I still don’t know how to post photos here and I’m frustrated by that — not everyone who reads this is a Facebook friend, where most of my photos go (they’re also on Twitter and Tumblr, if you’re interested. I’m @musclegal on Twitter, and lifescycles on Tumblr. Check them out if you have a few spare minutes. TIA). The front yard went from huge tree roots and dead grass and volunteer Gazania to topsoil, rock wall, and 2 mossrock raised beds for veggies and the like. Anastasia, our son’s SO and professional floral designer & landscaper, spent the weekend with us, and we now have a solid plan in place. She and he will come back in a couple weeks and help us plant the drought-tolerant plants we agreed on. Between now and then Chris will install the irrigation and we’ll buy plants.

We so enjoyed our time with her, not only to get to know her on a deeper level, but also to further get why our son is over the moon for her. That’s certainly easy to discern; she’s lovely, honest, and genuine, and she loves him. That’s enough for me. I learned from Nancy, my MIL (the Queen of MILs, IMNTBHO), how to be supportive and positive and mostly, non-interfering. It’s fine to have an opinion, just don’t foist it on the couple. So far I think I’m doing fine. I love that both our adult children (oxymoron, much?) have found their soulmates and are moving forward and deepening their relationships with their SOs. We want our kids to have what we have, and although that might look a lot different than our relationship, we trust that they’ll figure out what they want and work on that with the SOs. We have tiny crushes on their SOs, and that helps. In my head I want them to reproduce because I crave babies from my babies and being a grandmother and all that, and if that happens, yay! If it doesn’t, and they’re still really happy and fulfilled in their relationships, yay! Their happiness and satisfaction with their lives is what matters the most.

Saturday, July 4th, we spent a lot of time finalizing what we want to plant. I wasn’t 100% convinced that A’s ideas were what I wanted, but once she printed out our shopping list, complete with colored pictures of the plants, I believe it will work. It’s similar to being the stoker on a tandem: trust your captain, and if you doubt, Lamaze-breathe until you’re proven wrong or right. It will be just fine.

We had time between finalizing the planting and the meal we were going to share with our friends, during which Chris rotisserie the ribs (a first) with a new glaze (another first), so we went to BevMo, for wine tasting. We spent a couple hours there: We like the host, Alan, very much. And as the afternoon progressed we realized we had 3 native Californians, a Texan, a New Jerseyian (sp), and Danish, French, Lebanese and Russian immigrants. Listening to them share their journeys to the US from their native countries was fascinating. Hearing why they chose the US, and California specifically, was amazing. I gained a new respect for our awesome nation, as well as for those folks’ bravery and willingness to upend their lifestyles and adopt a new culture and lifestyle. They may not read this blog to know how much I respect them, so I’m glad I called that out and toasted them, with little plastic cups filled with Napa wines.

Life is good. Really good.