In the Present

Glove-clad, I've hung laundry in some Octobers past.  Not this year.  The threat of winter seems like a bad dream, half-forgotten and fogged over by morning's sunlight and noise.  This October calls for sunhats, and I couldn't be happier.

 

 

 

 

While we work, Ezekiel furrows his brown and tackles his job-- sitting on the lawnmower for 20 minutes straight.  I'm such a slave-driver.  (And, yes, that's the haircut I gave him at 9 o'clock at night as he screamed and flailed about, poor thing.  I'm just glad I didn't gouge out his eyes with the scissors.  He should be, too.  p.s. I've since tried to straighten it, because trying is good.)

Around Every Corner

We heap buckets, baskets, boxes full, but that many more again sit hidden in the grass, and that many more again hang heavy above.

 

After a late spring snow and a barren fall harvest last year, this year's abundance is a marvel at every turn.

 

Wild apples spill out of pastures and roll onto roadsides.  Cultivated trees threaten to break under their heavy load, and we see boards propping up branches everywhere we drive.

Boxes of free apples fill one corner of our basement, gleaned from trees that held more than enough for us and all others.  Even the animals have started to ignore the piles of food that plummet to the ground, and children stuff cupholders with neglected apples.

 We're storing this year for the lean times.  What bounty!

 

On Top of the World

When the kitchen glows crimson, we leave our seats and crowd the sunroom window.  Supper neglected grows cool on the table, and we run outside to fill the air with whoops and hollers.








 It's too much color to contain.



 

High Point of the Entire Year

This is the first year I've purchased a science curriculum. Usually, we learn primarily using library materials, field guides, and reference books like this, this, and this, which works well. This year, though, I bought this book to use for the first half of the year, and within the first two weeks of study, the girls had declared it the best ever.

"Why?" you ask?

Well, it may be because the first project involved creating an edible cell model out of JELLO and CANDY.   You bet it's the best ever!  (Aside: I'm also favorably impressed both by its clarity and scope of information.)

 Susie asked if she could "post" for a picture, and I obliged.

Millie's cell organelles were most easily identifiable, predictably.

 

And Luci's?  Well, let's just say that hers was edible and leave it at that.

Because Rebecca's Post Reminded Me

...that I never shared pictures from J & J's wedding. 

A friend of mine from church married a wonderful man a few weeks back.  Their meeting and eventual falling-in-love is the stuff of legends, but since it's not my legend to share, I'll leave it at that.  I was honored to be a small cog in a celebration for which the Father had so clearly been at work.  May they share many joyful years together!

I have over 300 pictures (!), and I wasn't even shouldering the brunt of the work (thanks, Rebecca). This long string of pictures is a drop in the bucket, and I culled about 20 additional pictures I had included when I realized how ridiculously long this post was.  I don't think I'd ever want to be a wedding photographer.  Golly.


She was a beautiful bride, even without the dress.


 

 

 

 

Better yet, though, once she wore white.

 

 

 

She and her girls were bubbling over and beautiful.




 

 

 

 

 

 

These handsome goof-offs were hysterical and irreverent.

 

 

Playing a rousing game of "hide the bride" while waiting for the all the guests to be seated.

 

 

The time has come!

All my snaps from the ceremony were just this grainy, so I only give these.

 

 

 

Best man's toast:

Best maid's toast:

 

 

Awww.

 

 

Watching the slide show:

 

First dance:

 

Pleased as punch mama and papa of the bride:

 

 

What they REALLY look like:

 

 

Just the two:

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

(And here's a technical question tacked on in hopes that someone can help me.  I use Picasa to upload pictures because it's a zillion times faster than using Blogger, but in the last week or so, somewhere in the uploading process, there's a bug that converts my black and white pictures to sepia.  I don't want sepia.  I want black and white, darn it!  I can't figure out how to remedy it; I even tried uploading from Blogger, but the same thing happened.  I don't know where the problem is, but it's driving me batty.  I'm batty enough already, so if you have any wisdom, please share!  

With my thanks, 

BattyGal.)