Autumn Reflections

The vibrant hews of autumn surround me-
the red and golden leaves, brilliant orange pumpkins,
and shiny apples.

My skin tingles with the cool crispness
of the morning. I hear the crunch and crackle
of leaves underfoot as I revel in the afternoon
of leisure at Bishop's Farm.

The sweet scent of cinnamon, cloves,
and allspice mingle with that of pumpkin and apples
in mouth watering treats. I taste the bounty of
autumn goodness in the countryside surrounding me.
by Lori 10/19/2005

Autumn has arrived in all her splendor this morning. Sunlight is flooding our front room and the day promises to be a golden one.
This is my favorite time of year. I love the crispness in the air and the colors around me as I walk through the park. I believe a leaf collecting excursion may be in order for this day!

Happy Birthday, Ladybird!

11 years ago God filled our arms with a delightful bundle of energetic joy. Your enthusiasm for life is contagious and we can't imagine our lives without you! Have a wonderful birthday, Ladybird.

Changes

More than the weather and leaves are changing around my home.

This is new student week and my Autumn Rain is off to the University campus to get herself acclimated to the new surroundings, new people, and new routine of being a college girl. Have I shed a few tears? YES!!!! Having skipped the first day of kindergarten I managed to put off this parting for 13 years, but now the time has come......and well, I feel sad. I'm grateful for the extra minutes we've had the past few days as I've driven her back and forth to school. It's been a good opportunity to share in her grand adventure.

But that's not all the change in the air....tomorrow Ladybird will be 11. Happy Birthday to you!!!! You continue to shed an abundance of JOY upon our family. You may be a tiny one yet, but you are big inside and will never be overlooked in the crowd. May you grow closer to Jesus through this coming year of your life.

So while we enjoy the scent of refreshing rain in the air and feel the crispness of the approaching autumn, we also embrace these changes and wonder what the future has in store.

Come, Little Leaves

"Come, little leaves," said the wind one day.
"Come over the meadows with me and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold,
For summer is gone and the days grow cold."

Soon as the leaves heard the wind's loud call,
Down they came fluttering, one and all;
Over the brown fields they danced and flew,
Singing the sweet little song they knew.

"Cricket, good-by, we've been friends so long,
Little brook, sing us your farewell song;
Say you are sorry to see us go;
Ah, you will miss us, right well we know.

"Dear little lambs in your fleecy fold,
Mother will keep you from harm and cold;
Fondly we watched you in vale and glade,
Say, will you dream of ou loving shade?"

Dancing and whirling, the little leaves went.
Winter had called them, and they were content;
Soon, fast asleep in their earthy beds,
The snow laid a coverlid over their heads.

by George Cooper

Bathing in a Sea of Music

All week I've been waiting for a little brown box to grace my mailbox. But not just any little brown box will do, it must bear the Amazon name proudly in the return address! This box is the result of my two sons' generous gift certificate on my birthday. Add these treasures to a lovely gift from my daughter and you get the following wondrous new sounds filling our home:

Birthday Bouquet

Thank you, my treasured family, for making me Queen for a day!

Happy Birthday To My Soul Sister

"May the Lord, mighty God,
Bless and keep you forever.
Grant you peace, perfect peace,
Courage in every endeavor.
Lift up you eyes and see His face,
And His grace forever.
May the Lord, mighty God,
Bless and keep you forever."

Dear Sister, what a blessing you are to me. God gave me a beautiful gift when He brought you into my life. Enjoy this day! Celebrate life!!!!!

A Newport Day

Newport Bay Marina

Newport Bay Bridge

Sand Dune Windbreak

Living Life One Day at a Time

It's been the sort of week that has threatened to sink my ship. Situations that build up and hem me in until I feel there is no way I can possibly handle another wrench in my plan. I start looking at my calendar and thinking "I can't". Sometimes I look to far. I need to take things day by day, resting in the knowledge that "I don't have to"!

When things didn't go as planned or when my husband walked in the door with a broken arm, I wasn't alone and I only needed to manage a moment in my day....not the next 364 days.

I'm clinging to a promise this week. 2 Cor. 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." I know I'm weak, but He is strong! He is greater than this moment, greater than all I need to do this week, greater than any plan I have for the future. He is sufficient to meet any need.

Shaping Up

After a disappointing show of no progress last week, it was very exciting to go to the building site last night and see that the trusses had been set in place Wednesday! I may have to quit going for these progress checks as I get so excited that I can hardly get to sleep when I come home. I can hardly wait to be settled...January is still so far away.

Amanda

Please continue to pray for my niece, Amanda. Last Tuesday she had a shunt put in to drain the fluid building up in her cranium. She's been in terrible pain and has been placed back into the critical care unit today.

Thank you!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Lavender Girl!

The Lavender Beds
by William Brighty Rands

The garden was pleasant
with old-fashioned flowers,
The sunflowers and hollyhocks
stood up like towers:
There were dark turncap lilies
and jessamine rare,
And sweet thyme and marjoram
scented the air.

The moon made the sun-dial
tell the time wrong;
'Twas too late in the year
for the nightingale's song;
The box-trees were clipped,
and the alleys were straight,
Till you came to the shrubbery
hard by the gate.
The fairies stepped out
of the lavender beds,
With mob-caps, or wigs, on their quaint
little heads,
My lord had a sword and my lady a fan;
The music struck up and the dancing began.
I watched them go through with a grave minuet;
Wherever they footed the dew was not wet;
They bowled and they curtsied, the brave and the fair;
And laughter like chirping of crickets was there.

Then all of a sudden a church clock
struck loud:
A flutter, a shiver, was seen in the crowd,
The cock crew, the wind woke, the trees
tossed their heads,
And the fairy folk hid in the lavender beds.

Letting Go

While my Autumn Rain is revelling in her blossoming social life, this Mamablogger is having to learn to let go. And let me tell all of you coming along behind me, those of you who have only young ones at home, this day comes far to soon! It is very stretching to wake at 2 a.m. and realize that your child (she'll always be my child) is yet to come home. But I know my Autumn Rain, I trust her, I've raised her to be who she is, and I know that she is safe in my Father's hands. I've learned something else too, next time I'll send my cell phone along, just to make sure all is well.

Moving along!

This is the parking side and entrance to our house, not to be confused with the front.


The confusion coming from the fact that our home sits backwards on our property...to maximize the view from the living area, which in all the plans we looked at were found in the back of the house! The house looks equally nice from either back or front, however you choose to define them.


Looking up from the front yard.

Why the flowers, Mama?

Just because.....

While sitting here I'm reminded of another day, a different boquet. It must have been 12 years ago, before my friend "J" had left the outside work world or had any little ones of her own and I was looking like a Mama duck with four little ones in tow. My sweet friend dropped in during a downpour in the middle of the day, bearing a beautiful boquet.

"What for, dear friend?"

To which she replied, "Just because it's Tuesday."

Thank you, J, I'll always remember how you brightened that day!

Leisure

William H. Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Friday's Musings

The weekend is just one sleep away.

This morning I hugged, kissed, and waved my scouts goodbye. They're off to test their skills against the rapids on the Rogue. Then the homefront became incredibly quiet. No music came resonating from the back bedroom of my home. No tall son telling me how hungry he is and asking what more he can snack on. No younger brother stick fighting in the front yard with the neighbor boy. In fact, even the neighbor boy is away and won't be ringing my doorbell asking for my sons all day, all weekend. And tonight, no love of my life to share my bed. I don't sleep well when he's away.

My big girls headed off to another day in the tea room...and a hot, sultry tea room it was today. My little girls disappeared into the back yard to their awaiting renovation project, turning the tool shed into a "hotel". They swept, dusted, threw out the junk, and created a wondrous world...complete with a cheery "fire" in the corner.

I swapped out the music selection in the CD player, carefully selecting for the mode I needed to enter. WORK MODE! I like jazz to work to, it keeps me moving. So in went the Wooden Nickel Jazz Band. The time had come to restore order, again, to my home. I put away the week's school books scattered about, dug out the hearth from beneath it's piles of newspapers and other sundry items that were dumped there in an effort to clear the table for dinners this week, then did the general sorts of things that are so easily neglected in the fury of the week. But I did it all at my own pace, stopping now and then to read another chapter in my book, which I finished this afternoon. I love a day to putter and see fruit and the end of it and not be completely frazzled in the process.

Now my Lavendar girl is off to a scavenger hunt with the kids at church, my Autumn Rain is taking time to restore her room, and my Moonchild and Ladybird are waiting for me to join them for a cuddle and movie time.

My home is clean, cozy and ready to be enjoyed throughout the weekend. And it will be ready and waiting for my hungry, dirty scouts when they return on Monday.

Sunday Morning Mist

A Whirlwind of Days

I've been caught up in the hustle and bustle of every day life ever since returning from our vacation days in Idaho. And there isn't much sign of the busy-ness letting up for a few more weeks yet. But they've been productive days, days that speak of order and routine returning to our lives after the varied rhythm of our summer days.

The first week of August was spent partially playing catch-up and partially in preparation for our new school year. I had MANY months of bank statements etc. hollering to be attended to and bedrooms needing to be dug out from under choas. Last year's school books needed to swapped out with the new. Binders needed to be organized with our new schedules.

Then the weekend arrived with a flurry of events. Friday night we very hurriedly and, sadly to say, not very ceremoniously celebrated Shannon's birthday. (Can we rewind and do it right?) Saturday morning, bright and early, 4 of us were up and out the door by 6:15 a.m. driving to the city for writing workshops and school testing. I brought Ladybird and Jabberwocky back home, went out for a quick look at the house progress, quickly threw together what I would need for my overnight with Autumn Rain, and headed back to the city.

Autumn rain and I had a wonderful weekend getaway. She was recognized at the Willamette Valley Writer's convention for winning the Kate Herzog scholarship and spent hours and hours soaking up the writing life at various seminars throughout the weekend. I, on the other hand, collapsed. I read, soaked in the tub, painted my nails and made another coveted trip to Trader Joe's. She filled the 1 1/2 drive home Sunday with the many new ideas spinning round in her head.

Monday brought one last day to clean up and prepare for the beginning of school. Tuesday was the grand kick off day, minus my Autumn Rain. Actually she's been here, just not studying with us. Everyone seems happy to have their books back in hand and their days filled with learning once again.

Now the weekend has come 'round once again and was packed with fun, exciting, new experiences! We shared the weekend camping with folks from our new church...and they have fun toys. Jet boats, wake boards, knee boards, biscuits...perfect fun for my growing kids and something more my pace, a sailboat. Of course, we've come home with a terrible case of the "I wants", but we'll just have to deal with that.

Today I'll restore order, again, and prepare my mind, again, for a few more days of school before next weeked's round of events. What's coming up? My guys are off for a long weekend of rafting with their scout troop on the Rogue River, the little girls and I will head north to spend some time with cousins, and alas my big girls will be busily working and saving for college expenses. It's hard growing up!

Building Update

Framing has begun!



The first two photos are from last Saturday, 8-5-06.



And this was the progress made during Monday and Tuesday of this week!