My Thanksgiving List

This year, I am most thankful for:

1. My mother, for watching my children every single day that I work. What an amazing and generous gift.
2. Memories of my grandmother, and for the opportunity to eulogize her, with my sister Val at my side.
3. The opportunity to observe the family of robins we had in our climbing rose this year--from egg to flight.
4. Maria Montessori and our Montessori school. I am inspired by Griffin and Harrison's teachers and classrooms every day.
5. Barack Obama, being able to take part in a historic election, and the American people for making the right choice.
6. Children's books which are not painful to read over and over and over again.
7. Letchworth camping with Harrison and Doug, snuggling them in the sleeping bags on a 30 degree night, and sharing hot cocoa with marshmallows in enamelware mugs.
8. The Twilight series and the guilty pleasure of being singularly absorbed into reading 2,000+ pages of such earnestly awful (yet titillating!) prose in a few short weeks.
9. New dahlia bulbs and blooms, which were spectacular this year.
10. Being able to go to the Rochester Public Market or Greece Farm Market every free Saturday, which is the bright side of being woken up at 6:30 AM by the hellions
11. Girl talk over the Thanksgiving Tasting supper at Hurd Orchards
12. Harrison's growing appreciation for The Beatles (even though I may go mad if I have to hear 'Revolution' on the ride to school again tomorrow)
13. Picking and eating so many sweet cherries that our bellies hurt and our fingers turned red.
14. Having a progressive/feminist husband who is a true co-parent and partner.
15. My new sewing machine and the fun (fantasy?) of planning winter projects
16. The best of this year's thrift store treasures: a cherry-red metal roller skate case repurposed to store train-set tracks; teacups for Val which match Gram's dessert plates; and vintage juice glasses perfect for small hands.
17. The few days when the kids and cats all sleep in and it's actually light out when I wake--like today!
18. Love, love, love, love. Crazy love.

(And kudos, as always, to Danika, for the inspiration to write this list. Thank you, dear friend!)

Angst

H: Brenden doesn't care about me.
D: What?
H: Brenden. He doesn't care about me.
S: What do you mean? Why do you think that? He invited you to his birthday party, so I'm sure he likes you.
H: Because I told a joke to him today and he didn't laugh.
S&D [quietly snickering]: What was the joke?
H: Knock knock.
S&D: Who's there?
H: Chicken.
S&D: Chicken who?
H: Why did the chicken cross the road?
S&D: Why?
H: Because he wanted to get to the other side!!!
S&D: HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!
S&D: Brenden didn't think that was funny?
H: No.

Science and Religion

Scene: Dinnertime in an atheist household.
Griffin squishes mashed potatoes between fingers, then lifts hands together above head.

D: It looks like he's praying!
H (a few seconds later): What does 'pray' mean?
S (to Doug): All yours. You can take this one.
D: ....'Pray'....well...um...some people believe in a God, or multiple gods, and 'pray' is when someone asks for something that they wish... um...or....
H (only somewhat listening): Is it 'pray' like when T Rex 'preys' on other dinosaurs?

Yes We Did

Taken this morning. A historic day.

Jump

Vote Obama. Vote Hope.

...for the sake of my family, especially my children, to whom this blog is dedicated. 

There's nothing left to say. 

Our New Cat

Doug came across this Sunday afternoon:

A Happy Halloween!

Digging into Harrison's lame-o pumpkin:

This year's collection, special ordered, "Make the first one happy and not too scary..." The second one is based on the face drawing that Harrison has been making all year. For the third one: "Make a scary one with lots of teeth!"

Hesitant mummy.  Doug got a great mummy book out of the library in preparation for this costume, so I now know more about mummies than I ever thought I would.

I only caught one shot of them together, and this is it! Tex and the mummy:

The haul: