A Running Collection

The early morning sunrise gives just enough light for a run before the heat pushes us inside. It's quiet out, except for the birds. The land is going to push out piles of cotton, but for now they are tiny plants waiting on the sun and the rain. Back at the farm, the kids appear from upstairs, finished with their deep sleep and ready for breakfast, preparing to rock the day. We used to spend our hours sitting on tractors imagining and pretending. Now they turn them on and make them go and mow the grass for Grandmother. They start the fire on the burn piles to help granddaddy. They crank up their motorbikes and zoom through the fields. Hannah still imagines. Grandmother gives her cooking supplies and she creates a feast of flower petals and bird seed and leaves. Hannah keeps to the house, but the others are old enough to explore. We knew this day would come. Our farm trips are going to be different now with brave kids and motorbikes and things to do in the fields. ...

  At Christmas, Mary said she’d like to give us the beach for Christmas and we all said, “Yes!” to that and marked our calendars all the same. That doesn’t always work so easy, especially since George and I are not exactly calendar people.     We landed in Port Saint Joe at a perfectly fine place sandwiched between the highway and the water. The kids didn’t stop finding fun in drip sand castle cities, card games, puzzles, wave rides, and paddle boarding. They moved so fast, we could hardly keep up with their need for calories.    Uncle Joe joined us with his harmonicas and others picked up stringed instruments that made the trip which led to sweet musical moments.  The kids settled in on a card game called, “Liar!” Throughout the day, there were loud “LIAR!” shouts followed with belly laughter and more shouts.    We ate on paper plates because that’s really easy and mowed through mountains of food.  We had...