More Comings and Goings

As I drove home from Katherine's, the brilliance of the full moon comforted me with its beauty, and I knew no matter how many miles apart all our loved ones are going to sleep soon under that same moon.

It was sad when grandson Sam pulled out of our driveway for the last time this summer. He'd packed up his stuff here a couple days before to go back to his home in Marion and also pack up his stuff there. He came out to say goodbye to Gerald, who happened to be at the other farm. Sam needed to be at the high school shortly for his end-of-the-summer job helping out with the marching band's preparation for its fall schedule. So they had to say goodbye by phone.

Sam had been in and out of Woodsong a lot this summer, and that meant occasionally we also were able to see his sweet friend Anna. After he finished his first summer job, he'd already taken one car load of possessions back to Waco earlier when he went down to see friends, talk with his academic adviser, and attend a music pastor's concert near Dallas. Then he'd taken off with a couple of high school buddies for a camping trip in the West. Then we again enjoyed his time with us a few more weeks. With all the rain reports the day he left for his second year at Baylor, his mother was concerned, but she felt a lot of confidence that all would be well since Anna's family was traveling to the same destination at the same time.

That very day our son Gerry arrived for an unusual amount of time—a four day visit. He had come to visit his friend Shannon in the hospital at Saint Louis; and between the two trips up there, he crammed in as many visits to local friends as he could. We loved having him here, of course, and hearing his stories and reports on his friends' doings.

On Sunday we decided to attend church with Mary Ellen and Brian to share Gerry and also so we could see Brianna who had just come in the afternoon before from her summer working at Disney Land in Orlando. Trent had flown down to help her drive back with all her stuff. Somehow after they arrived home, Mary Ellen and Bri had shopped and not only found the perfect headboard for her apartment down at Murray, but it was already repainted Saturday night, and Mary Ellen had put on a top coat of something yet that very morning! They were taking Bri to move in that afternoon, and Bri would be starting classes on Tuesday. Despite the afternoon move ahead of the Taylors, we six had a relaxed dinner together after church, and Gerry regaled us with his series of stories about a coyote road kill. (You do not want to know.)

The next day Gerry went back to Saint Louis for another visit with Shannon, and Tuesday morning he and his dad were up early for their trip to have breakfast with Gerry's uncles and cousins in Jonesboro before Gerry started his long trek back to Texas. His truck was loaded with sweet corn from the Taylors and cantaloupes from Gerald's garden as well as one of his watermelons, which unlike the cantaloupes have not been plentiful this summer. Now Gerald is relishing photos and messages about the great grandsons enjoying them.

Gerald and I are looking forward to Geri Ann's visit after she completes her first summer of professional softball. She called us from Alabama last night where the Ohio Racers are in tournament. We are looking forward to Vickie's visit too when she comes to pick Geri Ann up for a Texas visit before she has to start her last terms at Oregon. Sadly Gerry will not be able to come back with Vickie as originally planned, and he has to miss his high school reunion because of coaching duties with a gathering of recruits that same weekend.

Today is Gerry and Vickie's 37^th wedding anniversary, and I loved seeing their wedding photo posted on Facebook. In some ways it seems only yesterday that they were that beautiful young couple in white tux and bridal dress leaving their reception at the school's multi-purpose room for a honeymoon on the Gasconade River in Missouri. But three adult daughters and those three grandsons make us realize it was not yesterday, and we are grateful for all the blessings.

Also on Facebook, I learned today was the day that the Taylors moved Trent into his new apartment at Carbondale to complete his education at Southern Illinois University, where he will be a fifth generation Saluki. His great grandfather rode his horse there every week and boarded before riding back to Goreville for the weekend. And the same moon shone on him that we enjoy tonight.

Pleasant Weather Returns

Cooler weather has been most welcome although we would also welcome another summer rain. Crops still look good everywhere in our neighborhood though. The moon is almost full again, and seeing it shine down on the lake is one of my favorite sights.

Six beautiful gray doves were outside on our patio as I started up the stairs to fix lunch the other day. Unfortunately, my movement inside scared them away and they have not been back as far as I know. Our ducks are down to one pair and seem to stay on the other end of the lake right now, and geese have all disappeared too, so we are especially grateful for an increase in the quail in the fields around the house.

Gerald is continuing physical therapy for his injured rotator cuff, and he is not certain the therapy is working. So there may be another step coming. Erin has been back at work for a couple of weeks, but she is still on crutches. She and her cousin Drew (and later her Uncle Louie and Aunt Chris) were here fishing at the lake on Saturday. She had forgotten her crutches, which is permissible for short periods, but her knee is still stiff and unbending, so we are praying that her therapy will kick in soon, so she won’t have to be anesthetized for yet another procedure.

Our oldest grandson Aidan started kindergarten down in Georgia last Tuesday, and he was so excited that the next two days he woke up at 3 a.m. to go to school. On Friday, however, he told his grandmother that he believed he’d take that day off. Oh dear!

Sam has finished marching band camp and starts high school tomorrow. Last night Gerald and I went to his family’s evening worship service and heard Sam and his youth group share their summer experiences at church camp and then at their mission trip to Joplin, MO. It was inspiring to hear how the people of Joplin have reacted to the tornado damage, and it was inspiring to hear these young teens tell about learning to roof and to use hammers. It was good that their work in moving school furniture will help the kids at Joplin begin school on time. Knowing the kids did all this in temperatures over an l00 degrees was especially impressive. We were grateful for the parent volunteers who helped keep the kids hydrated.

This past week has been unusually busy with extra activities going on at Katherine’s house, so I did not get around to blogging. I really have done very little of anything although I have been involved with helping pass on an entire wardrobe for a family member who has lost weight. Our family are great passers-on. What no one we know can use will end up at Salvation Army.

Also I have helped share Gerald’s abundant tomato crop with Katherine’s helpers. This year’s tomatoes are especially tasty and uniformly large and luscious. There is now another bucket full in the kitchen that Gerald picked today, so I may need to freeze some juice or find some more recipients.

Mid June Under a Full Moon

We woke up on our 55th wedding anniversary on Wednesday with the Eilers in the house as they had stopped by the farm the night before on their way home from their vacation in Tennessee with Leslie. David had also brought Sam out at Elijah and Cecelie’s request, and the kids stayed up late and slept in Wednesday morning. But at least they had their late night visit and their routine giggling session at the kitchen table snacking, (I understood that Jeannie shushed them, but I was sound asleep and did not hear a thing.) I did enjoy the full moon making a million stars on the lake when I got up during the night.

Gerald and I had breakfast alone first although I don’t usually get up that early. I am not very good company early in the morning, but it was a special day. People got up at various times, and as often happens at Woodsong, everyone had to help themselves to coffee, cereal and fruit if they wanted breakfast. (All were able to sleep as late as they wanted except Elijah in the brown room who had to be waked up for lunch, but then he was disappointed he had not had a morning visit with Sam.) It was good to have a fine visit with Jeannie and Rick before lunch since they had to return to Freeport and their many duties that afternoon. Jeannie worked in a bike ride, and, of course, the kids were out on the Gator riding around the lake.

Feeling in a romantic mood, I thought I still had a couple of large pink roses beside the front porch that would go well with the pink roses on a set of china that I once bought at a second-hand store many years ago. (All my china has come from thrift stores. I’d used those dishes when Rick’s parents came to meet us over in the other farm house after our children were engaged.) Unfortunately, the roses were past their prime when I looked, and so I used a small vase of pink petunias in the center of the table instead. We had a leisurely lunch together. Elijah has always liked the canned puddings I try to keep on hand from the local warehouse store, so I made a quickie banana pudding for our dessert and another one that I took into the Cedars when Cecelie and I took Sam home in time for his afternoon basketball camp.

Soon after lunch someone knocked, and the small petunia vase had to be placed elsewhere. Gerry and Vickie had sent us a beautiful bouquet, and they went into the center of the table which Jeannie had already cleared. Two gorgeous coral-colored roses were in the midst of the variety of flowers, and I have enjoyed watching them get larger and larger each day since.

By three o’clock, Rick and Jeannie had loaded up the bicycles and their luggage, and I’d told Lucky and Leah goodbye. And with hugs and kisses, they were gone with Elijah at the wheel. Gerald and I had a date to have supper in town, and he let me choose my favorite sit-down restaurant. We watched the full moon behind dark clouds peeking out through their opening with a shadowed golden glow on our way home. It made the world seem smaller to read on Facebook how much my niece Cyndi was enjoying it in Oklahoma City with her daughter’s family and her sister Gloria in Amarillo.

Thursday is always a busy day for me with errands to run and the weekend looming. A fresh haircut from my favorite cosmetologist that afternoon perked me up to enjoy driving to Carbondale with my retired journalist friend Jari Jackson to attend our monthly Writers Guild. We’d both had to miss the last two meetings and so were eager to meet up with some of the members coming early to have supper at a favorite place across from the Arts Center where we were having our meeting instead of at the college.

A few years ago, Varsity Theater, a long standing institution in Carbondale where Southern Illinois University students collected many memories, had closed. The theater stood empty for years, and the owners rifled seats for parts to repair seats in other theaters in other towns. Finally the stage company needed a new home, and the group ambitiously took on the project of resuscitating the vacant movie theater.

Poet Jim Lambert, our former Writers Guild president, has been active with this group, and we were invited to meet there in their large attractive meeting room and tour their facility after a program by the two women who have put together a 400 plus page hard back book about Carterville, Crainville, and Cambria. We were able to see a bit of the rehearsal of Charlotte’s Web in the small intimate theater the group has created. Then we continued the tour backstage and through their dressing rooms, but for some of us the highlight of the evening came when we visited the usually off-limits old theatre now dark and dusty waiting for dreams yet to come true but redolent with reminiscences of past shows and our youth.

Friday Gerald was mowing grass despite a spill in the creek the day before. But he had landed in soft mud, and he claimed by wearing a sling holding his arm close to his body, his shoulder that he landed on did not hurt enough to warrant a trip to a clinic since his own doctor was out of town. By evening, he was convinced that he was in good shape to get up early the next morning to go with his nephew DuWayne and wife Vickie to Chattanooga to see Southern Force play. So they drove through the early morning rains while I slept through then here at home.

I was able to do some work going through my mother’s photos and writing the final essay of four on Martin family history for the new book that Johnson County Genealogical and Historical Society are creating. I had failed to write an entry in their last book, and I was determined to be more diligent this time. I am finding this last story about my parents is the hardest to write. It will be hard to cut out so many things I’d like to include.

I stopped to drive over to our village church to be one of 60 women gathered there to shower our pastor’s daughter Krista, who is being married in July. It was a beautiful party for a beautiful girl, who managed to open a mountain of gifts but still made sure each of us heard her genuine appreciation. Then a good visit at Katherine’s house completed the afternoon before I came back to looking at old photographs.

This third Sunday is usually Gerald’s and my day with the preschoolers during the morning worship service, but one college guy and one younger boy are always faithful to take their turn with us. We only had four children this morning, so with Cody and Tyler’s help, I made it fine and did not even have to get a substitute.

After lunch, I went in to help Katherine. She was outside in her chair getting Vitamin D, and together we watched Sam shooting baskets in their driveway hoop. David had grilled chicken and other meat, and they had a nice Father’s Day dinner together. He had made special phone calls to his dad and Gerald.

This evening, I phoned to see where the Southern Force fans were on their return trip and heard from Gerald how sweet those two great grandsons were during this weekend outing. Tara and those two boys were already ahead of them in Nashville, and he wasn’t sure if she would stop at the farm for a few hours’ rest or not if the boys are sleeping good. I have unlocked the downstairs door and turned on the porch light just in case. DuWayne and Vickie will let Gerald off at his brother’s to get back in his pickup for the final lap home.

The moon is no longer full but nearly so and quite beautiful here above the farm. I’ll go out on the patio and take one last look at the moon and head on to bed.