You'd think I'd be posting photos of our Thanksgiving or even just giving some thanks from this season...but I haven't downloaded the photos yet and haven't had a chance to even think of all the living that is happening...

Instead while getting my treadmill exercise in this evening, I read this in a collection of Gerard Manley Hopkins poems (borrowed from my friend Shannon about 500 years ago):

"...With an anvil-ding
And with fire in him forge they will
Or rather, rather then, stealing as Spring
Through him, melt him but master him still:
Whether at once, as once at a crash Paul,
Or as Austin, a lingering-out sweet skill,
Make mercy in all of us, out of us all
Mastery, but be adored, but be adored King."

Oh my goodness, today on Design Mom she did a piece on 3D printers -- how about a miniature model of you or a real kidney made from a cell? I am so excited...

Flower Girls

Earlier this fall Thea Belle had the honor of being a flower girl with our friend Gabriella for our friends Marlene and Brian. She wasn't very sure of the whole thing...and didn't smile down the aisle. But she walked it and didn't cry.

Weird Things I Find as a Parent

Visit to The Ridgedale Library

My folks came up for a quick medical-related visit a couple weeks ago. I decided to take them up to the beautiful and excellent Ridgedale Library. The kids got to go to storytime and my folks enjoyed this enormous and well-designed library.

Lincoln the Star Preschool Student of the Week!

Carving out Some Time...

It seems as if so many things that should be fun and memorable 9in the good ways) are often much work and fussing and very little fun. Pumpkin Carving has been such for our family. And despite that each year we keep trying. This year we only carved one pumpkin knowing that the squirrels would devour it in about half a day and that it was pretty unlikely any of the kids would want to actually de-gut it. This year Atticus begged me to roast the seeds, so I collected them and roasted them and he wouldn't even try one. Only Thea Belle likes them. But at least Thea Belle likes them. Look how happy everyone looks here -- I think that might have lasted about 10 minutes before things began to unravel. Hm.

Dietrich is super happy.

Atticus drew the face he wanted and I transferred it to the pumpkin.

Treats!

The boys were ninjas. They each picked their favorite Lego Ninjago character.

Thea Belle was originally going to be a princess but a couple days before Halloween she insisted she wanted to be a dragon. So there you go. It was a little hard for me because everywhere we went people thought she was a boy. And the princess outfit was so cute. Ah well...she had wanted to be a pink ninja and I should have just gone with that.

Awesome poses...

A princess star wand...

With Atticus' school friend Roman...

It was so fun to have a big group of neighborhood kids go together...We had six families walk together this year. Yay for neighbor-friends!

The Old Couch...

This is the second real piece of furniture/equipment I ever bought. I bought it 9 years ago. I made $16,000 that year trying to see if I should go into education. I love junior highers and high schoolers. I really, really do. But I did not want to be a classroom teacher. Meanwhile I bought a Proform Treadmill (which I still have and use in the winters) and this couch. I wanted a Pottery Barn Basic Couch. I even drove into the Chicago suburbs to the Pottery Barn store. And I filled out the order forms in front of a very kind and helpful store salesperson. But then when I drove back to the town I was living in, I called the store and cancelled the order. It wasn't financially wise. I knew it. So I went to Rockford, IL and I bought this $300 couch. And a half year later I decided not to start Library of Science grad school out in L.A. where I was enrolled, and I moved to Minneapolis to go to Minneapolis Academy of Art and Design. I was working at Barnes & Noble downtown making $7.25 an hour (which was the most I'd ever made in the retail bookstore jobs). So I found an apartment in the Phillips Neighborhood within walking distance of work and school. It was a one-room apartment with a tiny little kitchenette and a closet big enough to unfold my treadmill. My couch was my couch during the day and my bed at night. It was the couch I sat on with Brad for the first time. We weren't dating at the beginning of the evening and halfway through a movie, somehow we were dating. It came with us into Brad's house the week before we were even married. And, of note, it joined the other 4 couches living in the house. Boys and their couches.... I nursed all four of my babies on this couch. I've cried and laughed and talked and wrestled little bodies and cuddled and read countless books and kissed on this couch. And now it is gone. Last weekend, my mother and father-in-law gave us their leather couch and chair. They are mighty fine pieces of furniture -- made well and they look good. I am thankful, so thankful. But I found myself wistful about this simple gray couch so I needed to write a little. Thank you for indulging me.

Time to Accessorize