The hat I started in Williamsburg.

Little and I slept in the camper their first night here in West Virginia. They wanted to see the lightning bugs in the trees. We couldn’t really hear the night sounds because it was so warm in the camper, we had to have the fans running. We both went to sleep fairly early because we were exhausted after the ten hour drive from Williamsburg. We were awakened at 3:00 yesterday morning with an amazing thunderstorm. Little wasn’t really afraid of it. Fifteen is a pretty worldly age, after all. But, the pillow WAS turned around to the other end of the bed away from the window…you know, just in case. 

We both managed to go back to sleep for five more blissful hours and I had to finally wake Little up to head inside. It was warming up fast and even with the fans, it was getting stuffy in the camper. I fixed a big pancake breakfast and the rest of the day was pretty low key. We’ve been having some wonderful conversations about a wide variety of topics. Little is a deep thinker and such a joy to converse with. Witty, quick, tender-hearted, and sassy…that fits this grandchild to a T. 

Having high functioning autism, Little has had to learn to compensate for a different learning style. (Little’s preferred pronouns are they/them, so that is what I will use here out of respect.) They don’t hide their autism. As a matter of fact…they are proud of it. It’s their superpower! While they may struggle in some areas, they excel in so many others and this year at school…Little discovered theater kids! Land’s sake…this child has found the home team and is thriving! Being somewhere on the spectrum myself (more than likely), we have always related to each other on a deep level. They are incredibly smart and I’m so proud of the young person they are becoming. 

We may mow today…it depends on how much rain we got overnight. We’ll cook a big pot of soup beans and ham hocks in the slow cooker today. Little is expanding their culinary horizons. Yesterday’s taste treat was pickled beets. They thought it tasted pretty good. The sweet and sour combo was a hit, but the texture was a near miss. We also have chow chow and jalapeño pickled eggs to sample. We’ll have a veritable smorgasbord over the next two weeks.

Hopefully the rain storms will let up so we can get in the pool soon!

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“Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,”

Proverbs 1:5 ESV