Jason and I have talked about getting a pool and having a whole outdoor kitchen for a couple of years.  Now that Charlie is here and is ready to go, we just couldn’t hold out any longer.  After discovering on Friday morning (procrastinators that we are) that there was not an empty hotel room on the North Carolina or South Carolina coast, we decided to go for it. We got up Saturday morning and went to Wal-Mart, where we bought a ring-pool.  This is a pretty big swimming pool, 16 feet in diameter and about 3 feet deep, that holds itself up like a big balloon.  It is in the backyard so no passer-by can see that we virtually have an above-ground pool.  Jason had to take it all the way to Rednecktown, getting out the plastic chairs and strategically placing them around the pool, along with a card table.  I had to stop him when he started planning the deck he wanted to build around the pool. 

No matter what others may say about us, we love our redneck pool.  I spent Charlie’s Memorial Day nap floating around, reading the latest copy of Southern Living.  Jason flew around the pool on his lawnmower, waving every time he went around. It was redneck heaven. 

Charlie has only been in once.  Perhaps I am a bit skittish from his first dip in the pool when he flipped his float over and I almost jerked his arm out of socket trying to get him out of the water.  Then there’s also the sunburn factor.  I mean, how do you other mothers stop worrying about your precious babies new, perfect skin?

I definitely need to pray that this pool doesn’t move me in the opposite direction from my quest to the like the Proverbs 31 woman.  Nowhere in Proverbs 31 does the Proverbs 31 woman lounge in a swimming pool.  Where am I going to fit this into my schedule?