Dear Reader:

For those of you who live in the Summerville area … you have already guessed that there was no Maypole Dance at James B Edwards Elementary yesterday. And the outdoor picnic for the graduating fifth graders had to be curtailed too excluding water games( though rain water games would have worked ) but indoor movies, Publix sandwiches ( thanks Mandy) and the ice cream truck came through.

Not exactly as planned in preparation this past month …but then the odds of anything going as planned, as we all know, is well out of our power to control. The kids were disappointed but took it pretty well… so instead of the Maypole Dance dress… it was shorts…for an outdoor turned indoor picnic!

As Eva Cate was getting ready to leave for school she hugged me and said ” Sorry Boo Boo you wasted your time coming over for the Maypole Dance.”

I looked at Eva Cate and exclaimed ” Wasted my time? Wasted my time?” Now if I had stayed home… that might be true … instead I spent it with you…and Jake and your mom and dad… all the people I love spending time with… so how could that possibly be wasting time?”

” I got to paint your fingers and toes to match your dress, giggle through a Hallmark lovey/dovey movie with you, eat Bessimers barbecue and warm chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven and even sleep close together in the den on our adjacent sofas! ”

” I got to see Jake’s first grade end of the year award… Jake the Snake Award for always stretching his mind to learn something new.

” And later Jake told me about a glass lizard that was out in front of the house that looked just like a snake … didn’t have legs but did have slits for his ears and protruding eyes. And I told Jake I thought I would have to live to be a 100 to know as much as he did at 7! Jake then showed me the funny photographs the class took of everyone on the 100th day of school… predicting what each classmate would look like…

I hugged Eva Cate and Jake good-bye and thanked them for all the shared fun and new knowledge I learned in one overnight visit! Nothing wasted… everything gained!

So until tomorrow… ” Good enough is good enough” when we have given something our all only to to come up short due to circumstances beyond our control!

*** We have ONE more shot at being able to see the Maypole Dance… Tuesday! They are adding the school’s decades long Maypole Dance Tradition to the fifth grade formal graduation ceremony! Fingers crossed and mothers and grandmothers’ whispered prayers upward… sunny skies prevail!

One of the graduation gifts for Eva Cate is a Year of Possibilities magnetic Kelly Rae Robert’s angel …Eva can put thoughts and notes on…in her first year of middle school!

Today is my favorite day! Winnie the Pooh