Isham is Josh and Amy Koons’ son from Athens, GA.  Dinner had been served and the table cleared for the desserts.  Among the delights were Great Aunt Sue’s famous cheesecake with a bowl of blueberry topping on the side.  Isham (3 years old) observed the display with interest.  Uncle Scott asked Isham what was on the table for dessert.

Isham promptly replied, “Blue soup.”

I have tried endlessly to write a verse that does justice to the phrase but nothing works thus far.   Some day I may just name a whole collection of perfectly logical observations made by children BLUE SOUP.  I  love it (and the cheesecake, too!)

Funny, sunny place
Three inches of rain this morning
Now, not a trace
Soaed up by the thirsty earth
The lush vegetation
The plush relaxation
The sunburned face
Oh, happy place!

Have you ever escaped to Nantucket Isle
Thirty miles at sea?
It’s not too far–just a little while
To find tranquility.
A lovely place with its pilgrim face
Peeling from the sun
A peculiar ind of appealing grace
Beyond comparison.
Not every head is asleep in bed
When the midnight bell is ringing
for it’s not too far to a little bar
Where a quiet man is singing.

Our baby cousin’s Kelly Hatch.
No kid is as cute as Kelly
But she chews on chives in the onion patch
And she smells like the corner deli.

Mother would always wave a dollar bill at each full moon, expecting that it would make her rich or,  at least, bring her some sort of windfall. It didn’t work.

With thirteen full moons in a year, if one deposits the bill (after waving) into a money bag (or mooniebag), he/she would have $13 at year’s end.  There are still six full moons to go in 2011:  July 15, August  13, September 12,  October 2, November 10 and December 10.   At least, you’ll have $6 in your mooniebag to start 2012.  I encourage you to go out and wave your dollar and then save it.

“Blue Moons” happen every 33 months. The next one is in August 2012. Imagine how much you can save by then!

Who knows? Perhaps you will be the lucky one who gets rich, too.  I don’t know if it would help to howl at the same time.  I don’t remember Mother howling.

This is a wonderful grandparent-grandchild endeavor, something fun to do and save a little money at the same time.

While I was in court  yesterday in Rockville, Scott decided to do some work in the library.  He stopped and asked a fellow, “Sir,  do you know where the library is?”

“Well, I’m not sure” he said, “but there is a building down the street with a lot of steps.”

(BUT, does it have any books?)   Oh, ha ha

Betsy took the gas mask to the second grade for Show & Tell.  Her grown-up cousin had brought it home from service in the army for her brothers.  I watched from the porch as she came home from school, strutting proudly up the street wearing the gas mask.   She was followed closely by a second grade boy who was obviously smitten.  He lived a few streets away so I had to give him a ride home.