The 4th of July

Today it rained and the mushroom grew.

And two other mushrooms came to stand alongside of Myrtle in the little forest of our front yard.

I haven't yet named these two but I feel like the old fella on the right isn't long for this world. His umbrella seems to have slipped. The one on the left, however, is in a really secretive, barely visible spot so she may grow large and prosper. It's still raining so, I guess, they'll continue to grow. I'm not ever sure of what combination of soil, water and fertilizer are required for anything to grow and I know even less about mushrooms but for me... my little mushrooms are indications of something of wonder in an environment that otherwise, doesn't change much. The view is gorgeous but it doesn't change much. The mushrooms... they change... and they do it in the midst of unpleasant circumstances. Surely there's some lovely story we can draw from this.

Like I said. It's raining. We didn't do cook-out fare... I made a (really nice) chicken stir-fry with peppers and asparagus and mushrooms over jasmine rice and it turned out well. My Aunt Linda is spending the night at the ole Gant B&B and although we still are limited in the entertainment that we offer, at least we improved on the most recent meal we offered to guests (frozen pizza).  Pop will be home (here) tomorrow night and on Saturday my mom will be heading back to Riverdale with him to catch up on Doctor appointments and work at Vacation Bible School. It will be just me and Austin - or maybe just me - who knows - for the next two weeks. Austin came by today briefly and was in good spirits. This just means that he's disassociating himself from the unpleasantness and will work on a way to bring the subject up again and try to make things happen his way.

As I've frequently mentioned, for me, rain = pain and therefore this day has been uncomfortable but not the worst I've ever had - I did manage to make coffee, empty the dishwasher, load the dishwasher, prepare a meal- I mean, I'm not exactly shooting fireworks off from the dock (as some of our lake neighbors are. in the rain) but I'm getting by ok. I'm functioning. It's sort of like... I've accepted certain things that will not work for me in this season of life (working, sitting for any length of time, for the most part anything social that requires sitting for a long time) but it's real important to me to do what I can do.

Enough about me... check out this little sweetheart:

 it was cool enough to open the windows and little kitty was appreciating the fresh rain cooled air.

Little Trouble Kitty wants to know why I'm in the top floor bedroom with my camera with the light on. We never turn the lights on up there! His head is cocked to the side - we call that "question head".












At any rate... it's been a very quiet, peaceful 4th and I'm grateful for that. Hope yours was everything you hoped.

Love and hugs.