Good Morning Sunshine Cottage

     When John Charles woke up in the morning, he was all alone in the big bed.  He had been snuggled between Dad and Mama last night when he fell asleep.  He wished they were still in bed with him so that he could cuddle with them and rest a little longer, but parents must get up earlier than children or else they would be running late all day and not get much accomplished.

     John Charles could smell the familiar aromas of coffee brewing and sausage frying drifting from the kitchen and into every room of the house.  He got out of bed and found his kitty named Honey.  He knew that Mama would be calling him to breakfast soon, but for now he wanted to lie back down and hold Honey.  He pulled the sheets over his head and put the orange cat under there too.  Now they were in their own tent and he imagined that they were camping in the mountains next to a raging river.

     Dad walked into the bedroom.  He had just taken a shower and gotten dressed.  When he came into the bedroom, he put on his watch and belt and put his cell phone on his side.  Then he sprayed on his cologne.  John Charles stayed as still as he could inside the tent of sheets.  He was sure Dad would not realize that he was there, so he was very surprised when he heard Dad say, “Good morning Little Man.  Did you sleep good?”.  John Charles yelled, “How did you know I was in here!”  and Dad had to remind him not to talk so loud.  Mama came in and told them it was time for breakfast then she walked into the other bedroom and said, “Zachy!  Breakfast time!”.  Zach was seventeen years old and too old to have a babyish nickname like Zachy, but Mama had been calling him that since he was a baby, so it was her special name for Zach and he really did not seem to mind.

     They all took their usual places at the dining room table.  Dad always sat at the head of the table.  Mama sat on his right hand side and Zach and John Charles sat next to each other across the table from Mama.  When John Charles looked at the table he saw that Mama had made sausage, eggs, and cheese toast for breakfast.  There was a bowl of juicy red watermelon cubes as well.  John Charles was a picky eater and only ate a little sausage and cheese toast that morning.

     On the table, next to Dad’s plate, lay a worn burgandy colored Bible with gold letters on the front.  It was Mama’s Bible.  She usually kept it at her place on the dining room table and would sit there and read whenever she took a break during the day.  At meal times, she moved it to Dad’s place as a gentle reminder for him to read it to the family.

     When John Charles finished eating, he knew he was not to leave the table.  He must stay in his chair until after the Bible reading.  Dad usually did the reading, but sometimes he would ask Mama or Zach to read.  John Charles could not read yet, so he never got a turn to read at the table.  Every morning they would read one Psalm and the Proverb that corresponded with the day’s date.  At lunch, they would read one or two chapters from the Old Testament and at dinner they would read one or two chapters from the New Testament.  Sometimes it was hard for John Charles to sit still and stay quiet, but he tried, and sometimes he did not understand what was being read, but Mama told him to pay attention, so he did.

     When breakfast and Bible reading were over, it was time to do the morning chores.  While Mama cleared the table and Dad washed the dishes, John Charles got the vacuum cleaner and started to vacuum.  First, he vacuumed the living room and dining room.  Then he vacuumed the bedrooms and bathroom.  Vacuuming was his favorite chore and he was excited to be allowed to do it.  While John Charles was vacuuming, Zach fed and watered the animals.  First, he fed their dog Jasper.  Jasper was a big Huskey with icy blue eyes.  Then Zach fed the cats, Honey and his grey cat named Smokey, and cleaned their liter box.  After that, Zach went outside to take care of the lop eared rabbit named Candy.  There were other chores to do too, like making the beds, mopping the floors, taking out the trash and recyclables and doing laundry.  Mama did most of the laundry but sometimes John Charles helped to fold or put away the laundry.

     After the chores were finished, mama told John Charles to run and get dressed and to put his pajamas in the laundry room.  While he was getting dressed, Mama lit a scented candle and put it on the dining room table to burn throughout the day.  It smelled like hazelnut and made the house smell good.  When anyone walked into the house they were greeted by that warm hazelnut smell.

     Mama said, “Help me water the plants.” , so John Charles and Mama went outside.  John Charles liked using the water hose to water the plants.  It had an attachment on the end that he could turn to make the water shoot out of the hose in all different ways.  He chose the shower setting to water with.  Summers in Georgia were hot and even though it was still morning time, the air was sticky humid and John Charles was already starting to sweat.  He knew that it would feel good to get himself wet, so he sprayed the water into the air and let it fall down on his head.  The water was cold and took his breath away and then made him laugh.  Mama said, “That’s enough.” and John Charles turned the water off.

     Dad had the lawn mower out and was getting ready to cut the grass.  While he cut the front yard, John Charles walked around back with Mama.  They let Jasper out into the yard and he ran straight to the pond where he like to lie and watch the fish swim around.  Zach was in the backyard also.  He was cutting a big limb, that had fallen, into smaller pieces to haul to the curb for the city trucks to pick up.  Mama told Zach that when he finished cutting and hauling , she would like him to get the clippers and trim the vines and weeds that were growing onto their side of the fence from the neighbors yards.

     Dad came into the backyard and began to mow there.  While they were working, John Charles went to his swing set and watched them.  As he watched, he yelled for Mama to watch how high he could swing.  After a while he got tired from swinging and asked Mama to push him on the swing.  He and Mama started to sing together.  First they sang Mr. Sun then they san It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.  For as long as John Charles could remember, Mama had always sang when she pushed him on the swing.  When he was a baby and could not sing yet he had liked listening to her and if she stopped singing he had acted upset and kicked his feet to try to tell her to sing more songs.  Once he learned to speak, he was always happy when Mama sang with him.

     Before long everyone needed a break.  Mama told them to go sit in the shade and she would bring out some cold drinks.  She went inside and soon returned carrying a pitcher of iced green tea, a cup for Zach, a cup for Dad and a sippy cup for John Charles.  John Charles whined that he did not like tea.  Mama handed him his cup and told him that he did not have tea in his cup.  He took a sip and was happy to taste that Mama had filled his cup with cola.  She handed Dad and Zach their cups and poured them both a cup of icy cold tea.

     Jasper had let himself back inside because it was just too uncomfortable for a snow dog like him to be outside on such a hot day.  It was getting close to noon and the temperature had already risen to the mid 90’s.  Dad said he was going to let the rabbit out to hop around since the dog was not out to chase her.  John Charles wanted to hold her first so Dad put Candy in John Charles’ lap. She was very soft and John Charles liked to hold her, but she started to move around and scratch him.  Dad told him the rabbit wanted to get down and explore so John Charles put her on the ground.  She started hopping around , stopping once in a while to nibble on grass. John Charles liked to see her playing like that.  She looked happier being free than she did being locked up in a cage, but she was safer in her cage and he did not want anything bad to happen to her.

     Break time was over and Dad and Zach got up to go back to work hauling the trimmings to the curb.  Mama told John Charles that it was time for her to go inside to start making lunch and asked if he wanted to help.  He told her that he wanted to stay outside.  It had been a beautiful morning and he did not want it to end yet.

Sunshine Cottage

     Once upon a time, a little boy lived in the quaint southern town of Griffin, Georgia, in a little yellow house called Sunshine Cottage.  Sunshine Cottage sat in the center of an acre lot in a well established neighborhood.  It was the only home the little boy had ever known in his five years of life and had been sitting there, home to happy families, for 60 years.  The little boy was named John Charles and he lived in Sunshine Cottage with his Dad and Mama and older brother Zach.

     The cottage was a modest but comfortable home.  The front yard was shaded by a giant old Maple tree that looked like it must have been planted soon after the home was built.  A stone walkway led to a small front porch with two wicker chairs where John Charles liked to sit with Mama or Dad.  When he was sitting there he could look into the double window and see into the big living room.  Mama always liked to have two ferns hanging on the front porch, but she changed the door hangings and flowers on the pedestal, next to the black front door, as the seasons changed.

     Inside Sunshine Cottage there was a living room, dining room, kitchen, playroom, bathroom and two bedrooms.  One bedroom was for Dad and Mama and the other for Zach and John Charles, but John Charles liked to sleep in the room with Dad and Mama.

     On the side of Sunshine Cottage there was a screened porch and on the back there was a porch and wooden deck.  The porch had wooden seats built on and was enclosed with white lattice and it had two big planter boxes.  There were two chairs next to a fountain with flowing water and an outdoor fireplace where John Charles liked to roast marshmallows at night.  The deck had a black floor like the porch.  It had two chairs and a table where Mama liked to sit under the shade of the Japanese Maple and watch John Charles play on his swing set, trampoline or rocking horse.

     When John Charles stepped off the back deck, there was a stone walkway that led to his goldfish pond.  Next to the pond was a covered swing.  Most of the backyard was shaded by the neighbors’ old, old oak tree that had English Ivy growing all the way to the top.  The ivy had started growing on the fence in John Charles’ backyard too and sometimes it would even try to start growing onto Sunshine Cottage, but Dad and Zach would always pull it down.

     John Charles knew that other people had newer and bigger houses than him.  He liked visiting his grandparents’ fine homes, but to him there was no place like home and Sunshine Cottage was his favorite place to be in the whole wide world.