Sitting on the porch this morning. It’s 80 degrees on Thursday, December 8. High next week on Thursday is 49. You never know what season you wake up to in Alabama. Sometimes it even thunders when it snows.

My pansies friends are not enjoying the heat.They are fainting like Southern belles and hanging over the edge of their pots. Dusk will revive them and I’ll give them an extra shower in late afternoon.

Haven’t sat on the porch for a few days. Been sick…fever. Think I had the flu. Feeling much better now and pondered lots of things while I laid in bed for a few days.

I’m just going to ramble a while.

I really pine for Chief when I’m under the weather. He was so kind when I was ailing. He’d check on me ten thousand times and sit by the bed till I went to sleep. When I’d catch a stomach virus from the day care children I’d sleep in Rosie’s room to keep from giving him the virus. Don’t know why I bothered sleeping in there. He’d still come and check on me and sit in there and watch the news.

Love between two humans is such a wonderful and beautiful experience when it’s lived in its truest form. Commitment and respect used to be such a serious words. You worked your problems out and weathered the storms in your marriage. I just wonder how long before marriage is a thing of the past.

I also thought a lot about Covid and the havoc it placed on so many families. How many people left this earth without having their loved ones present with them. The power of the human touch…just to know you are loved and wanted.

Several weeks ago at Awbrey’s I was paying my bill and I put change due in my friend’s hand. He remarked on how cold my hands were. He kindly said, “Let me warm your hands.” It felt so good to have a big calloused hand hold mine and I sadly realized no one had held my hand since Chief died. I’m so grateful I was able to hold Chiefs hand as he left this earth! He knew he was loved and wanted by his family. Loved enough to let him go.

My grandchildren will forever remember Covid trials because they lost their granddaddy Chief and their great granddaddy Thomas Roberts. I know they panicked every time a family member was diagnosed. I panic now if I feel bad cause that’s the sickest I’ve ever been. Hope in my lifetime I never experience that kind of sickness.

And all the children trying to go to school on a computer screen, confusing themselves and their parents as they struggled with their daily lives. I don’t know how families with several children coped with keeping all the lessons completed on time. I helped my niece one day with her second grade work and I struggled with her.

I’m cleaning and decorating for our McMurray Christmas dinner. The Gran will be showing off her beginning renovations next Saturday. This old house has 102 years of family memories to hold in her heart. Hope our traditions will continue into the next generation.

But life is grand in so many ways. I just enjoy the simple things, thank the Lord each night for another beautiful day and all my many blessings. Hope you do the same.