Yesterday

Joshua and his crew arrived at the farm late yesterday morning. They stopped in Waco on the way up – too worn out to go any further. I went home for lunch so we could visit for a bit and so I could meet Alicia and the kids. I did not get to visit with them other than to introduce myself, but Joshua and I spent the entire time talking while I ate. Hopefully, tonight and tomorrow night we will get a longer time to visit. I had originally planned on using my lunch break to run errands for Mama and the farm, but Joshua, Alicia and her three kids, Victoria and Brittany were all going to Mid-evil Times for dinner and a show. They were planning on leaving before I got home so, lunchtime was the only opportunity I had to connect with them yesterday. They all left about the time I got off work, leaving Mama with the twins. I made doubly certain she did not need me to come home right away and she assured me she would be okay. The errands I had to run did not take too long and I was home a little after 5 pm. Mama was ready for me to be there.

I had wondered if she had bitten off more than she could chew in volunteering to keep Zoe and Sophia by herself – hobbling about as she is currently doing. When I did get home, I put all my plans on hold until after the twins were put to bed. Mama was hurting badly. It seems holding a twenty-pound child and walking without assistance was too much for her in her present stage of recovery. We quickly reverted to using the walker because her right knee (the one that has not been operated on) was giving her too much pain to walk without the assistance of her upper body. At one point in the evening, the girls were on the floor in the kitchen while I cleaned up from dinner and Mama headed down the hall towards our bedroom. Both of the girls started crying after her. “Well, come on” Mama encouraged them whereupon both of them started their army crawl in that direction. Their determination was evident. Their ability to cover the distance, somewhat lacking. Before they had made it out of the kitchen area, I stopped what I was doing, picked them up and took them to see Mama. For tiny ones, “out of sight” is “gone”. They were happy to discover that Mama was still there – and they made their relief evident to Mama.

The time passed quickly with feeding the girls, playing with them after dinner, changing and redressing them for bed, feeding them their bottles, singing songs and telling stories and finally laying them down for the night. All done by 7:30. I strongly encouraged Mama to follow the girls example and get in bed as soon as she felt like she could lay down for the night. Last night was not a good night for her because she woke every time one of the twins cried out. Which was often. None the less, it was a pleasure giving the twins time to memorize our faces and voices while we were able to monopolize them for an evening. Those times come all too infrequently even with Brittany’s diligence in trying to keep us connected.

I spent the next hour distributing the feed I had purchased, filling water containers for all the animals and watering the plants and trees I hope to keep alive through the summer. As much as it pained me to give up on the vegetables we were trying to grow, the garden is bare. That alone saved me a half hour of time watering. When I got back into the house, Mama was about ready to go to bed. I had to cool down and wait until the chickens were on the roost, so I could close them up for the night. That generally happens just before dark, which right now is about 9:20.

I do not know what time the revelers got home, but everyone was snoozing when I got up to come to work. From the texts and pictures sent to Mama throughout the evening, I think they had a great time.

So did Mama and I.