a white dress and shoes for memorial day

I thrifted this glorious, obnoxious dress soon after I miscarried last August. It was the end of summer, I was grief-stricken, and I needed something cheerful and non-pregnant to wear. I wore it with white shoes to a friend's house on Labor Day where, because I asked and wanted to know what "the rules" really say, I was told the last time to wear white shoes is before Labor Day--not on the day itself.
Here's the middle of the dress
and, now that the white-shoe season is officially here, here's the bottom, with white shoes and clean feet. The dress hem falls at the knee and the skirt is kind of flared.

Here's the spinach a gathering of dear women planted for me in a springtime ritual marking my second miscarriage (in February of this year). See the pretty tea roses Vanessa gave me last August? They're coming up full force!

It has been a happy day-before-Memorial-Day. I spent an hour (at least) in my garden zones this evening, pulling up bermuda grass from newly-forming beds. The roots come out so readily now that the soil is loose and fertile. I don't know how it happened exactly, but now I have no weeds on either side of the chain link fence where our main garden is. Wow.

Henry was sick (but cheerful) yesterday and today. High fever, not much energy (yesterday) to play. Now one of the cousins we visited yesterday is sick, so we spent the day together again, this time at our house. Here was the invitation to come over.White dress and shoes or no, I wish my friends, family and visitors a vibrant summer, and I leave you with these words that came to me from Melody Beattie via Gratefulness.org.Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.