What It's All About

Today, this last day of November seemed to really kick off that Christmastime Feel.  I was humbled by a beautiful post and gesture initiated by Se'lah that I whole heartily participated in.  Thank you Se'lah for your generous spirit!

As I headed to pick the kids up from school, a fine, light snow began to fall.  I was listening to Christmas music in the car and watching the dreamy blowing of this snow on the roads.  It danced like sand across a road in the desert where I so long ago resided.  Talk about moving from one extreme to another!

Then as the parents were all huddled outside the school.  We braced ourselves against the wind that feels so bitter to us now, but will be balmy in a few months.  The bell rings and out come the kids.  Chorus after Chorus of SNOW....IT'S SNOWING!!!  Open mouths trying to catch these tiny powdery flakes.  Pure, innocent joy at it's best!

Once home I began a warming chicken tortellini soup.  I smiled as I dug down in the bucket full of damp peat moss in the root cellar to grab a few garden carrots;  this is what it's all about.

Creating Dreams

As we turn our attentions indoors, we have gone from garden planting, nurturing, harvesting and preserving to planning, and dreaming.  I'm only thinking of this now because last night I caught a glimpse of one of our kitchen chalk boards.  We had it loaded with goals early this spring and had crossed them all off!  So a month or so ago, I began to refill it.  When I saw it last night I excitedly realized that I could cross two of the items off already.  Never fear, I added two more, and since I began writing this post, can add another two.  

We will enjoy Christmas and the New Year with loads of traditions and love.  Our planning/dreaming process will not start in earnest until mid January.   It is at this time that the cold and snow will have truly set in and we will be antsy to be productive.  What is so amazingly fun about this time of year is that I can look back on all of the crazy things we planned last year and see just how much of it we accomplished.  This type of reinforcement further bolsters our ambitions.  I so look forward to many years of this as we create our dream~ our homestead.

How Was Your Thanksgiving?

We are back, settled (transferred all of the photos), and had a great trip!  We spent Monday at the zoo and it was a great day.  I'd say the only hitch was it was supposed to be 60 and it was 40 and windy.  It certainly made running between the indoor exhibits a priority!

I think the zoo was a great pace setter for our trip.  Full of colorful family moments, beautiful light and quite contemplation. Add in a few batty excursions, waterfalls of conversation, and eating an amazing meal~ Perfect!  How was your Thanksgiving?

One Word Wednesday~ Splatter

What a great word we have today, this day full of Thanksgiving preparations!  Please check out this great weekly post that is the brainchild of Jillsygirl and being hosted over at  Sally G.  for a few weeks.

I've spent the last few days paying close attention to the smattering of splatter around me.  Being in Kansas this week and spending a little time on country roads you can see there is a definite pattern of splatter on all of the cars around. 

As we have chased the sun this week coming further South, we've been given another hour of daylight and a giant picture window out of the back of my mother-in-law's house over vast stretches of farmland, a perfect frame for the amazing splatter of colors across the evening sky every night.   It looks as if Van Gogh has taken his paintbrush thick with oils and liberally stroked the horizon. 

Sid, even got into the spirit yesterday after hearing the word and drew her impression of ~splatter~, a splatter bug, I think it highlighted her new bling strings so well! 

Now onto the most important splatter of the week...preparations of the Thanksgiving meal.  We began last night leaving just a smudge of splatter.  I'm certain as I head out to begin making three different kinds of pie today, there will be very tasty splatter all around!

Change of Scenery

November has been a tough photography month for me. It seems that after the leaves finished changing and falling and the stark greyness began to emerge, I had a hard time finding inspiration. I felt like I was capturing the same thing over and over.

On Friday when we hit the road for Kansas, that stale feeling seemed to melt away and I've been taking pictures right and left! My posting may be a little sporadic this week, since we're deeply involved in visiting, but I'm finding my photo mojo again and am so happy!  A little change of scenery seems to be just what I needed!  Happy Monday!