampoline, swings, and running around in the meadow.

No stress, no drama, I don't think even the youngest kids squabbled over anything at all for even one cotton-picking second.

Wow, folks DO live like this, then I chuckled reading The Adoption Counselor's post about being alone.

You see, I can’t help, at times, but wonder what my life would have been like if I’d had a normal sized family, and if I had stopped having kids at the age that society expected me to. I also wonder at times what I would do with my days, with my life,  if I actually had a choice about how to use the moments that have been given to me.

Oh my.  I always wonder this about me.  Always.

Especially when someone has been viciously ugly to me, shoving me across a room, it always leaves me more'n stunned.  Dude, I chose you, I wanna holler, but don't do so, always reminding myself silently how pissed I'd have been if taken away from my own mother for any reason.  Here I am at 58 with her right next door, it's a primal bond.

She's stated several times that if she needs a lot of help to function when she's older, then she wants to go to a nursing home, doesn't want me to be tied down after spending 50 years caring for children.

She's clearly nuts if she thinks that's gonna happen.  I think it'd be the lowest of lows if I felt I didn't wanna care for her, she'd be my first priority.  I also think it's a moot point in that she's very active and eats right, she's very likely to remain robust and healthy.  She's about 95% vegan as well, only because we've always eaten fruits and vegetables as our first choice of anything.

"You think veganism cures everything," one of my daughters said to me.  Yeah, I kinda do.  As I keep reading about it, I'm startled by the vast health benefits, but it truly does make sense to me.

I'd ordered 10 pizzas yesterday, our monthly splurge, and then wondered what I was gonna eat, as they all pigged out happily in front of me.  Oh yeah, frozen blueberries, three bananas, almond milk, and vanilla protein powder along with flax seed meal and chia seeds, and I had a ginormous two quart sized bowl of what resembled frozen yogurt minus any animal products.

"Dang!" Nando piped up, "That looks better'n what we're eating."

"How come I've lived in the South all my life and I don't have a Southern accent?" Jack asked me yesterday.

"Honey, you do," I pointed out.  "We just don't, or maybe can't, hear it."  I said you do, like yew dew.

Sabrina upended a log and found a snake, Nando and Ray searched hard for this day's lizard catch, finding one they later dubbed as having royal blood lines.  CJ's now old enough to tag along happily, and the six kids made my hurt heart they were all so cute and funny.

My neighbor, Becky, who lives further down the dirt road in my friend Charleen's old house, had recently posted a photo on Facebook of a snake curled up in one of her hanging baskets on her porch.  I need to get her permission to use it here.  Seeing it stopped me in my tracks from bringing in my own houseplants for the winter, something I need to get done in the next month.  Oh my.

JoJo even staggered outside, blinking in the sunlight, disoriented from playing video games, "Ma? Want some help?"

Dang.  That rarely happens.  I giggled and threatened to take a picture of him actually working.  He good-naturedly farted around entertaining me as he always does.

He brought me a couple wheelbarrow loads of wood chips before becoming distracted by the other kids playing softball in the meadow, or by the birds flying by, or whichever way the breeze blew.

 There was a time, as three of my original Biggers, Deysi, Saray and Marcela, would not have wanted me posting pictures of them as young kids.  Nowadays, in their thirties, they've mellowed and worked out their feelings about adoption.  

I don't even dare mention some of my kids in their 20's as they bumble through life, learning stuff the hard way, but I've done this long enough to know that most of 'em will come around in time.

Marcela texted me this ad for Channel 5 late last night that I'd not yet seen.  Yeah boy!  I'll watch for certain.  Who doesn't like Ron Gant?

A major news magazine had touted Heaven Is For Real, which is nothing less than a big 'no duh?' moment for me.  A neurosurgeon who'd previously not believed in near death experiences had one of his own, resulting in a complete turn around regarding his beliefs.  

Not all of my readers share my conservative, fundamentalist religious beliefs and I try not to proselytize here, as I deeply don't wanna lose y'all.  But Honey(s), seriously, do y'all think I'd bother getting up tomorrow were it not so according to The Bible?  A fascinating article here.