Down By The Pond

With the evenings getting chillier and chillier, we decided to have one last bonfire down by the pond before it gets too cold. We may try to have one more sometime in October, but this may be the last one for the year.

After lighting the fire, we ate our hotdogs and hamburgers and settled back to just talk and enjoy each other's company. We were entertained by the budding ballerinas who couldn't decide if they were doing ballet or marching to a different drummer. They also sang several selections from their school and church repertoire. Some were sung as if by an opera diva while some were sung as by drunken sailors.

We tried learning how to whistle by putting our fingers in our mouths, but all that did was get our fingers wet. Jimmy was the only one who could do it that way. I used a blade of grass between my thumbs to make a whistle and we all could whistle by cupping our hands together and blowing between the little space between our thumbs. Everyone could whistle the normal way, but that's not loud enough.

With the entertainment taking a much needed intermission, we let the fire burn down to hot coals. Now it was time for the 'Smores! Yum! Nothing tastes better than ooey, gooey, hot marshmallow on top of ooey, gooey, melted chocolate on a crisp graham cracker outside at night. Not to mention the ooey, gooey hot marshmallows that ended up sliding off the sticks into the fire! Charlie gave us a three-pronged, battery operated, revolving marshmallow toaster stick. We could toast three at a time. The only problem was that the "stick" wasn't very long. You had to sit too close to the fire. Next time, we plan on taping it to a longer stick with duct tape.

We built the fire back up and sat around it until it started to die out again. It was getting time to pack it up and head back to the house. My front side was hot and toasty, but my back side was downright freezing. The children were wound up from all the sugar (marshmallows and chocolate bars have sugar in them?) and all the entertainment they had provided, but tomorrow was Sunday and their choir would be singing, so they needed to go to bed.

It was a nice, relaxing evening. Sometimes we get bogged down with just trying to cope with all the world throws at us. Sometimes we recover and go on. Sometimes we don't. If we don't, one small thing sticks to another small thing and before we know it, it's not small anymore. It's a huge monster looming out of the darkness. It's nice to be able to let it go.