OMGosh! How does the summer fly so quickly and winter drags on forever? Yesterday was the quintessential perfect summer day. We had our first dinner party yesterday! This is something that, I have to tell you, absolutely thrills me to no end. Mr. Virgo was not one for socializing because he worked long hours and was exhausted when he got home. Mr. FixIt is a social butterfly just like me and we are looking forward to entertaining often. I invited my cousin and his wife who live down the road from the farm. Mr. FixIt told me the other day that he loves cabbage rolls and…I just so happen to make GREAT cabbage rolls! I haven’t made them in years. It was entirely too hot to turn the oven on so I cooked them in the crockpot. It worked out great. Tennessee tomatoes, fresh green beans with bacon and onions, fresh corn on the cob. Charlotte brought salad. A new tablecloth in a salmon pink quilt pattern and a basket of strawberries dressed the new picnic table Mr. FixIt bought me for my birthday. He set up the dining canopy for some evening shade.

After supper, we went for a ride in the side-by-side. If you don’t know what that is, it looks like an ATV (4-wheeler) but has a front and back seat and can carry four people. It’s rugged and has a sturdy roll bar and cage around you as well as seat belts. We went all over the back roads up on the ridge behind the farm. All the way, my cousin was telling family stories I knew nothing about. They showed us where they are building a compressor station on a big gas line that is going down all the way to Louisiana. The compressor station will be built straight back over our hill and it will make a good deal of noise. It is upsetting to think that in a year, the whole timbre of the region will be changed forever. I think that’s why I’ve been led to live here…so I can really experience the peace I remember before it’s gone.

Some of these backroads where people live are unbelievable. Little children running barefoot…not a care in the world, living in squalor while a ridge or two over are huge homes tucked into quiet groves of trees. We bumped and bounced around till we came to an area where the “road” was actually the riverbed. We were driving along holding our feet up because the water was up over the floorboards. Up steep hills and over places where cinderblocks were thrown into the deep ruts to hopefully allow passage. I was hootin’ and hollerin’ all the way. On the way back, I turned to my cousin’s wife and said breathlessly, “OMGosh! I feel like I’m sixteen!!!” What a great day/evening. We got back just after dark…exhausted and beat up but highly entertained. I hugged by cousins goodbye till I return from Colorado the end of August.

I am immensely grateful for the infinite sweetness of this life. I am wealthy beyond my wildest dreams and it has absolutely nothing to do with worldly goods. I ran into a gal at the yard sale yesterday who lives out the road from the farm. When I told her where I was living she said she just knew someone new was living there because the house is coming back to life. I am so blessed to be living here at this time of my life. And to have Mr. FixIt and family and friends to share it with.

Be safe out there today and enjoy your holiday! ❤️

“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭16:11‬ ‭NIV‬‬