88 Years, Hymns and a Fresh Coat of Paint

1. My mama is 88 years old today! Happy birthday Mama.

2. As I type this on my BlackBerry, outside, in the freshness of a brand new day, neighborhood church bells fill the air with Just As I Am, one of my mama's favorite hymns. I can see her in her kitchen sitting in an oak ladder back chair, sorting a pile of laundry and singing Just As I Am.

3. I smile with satisfaction at the completion of a job I have been trying to get to for months. The crisp white paint is a cheerful finishing touch to the baseboards surrounding the new dining room floor.

Graduation Parties, Bouncing Raindrops and Seventeen

1. White party tents drenched with rain, filled with food, laughter and unflinching celebration, as the spirit of those who celebrate, will not be dampened by the pouring rain.

2. Children in party clothes, bouncing up and down on a trampoline as summer raindrops splash and bounce at their happy feet.

3. Janice Ian is singing "Seventeen" on a vintage episode of Saturday Night Live from 1975, the year I was actually 17. Treasured memories come flooding back to me. For a few minutes I can smell 1975... Astro-pops, candy apples at the county fair, Emeraude cologne, Juicy Fruit gum, a bus filled with sweaty basketball players and cheerleaders, on our way home from a game. I sigh, thankful for the memories, yet also thankful for the moment in which I am living.

Summer Rain, Baby Beluga and a Whong

1. As we get out of the car, there is a blue-gray sky with low summer sunlight and the smell of a summer rain. We pause to breath in...

2. Finding a surprise kitchen gadget in my bag of goodies from yesterday's thrift store excursion ...A whisk/tongs that I have now named a whong. A fabulous vintage egg-beater was the grab-bag item I was actually after. The "whong" was just a happy bonus.

3. Discovering a cute little ceramic whale in my daughter's thrift store box as I was putting her items in the dishwasher to give them a good cleaning. I saw the whale at the thrift store and it made me smile. With no discussion of the whale, with us not even being together when we each saw it, I found it in my daughter's bounty box. She too, thought it adorable and bought it as a gift for me. He is one of those things that you just can't look at without smiling. I love surprises!

Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea. You swim so wild and you swim so free. ~RAFFI

Clean Floors, Sunny Memories and Crepes

1. Walking barefoot on a freshly washed kitchen floor and feeling the "clean" on the soles of my feet.

2. Spending the afternoon thrift store shopping with my daughter and finding a sunny yellow bowl exactly like the bowl in which my mama always served her potato salad.

3. Making deliciously lacy savory crepes for dinner alongside my daughter and handing the seasoned skillet to her so that she too can master the delight of swirling the batter around in the sizzling butter until a delicious and delicate crepe emerges.
Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

Marshmallows, Love in the Afternoon and Carpenter Ants

1. Sharing a lunch of fresh spinach salads dressed with grapeseed oil and red wine vinegar with my daughter, while under the trumpet vine covered arbor, beside a shameless middle-of-the -afternoon-in-June wood fire. Then, toasting marshmallows for dessert and chasing them with a strong cup of afternoon coffee.

2. Watching two male robins on our roof shingles, fighting for the affection of a singular female, strutting their stuff as she plays hard to get.

3. Spending my first entire day outside since the surgery. Chasing the bad bad carpenter ants with a Weber Power Stripper while stripping the paint off an old register cover from our 100 year old home.

Robin Red Breast, Smoke and Butter Fries

1. Early morning, the ground still wet from another summer storm, a robin sits high on the chimney, his red breast brilliant in the morning sunlight. He is singing loudly, as if in thanks for the soft wet ground that yields an abundance of worms for which he barely has to search.

2. An unexpected switch from gas grill to charcoal, smoke swirling and rising around the lid of the smoker turned grill.

3. A full table, chatter and laughter as we share a meal. Butter-fries...Oven fries, drizzled with melted sweet cream butter and sprinkled with freshly chopped dill from the herb garden.

Raindrops, Smiling Faces and Pink Bakery Boxes

1. Raindrops from last night's downpour sparkling in the low morning sunlight.

2. Waking up to a beautiful bouquet of flowers placed on the kitchen counter by a sweet new smiling face who has recently joined our brood...A college student who could ill afford them, which makes them just that much sweeter.

3. Sneaking off to Jimmy's Italian Foods and giggling with my daughter as we eat Torte Della Fragola (Strawberry Torte) with plastic forks straight out of the pink bakery box in the parked car while waiting for a summer storm to arrive.

Ode to Joy, A Budding Pianist and 88 Years

1. Sipping my coffee on our sunny, yet cool and breezy front porch while church bells fill the air with "Ode to Joy".

2. Realizing it is a true gift to still be able to phone my 88 year old mother.

3. Talking on the phone to my sister in Georgia, listening to her excitement and angst over her most recent purchase...A piano, to inspire the musician that is surfacing inside her precious grandson. The angst comes from trying to figure out where to put it, now that she has it.