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.

The 2nd of July

No rain today but it's on the way. Mom worked on the yard without nearly enough assistance from my young professional x-boxer (which is different from being an ex-professional boxer) because it's going to be too wet the rest of the week and she's heading back to Riverdale on Saturday and will be gone for two weeks leaving the yard maintenance up to our less than enthusiastic gardener.

I went to the grocery store to stock up on necessities. We were poor hostesses when Aunt Ginger and Uncle Carl were here. I'm generally the one who does the cooking but only if I'm feeling up to par and that day, I was sub-par. Also. We just didn't plan well. Aunt Linda is coming tomorrow so I actually shopped and planned a bit. It's not exactly turning the mountain house into a Bed & Breakfast but there are things to eat with minimal effort. Stir fry chicken and veggies for dinner tomorrow night. I think our offers of hospitality need to come with the disclaimer that you want to schedule your visit for a time when Pop is here. Then you will be fed. Otherwise... you will have things like this...

 for dinner. Cantaloupe. Sweet, juicy, delicious cantaloupe. Trouble licked the juice afterwards. For lunch I had butter pecan ice cream with caramel sundae sauce. Just keeping it real. For breakfast we had lovely yogurt/fruit/granola parfaits drizzled with local honey. I have an odd, very sugar-full diet lately. I lean toward simple, clean, one ingredient type foods (the yogurt was fat free and greek) but I only want sweet stuff. I have also been snacking on bagel crisps since retiring to the Whine Cellar.


The most exciting thing that happened today was this....

 massive mushroom that is growing in our front yard. It's truly amazing. I took photos from the porch, down below (our front yard is a steep slope) and I went up to the top floor of the house and took pictures looking out the window like this...

 I'm just so fascinated by the fact that it's SOOOO large that it can be viewed from such a large distance.I'm hoping our Mellow Mushroom survives the next three days of torrential rain that is predicted. 

And I love the way the sunbeams shine down right in front of it... 

 In other news... Oscar the Security Dachshund decided that he needed to climb up on the stool (that is where I put my laptop when I'm upstairs during the day since we don't really have a table nearby for me to put it on)...He's watching my mom with the weed eater in the front yard. I just thought he looked so cute here... 

So intense!

 Keeping close watch...















In other news... I got a call from the Social Security office today. They have sent me lots and lots of forms and they received them back from the post office "not at this address". She confirmed the address they used and it's the right address. I had noticed the other day that the mailman had a little card in the mailbox that said, "Grant Family only - all others return to sender" and it worried me some because our last name is GANT not GRANT - and from a legal standpoint, my name is DARBY. But I thought... surely... the little rural mail carrier instruction card we had to fill out listed the names of the people who should get mail here and I was listed - would supercede any little mailbox notes. Furthermore, when I closed my P.O. Box I did a change of address form to send mail from the P.O. Box to this address. We made a new note for in the mailbox and I called the local post office and gave a whiny little rant about how this is causing delays in the disability process which is no bueno! I know that God's timing is perfect and I will dwell on those happy thoughts instead of going down the stressful bumpy road that has me running out of money before disability is approved.

I struggled a bit with grocery shopping today. Had another bad dizzy spell. They seem to happen when I walk for any length of time, if my pain is exacerbated, if it's humid outside... I had hoped that it was detoxing from the neurontin that was causing the dizzy thing. Apparently not. Some of the other side effects that were attributed to the neurontin were things like not having muscle control over elimination... it's not a Depends situation... it's just that when it's time to go, it's hard getting things going... my concern, the last time I saw the neurologist (two years ago) was that this is the beginning of a loss of control over those things and he felt - at the time - that it was just a side effect of neurontin. But now I'm not taking the neurontin and it's not getting better. For that matter... despite not working... I still have pain every single day and some days it's worse than it was when I was working full time. This thing is progressive and it's progressing too far and too fast for my liking.

But ... for now... all I can do is just relax, keep breathing, live the best life I can, be grateful for my family and how well they take care of me... and love on this.... sweet little Trouble Kitty (he's sleepy here, not mad) ...

And cuddle up with little dogs who like to share my recliner....

He's covered up in my skirt. I had only a knee length skirt on so he had to relocate to the couch with Mawmaw because she has all his warm fuzzy blankets.








One more picture...

My adorable unemployed game playing  grass cutting (occasionally) mop head of a teen. Y'all, those of you who pray, will you join me in praying for guidance in his life, that he will find his way. He's not doing *bad* things (that I know of) he just has no real idea of what he wants to do with his life and how to get that ball rolling. He needs to learn to drive. He needs a job. He needs to figure out what kind of college or technical school he wants to go to. Aspergers makes this transitional time of life so. much. harder. Having no paternal influence or encouragement... having a mom who has limited ability to take him places and help him push through the boundaries that make this whole process so difficult. His small motor skills are horrible. His handwriting looks like a six year old did it. Everywhere he is asked to fill out an application, he feels like "what's the use". I'm going to try to get him back to the jobs program he was in last year... see if we can take applications away from the work place so that I can fill them out for him. I don't know. He's just lacking motivation and I'm not good at pushing him.

Anyways... that's what's happening here in Cleveland, GA on July 2, 2013. Hope you're all preparing for a great 4th! We have watermelon and hotdogs - we're all set!

Love and hugs!