It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving break is here once again! After a weekend away on a youth retreat, home seems very, very quiet with just Mama, Ladybird and Little Gavin (Daddy being gone on a business trip until tomorrow afternoon). But there hovers a cosy, festive spirit in the fire-lit house on the hill that keeps the four of us warm until more of the family returns on Thanksgiving Day. We have only listened to a little bit of Christmas music so far, in order to enjoy it all the more tomorrow while doing Thanksgiving preparations, and my appetite for holiday music and lyrics has been thoroughly wetted. Our little Willamette valley seems quite ready for winter, with huge rain ponds covering former harvest fields, trees shedding vibrant coats and the sound of sleepy rain or blustery wind lulling each evening into night.

Then Came the Rain

Fall has settled into a wonderful rhythm--not too hard, but not too easy either. Monday through Thursday is very full of school, school and... not much else! Oh, yes, there are Monday night push-ups with Dad, shopping and a piano lesson on Tuesday, Awana on Wednesday and swimming too (so I guess I lied; there really is more going on than school). Friday is a nice sort of mixed-up day, because it is half school and half weekend (mostly weekend, if I have anything to say about it) with another piano lesson and lots of free afternoon time. Saturday and Sunday are all the way weekend, which includes sleeping in on Saturday morning, Church on Sunday and, this week, the annual Thanksgiving dinner at our Church on Sunday afternoon. So you see, my days are very good and pleasant in spite of the occasional wish for more time. But doesn't everybody wish for more time? If I did have several extra hours each day, what would I do with them?
For each day this week there has been something lovely and memorable (memorable as in "I won't forget it for at least one more week, because by that time there will be some other memorable thing  to occupy my mind). Here are a few of the best parts of the week:
1)Sunday--Family afternoon and harvest party for youth group in the evening.
2) Monday--baking Apple Oat Bread (I make bread every week and it was fun to experiment with a new kind).
3) Tuesday--getting up at 5:20, instead of 6:00, in order to exercise before riding down into the valley to help out at some friends' alpaca farm.
4) Wednesday--going shopping with Mama (I go shopping with her every week, and it's always one of my favourite things).
5) Thursday--Learning how to make newsletter by way of Publisher, which was especially wonderful because I have always been terrified to try doing anything besides blog using the computer.
6) Friday (today)--I had chocolate muffins for breakfast, went to the dentist (yes, I like to have my teeth cleaned) had a great piano lesson, went on a run in the rain and went out to a great pizza place with part of my family.
7)Tomorrow--Obviously, I can't divulge this information just yet, but you can just assume that something nice will happen.
But besides all of these nice things, there are a few especially nice things that happen ever single day! One of them is talking to God each morning, another is the possibility of writing a poem in my little notebook, and the third is laying down to sleep each night and listening to the rain fall. I love summer warmth and crickets chirping, but something always thrills deep inside me every year in that first moment when I hear rain droplets crackling on the roof. What a blessing to snuggle deep in blankets and feel warm while hearing the rain sing and the wind whisper. Life is very, very good.