glimpses: november joys

We are busy picking apples here before the deep freeze comes, but even now there are very few left on the trees.  A mama and calf in the pasture down the way seem to like our visiting hour; the calf trots toward the children every time they break into a run, like it wants to play. Gideon, our big mutt, wants to play too but scares away the calf with his bark.  Maybe he doesn't want to play; he is an excellent guard dog so maybe he feels we endangered despite the fence separating us from the cows.  

I light candles again in the evening but not as often as I should.  It always takes me a few weeks to get in the groove of candles after the heat of summer and even the warmth of late fall wanes.  I love to watch my children play outdoors.  Today Lyddie made a "garden" in the hill of topsoil in the garden.  The old chicken wire fence surrounding our garden has been torn out and will be replaced eventually with another something - maybe a split rail fence of sorts or a picket fence.  As always I have big dreams and limits everywhere I look.  

I take an extra blanket to bed now, though it's not as cold as it will be.  When you sleep in the same bed as someone else, there is inevitably a space where the sheet stretches between you that leaves your back or shoulders uncovered if you are facing away from them - or is it just me?  So I find myself waking cold.  Since we still have not replaced our windows tomorrow seems to be plastic-on-the-windows day. It is amazing how much it helps insulate especially our cold bedrooms.  I still sigh for a woodstove or fireplace of some kind but I am thankful for our efficient central heat and can be content enough that we are warm. 

The sky is often wild and blue or orange or salmon, but today the sky was a soft lavender and pale blue.  Clouds speed across the sky and the light changes from a bright rich yellow to a cold and hazy purple.  We shiver and draw our sweaters close.  The children were delighted to dig out their handknit mittens and Millie, my yarn-lover wears them everywhere.  She also wants to sleep in her new sweater from Mimi, and barring that, puts it on first thing in the morning.  That girl is going to be a knitter, I tell ya.  It's time for me to start teaching her.

I daily spend about 15 minutes in the afternoon alone with each of my children.  I am so thankful for that habit that I have built into my day.  Fifteen minutes allows for a good storybook or chapter from a book or even a little work on cross-stitch or knitting or weaving, and several minutes of cuddling and peekaboo and tickling before settling in for our rest hour.  Rosie pulls me to her bed with Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? every day now, and I lay with my legs and feet dangling off her toddler bed and we talk about the pictures while she connects them to her own life and relationships.  "I'll wear my chair - you'll wear your chair?  I'll wear my chair cause I'm stuck there..."  ----"'tuck in my chair??" Giggle giggle giggle.  Lovey Puppy and Ratty (Watty) rabbit cuddle in close and on lucky days, she sleeps awhile and I get a few minutes in the middle of the day to read in the quiet.