my oh my

I love mornings.

I know. Who would have ever thought I would write those words? Mornings have never been my cup of tea. I cried each and every morning I had to get up to go to high school. I gagged my way through breakfast when I worked as a teacher's aide in a junior high school for two years after college. That's why I've always taught college classes that began after 10 a.m. (except for one miserable summer in graduate school when I was assigned "Business Writing" at 8 a.m. ... I must have made someone very mad).

But, lately, mornings are my favorite part of the day. Baby Beeton will wake up and nurse. We'll head downstairs to take Ella for a walk. We'll come back and have breakfast. Since Baby Beeton is mostly interested in finger foods, I'll try to give him some oatmeal and fruit, but he'll end up just gobbling down cheerios dipped in yogurt, toast with fruit spread, and chunks of soft fruit like bananas and pears. Feeding him is so much fun. He loves to eat and gets to excited to try out any little thing he can pinch! Then, when he's done, we'll head downstairs to the basement playroom (which, while carpeted and painted - finally - has no furniture in it as of yet... it's actually a good thing because head-hitting hazards have been eliminated) for a while. And, then before you know it, it's nap time. Baby Beeton is usually so tired from eating and playing that he'll go down very easy. These mornings have a sweet predictability, which I've come to love.

And, when a morning like this is followed by a two hour nap, that makes it all the sweeter. If it hadn't been 10 am when this respite started, I would have made myself a cocktail - a Pimm's cup to be precise. This drink is going to be my new drink of summer because it's just so tasty (and makes me feel like a Grantham). You just take Pimm's, mix it with lemonade (I like the sparkling kind), and add a few slices of cucumber. When our tax return comes rolling in, you can find me sitting on something like this on my screened-in-porch with lanterns like these reminding me that summer is the best time of the year. I'll be drinking a Pimm's cup and toasting to breakfast.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Watched Young Adult.