Gratitude

So my pal Kat has been doing a sweet little happy list for a few days... and she inspired me!
Today I am happy about:

1. Getting home safely in the freezing rain after going out to get some more water because our pipes are busted (you have to say this if you live in the country).

2. I kept the fire going all day yesterday, even with a trip to town thrown in.

3. We have really rockin neighbors. They helped in every way possible with the busted pipe situation.

4. When my kids found out that a local family had lost their home and everything they have to a fire, they went around gathering up some loved items and adding them to a big pile for them.

5. I found "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" on YouTube. Stop action yumminess!

6. Baby Doggett likes music! He/she starts dancing around when there's music about. Yay!
(Uncle Tom teaching Eleanor how to do the folksy strum.)

Changing and growing

There is nothing quite like the traditions of this season to remind me how my children are changing and growing. Our little Thanksgiving celebration was a fun, pretty simple, family gathering and this year the kids were really involved with almost every part of making the meal. It made me think back to when I was a kid, helping to tear bread for stuffing, learning to make the piecrust, watching the rum-pumpkin being made into a chiffon (obviously not closely enough) smelling the smells, setting the table and making it pretty.... and then, also to the Thanksgiving when I did all of that myself in the little house in the Santa Cruz mountains, the first time I met Robert in person, and did the whole nine-yards for three grateful guys. I think I called Mom about 10 times, but I got it all done. And one day, so will these three, take some of our traditions to their own families. Oh yah, it's four. I keep forgetting, but not really. My pumpkin of a belly is changing and growing too. Here is the soon to be big sister, looking up a recipe in the Joy of Cooking and showing off her new smile:

Halloween '09

The Costume shoppe on Slow Lane, bedecked with spider webs (yes, they are for real, we don't mess around here.)


The Costume Shoppe, Boise branch....



Pumpkin time:





Tricks and Treats:

Mist on the hill side....

Clouds gray and white,
Autumn good morning
Summer good night.

Tonight as we drove home, the clouds were settling into the beautiful fir covered mountains of our Coast Range. I wish I had a photo, but it's dangerous to take them and drive, and my camera was at home, so I don't. Instead, I have these. They're from our trip to the gorgeous gorge:

Evidence of our stay at McMenamin's Edgefield the night before the CSN show:

Lucy on the trail near Beacon Rock in the Gorge
Gus and Lucy playing in the falls:
Eleanor on the bridge:
Bliss!
Sibling love, or "Gus! PUT ME DOWN!"

Where does the time go?

Sometimes you blink, and a month has gone by. It happened just now. Here we are in mid-October. The weather is chilly enough for sweaters and slippers, the winter squashes are here and turning everything orange, the leaves are just starting to turn and we are checking out where the rain gear is, just in case these lovely, sunny, crisp October days turn into wet October days. Today was one of those fabulous blue sky crunchy leaves days which always make me think about football (even if I didn't run head-on into a bunch of Beaver Believers) and soup and apple cider and bonfires and long rambles through the woods. Fall is power time for me, when all my creative crafty energy seems to bubble up and spill out. This year it's a bit subdued, because of the other creative project I'm working on (who happens to be the size of a plum just now--and who made his/her presence known to me by way of fluttery undulations this week). Nevertheless it is again luscious fall and here is some of what we have been up to:

Making bread

Making new friends

And more new friends.

Wheee at Not back to school day at Oaks Park

Getting a fencing lesson

There's more, but Blogger just told me it was a 'Bad Request' to upload the second batch of photos tonight. Hmmm.... Blogger must know I'm up past my bedtime. Good night.