The Everyday

I'm not at all like a bear this winter. I'm very busy, actually, and I rarely go into hibernation unless you count the extra hours of sleep on a Saturday morning. My routine is set in motion again, fully in swing now, since I've been back to school for two weeks already (working on my third). I'm very determined to keep my "educational colors" flying high, and so have been working my mind as best as I can. This results in a very  satisfied attitude as well as an intense love of weekends!
The small amount of free time that I have between ending school for the day and eating dinner (usually about forty-five minutes) I spend in going out for a walk, reading a book (currently Blue Hills, by Elizabeth Goudge) or making the dinner. You see, I love to cook, and there are a few days each week that are my designated "dinner days". This evening it was tuna casserole, last Friday was scallop potatoes and sauteed squash, and of course there is bread baking every week. I also tried out a wonderful grain salad this Sunday (the idea came from a dear friend who served it for lunch at a cookie-baking party over Christmas) consisting of boiled and cooled wheat berries, raisins, celery, hazelnuts, and a dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. These, with just a dash of minced garlic, salt and pepper, make a delicious cold salad.
Still, the best part of my life is time spent with people. I love my morning quiet hour with God and His Word, the precious moments with Baby Gavin, daily conversations with those of my family living at home, and weekend or holiday family time with everyone. Also I love Sunday and Wednesday fellowship with friends and teachers at Church. These people fill up my life with blessing and goodness, and I find that these days as a freshmen in high-school are sweet with friendship, fun and family. Though at times I am tired, I can always trust to be refreshed through time out in nature, prayer, and family and friends. As has been the ending of many past blog posts: life is good!

The Garden is Waiting!

About a month ago, I helped to put our garden to bed. We trimmed the dry, grey plants, spreading fallen leaves and old hay across the cold ground as we went (carefully filling in the spaces between baby potato plants that were confused at the sudden sunshine). I clipped back raspberry vines and scattered hay around.
Now is the time of dreaming for me. I have spent hours bent over our Michigan Bulb magazine, picking my favourite flowers, tallying up my spending money and making an estimate of how many gorgeous blooms I can safely take care of. I ended up with several very wonderful ones, not one of which I regret buying. So now I'll just wait, and watch the garden sleep.

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.

Late in October

Mist rises from the green, green firs.

Down in the valley, a dozen farms

Nestle in harvested fields, wicking warmth

From burnished maples and red cherry boughs.

The air is frigid, defying candle-bright leaves

And the golden-glow sunset.

Waves of pale, dry, feather-light grass

Are snow on the hillside.

Dew caught on spider-silk is cold, cold rain;

There are icicle-clouds clinging to a frosty

Sky up there.

Something beyond the apple-spice

And gypsy drumming in goose wing-beats

Says "Winter."

A Golden Day

In  the poem "October Paint" by Carl Sandburg, someone with an October paint pot runs wild with vivid hues of red and orange and purple; that seems to be the case with this October day. The paint pot spilled bright blue and frosty white all over the sky, splashed gold on the maple trees clustered in the wood and brushed the mountains with purple and grey. When school was over, I took my always-packed nature bag, my poor, breaking rubber boots and a very old purple sweater and walked down to a favourite trail to write about the paint pot. Later today, the five us--being Mama, Daddy, Ladybird and Baby Gavin (he doesn't have a nickname yet)--will go into Dallas for Awana. When we come back, there will  be "deep, dark chocolate cake" (with cherries and whipped cream, of coarse) and I get to see what's inside the mysterious, very alluring packages wrapped nicely and waiting on the entry table :-) ! Because only part of the family  can come tonight, we are having my birthday dinner (Zuppa Tuscana and O' Charley Rolls) on Sunday, with everyone, except for Autumn Rain :-(. But I still look forward to all these fun celebrations and I can't wait to see Autumn Rain at Christmas time!

Birthdays and Babies and All the Good Things...

Every year there unfolds an ebb and flow of events--some of which are good, and some of which are bad. But I'm only going to write about all the good, wonderful things, because, to be honest, that's all I can think of right now! First, babies. Little G was finally born, although I'm nearly a month late in recording it (you can see that I've been  far too caught up with snuggling and bouncing my little brother to do much blogging) and he's getting more cuddly and adventurous every day! Second, there are so many birthdays in the summer that we are constantly whispering, disappearing when we see certain people, or sneaking off into our rooms with mailed packages that look suspiciously birthday-ish. Today is Ladybird's birthday, and the two of us celebrated early with a five-thirty-in-the-morning cup of hot chocolate, and some reading aloud of favorite Psalms and a chapter of L.M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon. It was the very best way to wake up, and I topped off the lovely morning by going on my favorite run (I made it all the way up the incredibly steep hill  without stopping this time)! So, with all of these great beginnings, I have high hopes for a wonderful day:-)