This is Dottie, my BFF’s granddoggie, a cute little party-colored Cocker Spaniel with an incredibly sweet disposition. I took this pic at my house last year when she was just a few months old. This year, she’s just a little bit bigger, but she’s at her full size. One happy bundle of love–and it was all I could do to keep from sending everyone home without her.

Her family used to live across the pond from us. Her grandma is my best friend. I was there when her human mom, the youngest of the family, was born; her aunt and uncle call me “Crazy Aunt Linda.” I love it. The family moved away many years ago, but one of my joys is when we can all get together again. Stacy and Chris are already grown and gone, so I don’t get to see them often, but Sweet Sarah comes with her mom about once a year. A drunk driver left the kids without a dad and BFF without a husband in 2010. It was rough, but they’re getting along.

So why am I writing about them? Because they came to see me! Squeeee!

Sharon and Sweet Sarah came last Wednesday and stayed until Friday, when they met up with the other kids for a reunion of Sharon’s extended family, then Sunday, they came back here–all of them, including a boyfriend and a girlfriend!–for lunch and catch-up time before heading back to Central Texas. We grilled hamburgers and visited all afternoon. My stars, that was delightful. I get the warm fuzzies every time I think of the fact that the kids didn’t want to leave this area until they’d seen Uncle Billy and Crazy Aunt Linda.

While they were at their reunion Saturday, MSB and I hit the farmers market and spent a ton o’ money–fresh green beans, new potatoes, yellow squash, onions, and tomatoes, not to mention local honey, three kinds of jellies–frost grape, jalapeno, and mayhaw–and a big ol’ bottle of homemade blackberry wine (which I can’t have until I get off some of my meds. MSB says I’m missing out. Darn it.).

We ran some other errands, then went out for lunch at Cotton Patch. Of course, I couldn’t finish my entire meal in one sitting, but at least I was hungry enough to give it a try. What I accomplished Saturday was considerably more than what I was capable of just a week before, and I don’t know what the difference is, unless I actually am building up a little more strength and stamina. It’ll take time, I know, but it’ll happen.

Meanwhile, it’s just wonderful to be able to sit here and write about what would be mundane to everyone else. Visiting with friends, going shopping, doing whatever needs to be done, is normal for other people. Nothing has been normal for us in a long time. Even when we could do things others do, we always had to consider my “condition” and make accommodations. We still have to consider how quickly I tire, but I did good Saturday. And for a while, we were able to forget . . .

There’s something comforting about the mundane, about “life as normal.” Today, I feel joyfully comforted.