Treasure

Today was a pretty standard, busy Friday.  The kids talked me into going to Chick-fil-A after dance class which for some reason an exhausting place to have lunch.  Plus it was late and by the time we got home from our long outing the afternoon was half gone and I was spent.  But before dinner we went out for a little fresh air, and Amy was pretending she was tending all her farm animals and doing the evening chores.  The last thing she needed to do was check on the ducks, which were naturally down by the pond.  (The pond being the large flood-puddle which has been featured here and here, and was filled up just last night with some much-needed rain.) 

Anyway, the farm chores were soon forgotten when the kids started finding things to throw in the water - sticks, rocks, etc.  I joined in, remembering there is something very calming about the nice little sploosh a rock makes when it hits the water.  The setting sun was back-lighting the Spanish moss on the oaks just perfectly.  It was really lovely.

While picking rocks out of the mud I noticed deer tracks - deer!  I've only seen deer once, maybe twice since we've been here, but there were tracks everywhere, fresh as can be.  Then, just as we were about to walk home something else caught my eye - words, totally pressed into and mostly covered with mud... 

This rather hefty brass medal says only "Honor Graduate" with a torch underneath.  I thought such a little treasure was oddly fitting to my weeks-long mental exercise about school in all its forms. It was a calming moment.