Early morning kitchen conversation

Oh, the things a child can learn when she hears a conversation between her parents.

It was early summer, when a misty dew glistened the grass, the cows grazed in the pasture, and the colorful birds flittered around the porch, singing happily like an old Disney movie.

I was seven. Dressed for a day of romping and reading among the maple trees by the creek, I wore shorts and a homemade shirt, my long …