Yesterday was one of those days….the good kind.  The kind that you start to think will just never happen again when you’re into the thick  of parenting, homeschooling, special needing, and life in general, and you’re so busy you feel like you’re being buried with a pile of paperwork and stuff.

We had company in for the weekend as it was Helena’s Scouting Court of Awards; Greg’s mom and brother came down from Michigan to participate in that with us, and Zach had his piano recital on Sunday afternoon at 4:30. We are finished with our school year and that brought a sense of relief, even though there are still a few hours at least of teacher inservice for me, so to speak, as I get paperwork, portfolios and records together.  Then we had such a good time being with family and felt so happily blessed to have Mom and Gary here — that they wanted to be here with us, just felt good.  Church was good — was glad to see some of our friends from group and talk with them briefly before getting back home.  Then the afternoon was a really pretty day, taking it easy at home, watching Mom enjoy the birds, the sun and the outdoors.

To wrap it up, I drove Zach to his recital with Mom and Gary (Helena wasn’t with us, she was enjoying a trip to a water/amusement park with her scout squad, and that was a huge success! she told us all about it on her return).  Zach played all three movements of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and he was happy with the results.  I was so glad for him he was able to handle the slips and mistakes, of which there were a few more than usual, but then that last movement is really really difficult to play!  He was pleased with his performance and was happy and joking at the end.  There was a time when that would not have been the case as he is a perfectionist, and every other recital except one, he has basically played his pieces perfectly.  His entire performance ran almost 19 minutes worth of the recital!  A great treat as well was that our good friends Kerridwen, her daughters Priya and Meenakshi, and friend Toby and her son Ethan, came to hear Zach play!  We just felt surrounded by love and support.  At least I did — I don’t know how Zach felt, but that would be my guess.

It was such a good day for us.  I had a hard time winding down in the evening…. after saying goodnight to Mom and Gary, Zach went outside and I ended up going also, to be treated to the most lovely firefly display I’ve ever seen.  There may have been different species than usual in our area, because they blinked differently.  Usually they light up when rising upwards, but this time we had some in the trees blinking three times in a row, others like a strobe near the ground and still others just flashing, in rippling concert with the others.  Zach and I wandered out to the large field behind our barn and there were dozens to a couple hundred out there.  The trees were dark, the light glow from Louisville above them a bit brighter, and the stars quite bright above that.  Along the trees, over the field, all around us, were fireflies.  It looked like a film of star birth life and death greatly speeded up, flashes coming and going in ripples all over the trees by the creek. Quiet and dark, a few American toads calling, some crickets, and the lovely lights of the fireflies.  I was just celebrating in my heart the moment, and being there with Zach, and knowing he was rejoicing in being with me and the fireflies as well.

Today — back to daylight and reality.   But — I had that day, I had that evening, it really happened.  There really are days like that, scattered in amongst all the dust and dirt.   Gems of the night, just like those incredible fireflies.