Afternoon Surprises....

Our favorite little Miss C stopped by here on her way home from school this afternoon.... she was with her friends M and L. Of course, L has been here many, many times with C, and M has been here for our holiday parties, along with a few of the other kids in C's group of friends. C had a little bundle of hibiscus blooms in her hand for me, and as she gave them to me, she said: "Don't worry... I made sure to get all the ants off of them first." That kid is just too cute.

Hot afternoon today, so the kids waded through iced tea and lemonade, along with cookies and chocolate. C and her two friends were walking up our street just as my husband was leaving for his office. C hugged him in front of the house, then asked where he was going. She later whispered to me that she wished he could've stayed because she wanted to "show him off" to M. Her friend M is a boy, so I'm guessing she wanted M to think there was "another man in her life." My husband will either be happy or humbled to hear that he was nearly the object of C's "Show and Tell."

The three kids stayed an hour or so before leaving to go to their own homes. I made sure that their parents knew where they were right after they got here. Before they left, though, C wanted to know if we'd made any decision about the country house. I told her that we were making plans to go back up there so we could talk with the owner, and she said that was a good first step. She also said that she had a "neat piece of driftwood" so she can make us a sign for the front gate. I hadn't told her anything about the names I thought of for the house, and she didn't know that I was even thinking about names and signs, so I was happy that she came up with that little thought all on her own. If we do get this house, or any other up there in the Hill Country, I will let C carve out the name on her driftwood. That child, I swear.... she does surprise us in so many good and wonderful ways.


Still another surprise later on this afternoon....... a package delivered via FedEx, from my mother. Haven't heard from her in a few years, and neither has my sister, so the package (needless to say) was indeed a surprise. For reasons known only to our mother, she wishes not to stay in touch with me and my sister. I have long since stopped trying to change her mind on that.

I was watching Oprah when the package was delivered, and as soon as I saw the return-address, I nearly dropped it on the kitchen counter. I didn't open it right away... I continued to watch Oprah on the little TV in the kitchen and just looked over at the package from time to time. It wasn't ticking, so I guessed that it was okay to leave it sitting there for a little bit. (Okay, bad joke... but I couldn't resist.)

I opened the package to find a bunch of things that I had given my mother over the years.... a sweater, a cameo pin, a cross-shaped porcelain box with a rosary inside, a Mother's Day plate, and a Christmas apron. She also included a TIME magazine that was published right after New York City's Sept. 11th tragedy. Also in the box were a bunch of religious pamphlets and blank notecards from a local charity in the state where she lives.

I put the sweater into the box I keep for the Senior Center. I'm sure one of the ladies there could use it. Into the Senior Center box went the porcelain trinket-box and the rosary beads, and even the notecards and the religious booklets. I put the cameo pin in my jewelry box, and the candy-cane fabric apron into the washing machine.... if I find that I don't wear either the cameo or the apron, I'll give them to the Senior Center ladies as well. I paged through the TIME magazine and looked at the graphic photos of the World Trade Center before and after it all collapsed to the ground, and realized that the pictures of that awful day made me feel much worse than the stuff my mother sent back to me.

Heaven only knows what message my mother wanted me to get from the return of those gifts.... I've long since stopped trying to figure her out. Maybe she's just cleaning out things that she has no use for, which would be the charitable way of looking at it. But honestly, if you want to hurt someone's feelings, then just put gifts they gave you into a box and mail it to them out of the blue.

I refuse to let that box from my mother ruin my spirits. We've had a good week here talking about the country house, and C and her friends stopped by after school and the breakfast room is still ringing with their laughter. A cardboard box from Florida filled with stuff just isn't going to get me down. So I think I'll take Gracie for a walk and keep telling myself that over and over as we go towards the park.