Another hot day but a good morning for porch pondering till things heated up around lunch. I watered all the plants and vegetables and filled the bird baths. Lots of birds today, finches and cardinals and doves and chickadees and a few titmice. Haven’t seen the downy wood peckers in a few days and haven’t seen a wood thrush in a few weeks. The wood thrushes love a freshly mowed lawn so I bet they’ll show up on Thursday after the mowers leave. Several families on my street use the same lawn service and its so pretty when everyone’s yard is freshly mowed. I bet the wood thrushes will notice.

Oldest brother and his friend came over today and we sat on the porch for a while. They always sit in one of the swings and Stew and I sit in the chairs. Well, we were talking about the time daddy glued one of the swings together with epoxy glue and clamps after it cracked and fell and low and behold “BAM” the swing fell down with brother and his friend. She is recovering from wrist surgery from several days ago and her side of the swing hit the porch floor with a loud bang. Oldest brother’s side stayed up and he rolled to her side. Stew and I jumped up like we were shot out of cannon so afraid it had hurt her wrist. After we got them up, realized she was okay, and had a laugh about it, oldest brother had found a new S hook, fixed the swing and sat back down in it. His friend chose the rocking chair and I don’t blame her. That’s a safe perch. I’ve been in a swing when it fell and it jars every bone in your body and slaps your teeth together. After they left I sat down in the same swing after a small prayer. Probably going to replace all the S hooks on both swings tomorrow.

Been decoupaging the top of my grandmother’s old dresser with bird photographs from National Geographic calendars. I use the dresser for a desk and do my writing here. Been wanting to do this forever and I’ve been saving the calendars for several years. After eight coats of mod podge, I think I’m finished. Got a few bubbles and a few folds but that just adds character. I love it. Going to paint the front of the cabinet and the three drawers and two cabinet doors with the light gray paint left over from when I had my sun room painted. I’m sitting at the desk now, happily writing with all the birds around me.

Took Penelope for a walk near dusk and watched the sun lay her bright yellow head down for the night in a glorious sunset painted in pale shades of pink and orange. The inky black tree silhouettes and the pinkish orange of the horizon were beautiful with their contrasting colors. The sky to the left of the sunset was filled with mackerel scale clouds, so pretty with their rounded tuffs colored in darker shades of pink. Ran in the house for my camera but the mackerel scale clouds had paled when I came back. These beautiful night scapes are so fleeting in their magnificence. They wait for no man or woman.

Life really is wonderful. Just to wake up with breath for another day is a miracle. Life is not always what we want it to be but we always have our families and our friends. We all have days that can’t pass fast enough and days full of so much beauty and truth we want them to last forever. We’re not promised smooth sailing on the sea of life and how boring that would be without some storms to weather that show us God is in control. These days give us the promise of a rainbow.

We need to appreciate all the little gifts in life that we take for granted. Life is not perfect but there are some perfect things in life. Life travels on a road that goes up and down and all around. Some days we have a perfect ride. Some days we don’t. On days the road get rocky or we lose our way, we know God is with us and through faith and prayers, he will steer us in the correct direction.

“Life isn’t meant to be lived perfectly…but merely to be LIVED. Boldly, wildly, beautifully, uncertainly, imperfectly, magically LIVED.” ― Mandy Hale