16-11-09 (Read 3/1/26)

Well, Amendment 2 passed. I'm happy about that. I worked for that. 

Barry called Chris today and he was on his way to work. Has a job at a glass company, and I'm happy about that. 

I've learned some important lessons about being quiet while craziness is on the loose.

I posted something on my Facebook page, and LaDonna shared it, with this intro, which naturally meant a lot to me. 

I am posting my friend Vickie's remarks from her Facebook page. I respect Vickie because she is well spoken and compassionate and she has a gift for being succinct. When Vickie "speaks" in her written "voice," I listen. Today, she wrote a piece about why and who she is supporting in the election. For her to do this is remarkable; because she is the one who is quiet and never calls attention to herself. She always supports other people. She lives her values, so I don't have to ask what they are. I can see and experience them. She is one of those people we used to refer to as "the salt of the earth"--the true friend who is there when chips are down, sideways, and scattered all over.
I would say this about Vickie regardless of how she identifies politically. In fact, I suspect she would always vote for the person who can and will do the job with the most class and least amount of pain inflicted on others.

So I thank her for her willingness to let me share with you what she wrote .

16-11-07 (Read 3/1/26)

Beth called early this morning from her new landline phone. For some reason, it is in the closet. We had a fun visit and then she posted on Facebook, "The last time I stood in the closet to talk on the phone I was probably hiding from my mom, this time I was calling her :) Love you madre!"

Beverly made it safely to Standing Rock, and we got to talk for a little while last night. Morgan and Beth shared her Facebook posts, and said

• My fearless sister drove all the way to Standing Rock, ND to protest the pipeline and show her support. I could not be more proud. You are truly the "big sister" and I will forever look up to you. (but kinda down bc you're like 4 ft tall)

  Like

  Like

  Love

  Haha

  Wow

  Sad

  Angry

  Comment

  Share

  Comments

  

  Write a comment...

  
  
• 

  Morgan Brown shared Beverly Reed's post.

  15 hrs · 

  My Aunt B being my hero as usual.

Tyler had his first school friend over to spend the night, Friday night, and they seemed to have a good time. Tarius Kennedy.

Beth asked what kind of easy care plants grow well on a balcony. Andrew recommended any of the plastic ones. ;-)

Barry removed the oleanders for me yesterday. I wanted them ever since I first moved to Mobile and saw that house with the big row of them. Ours grew big and tall and were beautiful, but the were crowded. Two of them were completely dead, probably from the freeze a couple of years ago, and another one nearly so. I went ahead and took the other two out because they were crowding the Grancy GreyBeard tree, and it looks like it might want to grow into a real tree. The camellias and things on the inside of the fence have gotten big, and the office isn't right across the driveway, so things look much better now.

Justin is finishing up the writing shack today, so that'll be good. It'll be the last of it, and I'm happy about that. 

16-10-19 (Read 3/5/26)

Coming to the writing shack this afternoon, even though it was out of schedule.

Kim invited me to lunch today, and so we met at Panera and she brought me a loaf of her pumpkin bread, and she treated me to lunch. We had a relaxed visit. 

Angela made a 100% on her first speech! I need to get in my FB message from Ange for the teacher's exact words.

16-09-22 (Read 3/14/26)

Beverly and I went to the island and walked on the beach for a couple of hours. It didn't seem like that long. It was right after lunch, so we didn't see a lot of birds, but we did see some. We also didn't see a lot of people, and that was nice. 

I got a sweet Facebook message from Angela. "I was wondering what was going on but I know how busy the days get. I had messaged you about hummingbird and goodtimes and school and I was used to talking to you even it is just a little bit everyday. Then I started to suspect our phones were sabotaging us." 

Tyler took care of my tea kettle for me, even going ahead and moving it off the burner before it whistled. 

Mary's friend liked my letter to Lily, and said that I was incredible. 

16-07-22 (Read 5/18/26)

Justin's helper remembering my letters to the editor.

16-08-15 (Read 6/19/26)

Shutting the writing shack door behind me.

Annette,  favorite thing,  camaraderie. (I asked her what was her favorite event in the sports thing they do.) 

Skyler wanting to come swimming because Faith was here.

Text from Angela.  Excited about her opportunities.

Ceiling in writing shack looks good!

16-08-22 (Read 6/24/26)

It feels like it has been a long time since I was able to log in and Joy Journal without a great deal of trouble and worry over internet usage. I honestly would have to look back to see how long, but long... The boys got off to school all right this morning. Tyler got himself up and remembered his belt, so that was good. 

I painted my trunk pink and I think I'm going to like the way it looks. I found a little chair to bring in here that I think I'm going to like. I haven't decided whether to paint it or put a cushion on it. 

This is my first morning having my writing time in my new writing room. 

Beverly and I watched a documentary together yesterday afternoon, about Robin Williams. 

She, JA, Angela, Tyler, Barry and I, went and had lunch together. 

Andrew got both of my birthday messages. We got to see him and Annette yesterday. 

We got to have lunch with Morgan Friday. She and Brandon have their loan and construction work has begun! 

June 29, 2016 (Read 6/29/26)

They are putting the roof on the writing shack today. I like the color I chose --- you never know about those things ---- if  what you get is going to match the color chart you were using. 

The view from the old writing shack, where I am now, is pretty. Lawn is green and thick. A different pecan tree with a different circle of flowers, our garden --- also a fence line backed with pallets and some Wonderland stuff, but that isn't too bad. I wonder where the bricks that line the three-legged barn came from. 

Angela is making progress on her return to college. She got word from the registrar's office that she was an out of state student, because of that one little year where she lived in Tampa, as a student. So, she is having to supply employment proof that she has lived in Alabama for at least a year. She just had her one-year anniversary at Premier, so that worked out. She came over last night to print some forms related to graduation and when she left she said happily, "I went ahead and printed the graduation application form. I think you have to turn that in the semester of." Happy as in, "I know where I'm going and what I'm doing." 

Called Kathi yesterday and had a nice little visit with her. 

Shawn seems so happy. When he asked Tuesday afternoon about his friend coming over, and I knew Barry and I would be out to dinner with Dave Ferrante and Joe, I told him that that would be fine, that he'd been mature and responsible and just not to screw me up now. He said, with that happy tone we have when we've received a compliment we like, "Thank you, Grannie!"

The baby shower for Chelsea, and Evan, and Jaden was fun. Everyone seemed happy and played the games and visited well. Except for Loren, everyone there was also part of the Second Sunday Supper crowd, and they all laughed together. Beth had a living room full, and Chelsea and Evan seemed happy. 

16-05-19 (Read 7/7/26)

Setting the alarm alarm for 2 hours and 8 minutes today and happy about that

16-05-16 (Read 7/8/26)

The AC was on.

I knew I had to take time out of this afternoon to have the echo done on my heart, and I'm already behind on my work, so I flipped the day around. I did take time to put my makeup on, but I went straight to the office and promised myself that I'd come to the writing shack this evening, so that's what I did. On the way over here, I dreaded the heat, but was happy to find that I had left the AC on, and the temp was pleasant. 

The tech who did my echo was chatty and pleasant. She spent a summer in Europe with her dad's girlfriend, who was from France and went back each summer to take care of her parents. She talked a lot about that. 

I didn't have to wait long, and I was happy about that. 

The reports that I'm pulling from Prophesy are going to tighten us up as a business and I'm proud of my progress on that. Barry did take a look at the weekly report. 

I don't know if the tech knows anything about the echo, but at least they didn't rush me to the hospital or anything. 

I got almost all of Monday's stuff done on Monday, and would have if I hadn't spent about 3 hours working on the new Prophesy reports. They are uphill because they are uncovering that people have not been dong the work in them they way they are supposed to, but they matter. 

Tyler, laughing at supper. 

16-04-27 (Read 7/9/26}

I just really had a lot of fun yesterday. 

I came to the writing shack early enough to get my time in and it was cool and I opened the windows and enjoyed the fresh air and listened to the birds sing and chirp and call. I meant to cut it short, to take care of business since I planned on goofing off in the afternoon, but I couldn't make myself leave. It is a little stuffy this morning and I need to see about finding a fan I can use for the few weeks we have before I'm going to have to close out the outside and leave on the air conditioner. 

So much happy stuff, I hardly know where to begin. This is the Facebook Joy Journal, but when I posted this morning about having to wake Tyler up early, Morgan said, "Ohhh the memories of swinging around dancing in the morning still 97% asleep." When she lived with me, I would scoop her up out of the bed, hold her in a hug, and we'd sing and dance (or rather, I'd sing and dance) our way to the kitchen bar stool, where she'd have her breakfast. 

When I got my nails done yesterday, I met Diane Ballard, although I didn't know her last name until she asked for mine as I was getting ready to leave. She talks pretty much non-stop, and she fessed up to that from the get go. "Can't sit still," she said. Turns out, she and her husband own a mobile home park in Theodore, along with 100 rental houses. She is 69, her husband is 73. She wants them to retire, but he doesn't want to. He doesn't just want to sit at home, and he has no interest in travel. She worries about how he would run the business if something happened to her because she handles administrative things. Like me, she is aware of the nuances of things that she has learned over the more than 30 years that they have been doing this, and the difficulty of handing all of that off to someone. She was a lively, friendly critter. 

I like Amber's new salon. I really enjoyed my little shop hop. (Hair, Nails, Bakery.) The bakery was a bit of a disappointment --- it is really more of a set up for school kids to eat their snack and go, rather than a quiet place to read a book, so I might not do that again, but I enjoyed it yesterday. The girl did not trim my nails to even them out and the fingernail polish has a least two divits, so I probably wouldn't go back there, but they're doing nails at Amber's place now, so I think I'm good there. 

Tyler said there is a new kid at school, that he is from Cuba, speaks some English but not a lot, and that he is kind of his new best friend. The boy was following Tyler to his class, but since he's really in a different group, another student steered him in the right direction. Tyler and the boy are in the same PE class though, and Tyler described how he used an improv sign language to to explain the running test they were about to take. 

We went to Daniel's game and had fun watching him. He made some good catches, playing first base. 

Tyler's bus came early today. I thought about waiting for Beverly, but that felt pushy, so I came on inside. And so then I heard her at the door ---- she'd run all the way from the Phew! driveway to the side door. "I like the run," she said, when I told her I thought about waiting. Happy hug. 

16-04-26 (Read 7/9/26)

I'm just really happy today. I'm in the writing shack with the windows open. I could use a fan. It is a little warm, but I really don't want to close up and and shut out the outdoors. The birds are calling and spring is just everywhere blooming. 

Most of the college kids were off doing other things at Goodtimes, but Kennedy and John W came and all of the non-college kids were here. The pool was clean and clear and apparently warm enough, because they spent quite a bit of time in the pool. Noah stretched out on the towel about as much as he swam, I think maybe because the kids were playing chicken and he knows that's a bad idea. I don't know. Daniel must have been tired --- spent most of his time in the hammock. 

Michelle was great with the kids. She worked on the fort with them, and led them in to making a kite. 

The Stewardess game is taking off. They started their own game of it. It is this generation's "Phase 10." 

Pictures are on Facebook. 

Faith and Skyler, pictures together. Skyler and her little changing self, changing the way she stands for a picture. Both of them --- pics for snapchat. 

16-01-15

Date is approximate. I just like this picture.

D

16-04-25 (Read 7/9/26)

I'm really happy with myself for having followed through on my idea and written the letter of recommendation for Amber from. WAFFLE HOUSE.

It doesn't seem like a really big deal, but it is one of those things that I thought about doing for someone and then feel bad when I do not follow through, or follow through in time. And she was so happy --- we happened to get there when she was not tied up at the grill, so I motioned her down to a booth where no one was sitting. I told her that I wished I had made her a pot, but I didn't think about that early enough, but I like to write, so I wrote her a letter of recommendation. She reached to hug me, and was so very happy about it. (Turns out, she didn't stack his eggs that day, and that the onions go on top of the grits, not under them, but I think the letter still works.)

15-03-25

She said"very inspiring."

In the Clay Buddies group, a woman re: my post on time management. 

16-03-04 (Read 7/15/26)

Tyler helped me make the bed this morning. 

Shawn seemed like he was in a good mood, and he ate breakfast. 

I had a great lunch with Katie. We just talk so easily. 

I don't have to do any laundry today!!!! I am so excited about that. 

I hope I'm able to get out in the yard tomorrow. I'm excited about that, too. 

20 people have liked my comment in Clay Buddies, "You could give the benefit of the doubt with something like "Thank you for keeping our shared space clean. If you need any help figuring out where things go, please let us know. "

2016-01-22

Such luxury! Spending the afternoon in the writing shack! All the regular writing stuff done! I'm so excited!