Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween! Maggie is totally psyched, of course. These last eight hours of waiting are going to be torture for her... We went for the "store-boughten" costume this year (been watching too much Beverly Hillbillies)---a "Midnight Witch", deep blue crushed velvet with a sheer black overlay. Without the hat and with her long blond hair she looks more like Stevie Nicks than anything frightening---all she needs are the platform boots:)
Cold, but sunny today. I woke up to find one of my geraniums has bloomed. I took the time to re-pot them and bring them in this year because I love red geraniums and thought they would be cheery during the dull days of fall and winter. It did give me quite a boost when I saw the bright red bloom first thing this morning. It's the little things...
Does anyone else get the ladybug invasion in the fall? My house right now is overrun with spiders and ladybugs(or Asian imitations of ladybugs). I don't have the heart to kill unless the bug happens to be of the bloodsucking variety, so I tend to just relocate the little buggers to out of the way corners of the house (like behind the washing machine). Not very Good Housekeeping of me, I'm sure. Speaking of good housekeeping, I saw a commercial the other day for a sponge that has grooves in the side to protect your manicure while you are scrubbing. Is this really necessary? And what is a sports pedicure? So many questions, so little time...
Reading a highly entertaining book right now--- The Year of Living Biblically:One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, by A.J. Jacobs. If you've ever read the Bible, you can probably imagine some of the predicaments involved. One of my favorite parts so far was when his menstruating wife deliberately sat on all the seats in the house, so that they would be "unclean" and he would be unable to sit down:)
Should go and get on with the day. Happy Haunting!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Catching Up

I rarely have a moment to write, and when I do, I seem to be afflicted with writer's block, or, even worse, thinkers block. I think it's a lack of "alone time". I never have time to ponder much more than what to make for dinner, what chores need to be done, and all the endless details of home and family... Hell, I can't even go to the bathroom by myself, let alone have a philosophical moment.
It's snowing today, the first snow of the season. I awaited it yesterday with all the eagerness of a child, peering out the door glass, waiting for the first flake. The leaves are falling at a rapid pace, revealing the bare bones of trees, the nests of the summer past. The summer birds have long gone, and the winter birds have moved in. Juncos flit about making their funny little sounds. Goldfinches and chipping sparrows glean the Joe Pye and goldenrod seeds. We let part of the yard go as a meadow of sorts and it's very popular with the little birds. The dogwood berries went quickly---for a few days it was a Who's Who Among Birds---waxwings, robins, bluebirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, flickers, starlings, etc. Now I'm waiting for the first time I step out and hear the clear, sweet, wavering song of the white-throated sparrow... Had the rare pleasure the other day of watching a young great blue heron in the creek below the house, walking slowly through the low leaf-covered water as if he hadn't a care in the world. The list of birds I've seen here has grown to 54 different species. My most recent additions were the yellow-rumped warbler and a young yellow-bellied sapsucker. I'm always on the look-out for something new, but continue to enjoy my old friends as well. You never know what they might do next. Late one afternoon I looked out and saw a cardinal "anting" on the big rock in the side yard, grasping ants in his beak and rapidly dabbing them under his wings... There's always entertainment about if you take the time to look for it.
My days are a whirl of looking at the world around me, home caring, homeschooling, listening to music, constantly adjusting to the changes in the house and trying to make a haven for us all in the chaos of reconstruction. Lately it's been furnace installation and insulation. Next, I guess, will be drywalling Maggie's room. I can't wait to move her little self and all her little toys up into one space, instead of in every room in the house.
Maggie is homeschooling at the second grade level now, having gotten rave reviews for her 1st grade portfolio. She's still interested in everything, reads a great deal on her own, and constantly surprises me with her grasp of math. Definitely didn't inherit that from me. She still loves HGTV and I predict a great future as an interior designer, real estate agent or home stager.Every time I watch House Hunters I think I should be more like their real estate agents---no matter what godawful feature of the house they are looking at, the agent always has something positive to say, or just moves on to the next great feature. I think if I could acquire that skill to redirect, it would serve me well, in life, in marriage, everywhere:)
What else? I lost weight and found it again. I chopped my hair off to give the gray a chance to catch up with the not gray. I'm crinkling (that's a nice way to say I'm getting old---LOL). I finally got to grow an herb garden---basil, dill, parsley, oregano, sage, lavender and lemon balm. I'm thinking of expanding it next year, and nixing the parsley---not big parsley eaters here. In fact I thought the damn stuff would be dead by now, but it's still kicking around. The house shows slow but steady progress. I hoard design ideas in a notebook---some day the building will be done and I can begin the "purtification" process. Marty and I haven't killed each other yet. The cats are alive and annoying as ever.
Life is good.