What a great day

For some reason I woke up in a great mood today, and now, near bedtime, I still feel great.  I don't remember if I mentioned it in my blog, but I weaned myself off Lexapro recently.  I had begun wondering if the stuff was keeping me from feeling anything, because I was just feeling sort of "meh".  Not depressed, though; more like my emotions weren't working like they used to.  The feeling I've had today is what I was missing, and I'm glad I'm back to normal.  

It was 47° when I woke up, and has been cool and sunny all day.  I've picked strawberries and put quite a few in the freezer.  Of course we've eaten plenty of them, too.  I washed our bedding and hung it out on the clothesline.  Now I'm waiting for the Preakness to start.  I usually forget to watch the Triple Crown races except for the Kentucky Derby, but this year I told Alexa to remind me at 6 A.M. on the morning of each of the race day.  Cliff likes to watch the big races with me, too.  He's been in the shop most of the day, piddling with one of his tractors.  Of course he came in at noon to eat dinner.

I have to talk a bit about Cora, the little girl we babysat from the time she was two months old.  

It was love at first sight, and you never saw a couple of old folks any happier.

As you can see, Cliff had her riding a tractor early on.  

And you should see that girl now, at almost ten years old.  She's barrel racing!

She'll be spending time with us this summer, one day every other week.  She often asks to spend a day with us, and of course we look always forward to that.  

I allowed her to stand on a chair and make pancakes with me from the time she was two.  She still wants to make pancakes when she comes, but now I don't have to help her.

We  made fools of ourselves over that little girl.  Her parents were very lenient about our spoiling her, and they were never mad when Cliff took her to the shop to help him fix things and ended up with grease on her pretty clothes.   She helped me dig potatoes from the garden.  Because I go barefoot in summer, she went barefoot too, and could walk on gravel with me.

  

She went to the Missouri State Fair with us, and even a few tractor shows.

She changed our lives; a gift that keeps on giving.