Another Today.

A great service and time of worship at a new church this morning.  Cooler weather that eased my pain.  A short drive in the country, enjoying the autumn splendor while Joshua snoozed in the backseat.  A generous neighbor who gave us her son's old winter coats.  Starbucks.  Snuggles from Oliver.  Candy Land (the board game) with John and Joshua.  A bright, happy little boy who gave me every reason to smile.  A handsome and loving man who can still make my heart melt.  Dinner together around the table with both of those guys.  I'm thankful for another today.
   

Oliver Frisk

This is our new cat.

It's weird getting used to a cat.  I'm a dog person....but Oliver seems to have a bit of dog in him. He growls at weird noises, rolls on his back for belly rubs, and sometimes begs for food.  UNlike a dog, he's independent, which is good for me/us right now.  We like him.  :-)

Christmas in October

After Mark died, Mom and Dad wanted to go away for Christmas.  It was too hard to be home.  So they came to our wee apartment in Swarthmore in 2008, and they've continued to come every year since.  Now they're moving out west at end of this month and our tradition is unlikely to carry on, so we're going to celebrate one last Christmas together...even if it's early.  They should be here any minute now.  

We brought our mini Christmas tree up from the basement, though I didn't decorate it because it will go away tomorrow.  I want to make sure that getting a REAL tree is still fun and special for Joshua, and I don't want a little tree to detract from that.  Eh, it may not.  But whatever, I'm putting it away.

Boney M's Christmas CD (my favourite holiday music, aside from the Transiberian Orchestra) is blaring from the speakers and some light snacks are on the coffee table.  It's funny how quickly one can get in the Christmas spirit when the right music is playing.

Joshua is sitting on his bean bag chair, looking all toasty in his pajamas...so toasty in fact, that I got into mine, too.  Now I'm not jealous anymore.  He's playing some OLD video games that once belonged to John.

So...

MERRY OCTOBER CHRISTMAS from our home to yours!

Lack of Inspiration and a New Kitchen

I have been to my blog so many times in the last weeks, but I've hit a wall.  I always want to write in the fall.  The rich colours; the crisp, smoky air and grey skies; the crunch of leaves beneath my feet; the ground littered with acorns and pine cones; farmer's markets with stands overflowing with the fruits of harvest; the haunting medley of geese flying overhead in flawless “V” formation; orange pumpkins and bales of hay; apple crisp; steaming cups of hot tea.  It’s a season of beauty and change, a season of the senses, and thus awakens in me a deeper appreciation for life and the simple pleasures that surround me.  It makes me want to write a brilliant post that moves the heart and souls not just of the readers, but for me as I write it...yet the words just aren't coming.  Too much on my mind, or perhaps not enough, but with such aspirations as mine when sitting down to write, every day life seems rather flat.  Not the living of it, of course, but the writing.

Nonetheless, the only way I'm going to get words on this blog is to do just that, focus on the ordinary.

We've been rather one-minded lately, putting most of our energy into fixing our kitchen.  Derek came two weeks ago to help us.  It started off as a simple idea: take out the window, install new-to-us cabinets, counter top and floors.  Then I had this brilliant idea to move the dishwasher, which would allow us to install MORE cupboards (who doesn't want extra storage space?!) and make the kitchen look much nicer in the process.  Well, this small idea turned into a rather large undertaking.  Seven days, one broken oven and 5 million trips to Home Depot later, Derek left and John has been working over-time galore, so the kitchen remains in a state of disrepair.  We're getting there, though.  John is off today, and has dedicated most of his day to finishing the drywall and electrical, I've done some mudding for him (it's like icing a cake...but not as easy), and it's getting there!

Joshua helped with the demolition.  

We got rid of the window, which only looks into the laundry room/back porch.

The first cupboard going in.  We found a fantastic deal on Craigslist, just a couple hundred dollars for an entire kitchen.

Pre-counters.  And the 'peninsula' cupboards still needed to be put in at the time of this picture.

That's the most recent picture I have, thus the end of "Part One."  I'm not ending with a very impressive looking picture, but I will post more soon...and look at that, I managed a blog update.  :-)