A Green Coat

Last night I saw a picture on TV of a little girl swinging in a dark green coat with faux leopard fur around the hood and the cuffs. Boy, did that bring back a memory.

I remember when Mary Lee was about four years old and needed a winter coat. I wanted something nice enough for Sunday but one she could wear to school also. I was looking through the racks at Penney's when--there was her coat. It was beautiful. It was--you guessed it--dark green with faux leopard fur around the hood and cuffs. I fell in love with it on the spot--and then looked at the price tag. $80. Just too much to spend on a coat for a four-year-old; I just couldn't justify it. I reluctantly put the coat back on the rack and left.

Once home I sat down to read the paper, and about halfway through, saw a coupon. For Penney's. For 50% off of any one regularly priced item in the store. $40 I could justify! I flew back to Penney's and got the coat before anyone else could.

Mary Lee wore that coat for three years. She looked adorable in it and it was perfect for South Carolina winters.

After she outgrew it I kept it, waiting for the perfect opportunity to pass it along. Some missionaries to Russia came through asking for warm coats for the children at their orphanage. So that's where the coat ended up. I trust some little girl in Russia--by now probably more than one--has been kept as warm and has enjoyed that coat as much as Mary Lee and her mother did some twelve years ago.

Maybe a little mouse is in the house?

Food is evaporating around my house. Or maybe it's a mouse? Or maybe. . .Andrew is home from college?

Last summer he was still in the thrills of having a paycheck. My offers to pack him a lunch on workdays were met with disdain.

This summer, with gas prices what they are, he's realized that maybe eating Mama's food is a good bit easier on the back pocket than eating out. So. . .he lets me pack him a lunch, he lets me fix him eggs for breakfast before work, he's home for supper just about every night, he gets his snacks from the pantry.

All of which is good for his budgeting process, an area of his life that has not been highly refined up until now. However, it is disastrous on my food budget! That's OK--I'll take that hit to have him at home. I did have to tell him to cut back on the milk. Two weeks ago he/we went through THREE gallons in a week! That had to slow down.

Mary Lee doesn't really eat a whole lot most of the time. Occasionally she goes on a hunger jag and fills up for a few days. But she's gotten very nutritious in her choices. And when it's just her here, we don't really cook too much. Quite a difference from this summer.

Two pretty things

THREE batches of strawberry jam. There are many things I don't do very well at as a housewife and mother, but I do get the jam made every spring! I did all three batches yesterday afternoon/evening, so it was a chore. Mary Lee helped greatly with cleaning the berries.
The previous owner planted this vine behind the mailbox. We don't do anything to it, but it faithfully comes up every spring with beautiful purple flowers. They don't last long, and for the rest of the summer it's just a plain vine, but for the two or three weeks that the flowers bloom, getting the mail each day is a little more interesting than the other months of the year.

Divergent Rosebush

When we moved to this house in 2000, this rosebush was putting out large yellow roses with pinkish tips. I think it was a "Peace" rosebush. I confess to not taking very good care of it over the years. Well, here is what it is doing now. The top is putting out solid yellow tea roses, not very big, and the bottom is putting out these pink flowers which do not look anything like the yellow roses in shape. I've never seen anything like this and can't find anything about it on Google either.

They never cease to amaze. . .

When Andrew came home from college for the summer, I fully expected him to grow his hair out "longish" like he did last summer. So you can imagine my surprise when he came home from the barber on Thursday with this haircut! I have a hunch he is going to try to grow a "soul patch," as knowing him he needs to find some way to be a non-conformist. I'm not complaining. . .

And, since it's Mother's Day, here's a shot of my daughter who now "looks down on me," especially when wearing 3-inch heels for church:

And one of my two children together, who had a lovely card waiting for me this morning--something that is more precious than a gift, especially when I know most of their money is going for GAS.

Thou art the Lord who slept upon the pillow;
Thou art the Lord who soothed the furious sea.
What matter beating wind and tossing billow
If only we are in the boat with Thee?
Hold us in quiet through the age-long minute
While Thou art silent, and the wind is shrill:
Can the boat sink while Thou, dear Lord, art in it?
Can the heart faint that waiteth on Thy will?

--Amy Carmichael

Sibling Rivalry 2008

The NEW source of sibling argument, a sign of the times:

"You can't take the Honda! I paid for the gas in it!"

Transition to summer

This is Andrew's room. Look closely. I go to pick him up from college today--he will be home working for four months, and his room will not look like this again until he goes back to school. At which time Mary Lee will re-appropriate his room and once again it will not look like this. So it may be years until we see it this nice again.

He has had a wonderful year. Maybe hasn't studied like he should have, but he has had a great time. Come to think about it, that's sort of typical of his life.

It will be another change of a summer. It will be different having Andrew "home from college" instead of "always lived here." It is the summer before Mary Lee's senior year, which also is an entrance into a new stage. Even though we will have adjustments again, I am looking forward to good times.