What Happened to the September Books?

I can't believe I only read 4 books this month. Then again... school started, soccer started, I began working full time, I got a memory foam mattress top (puts me right to sleep!) So maybe that explains why I only read FOUR books. Here they are:

1. Peak - Roland Smith - This was one of my son's books and I hadn't read it yet because it looked too "boy" for my mood. But it was great! Basic story is, a teen boy climbs Mt. Everest. I was fascinated by the climbing stuff. Wouldn't ever do it - but loved reading about it.

2. The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan - Thank you to all my siblings who recommended this book (and the series). It's modern day boy meets Greek Myths (or are they myths?) Very funny writing style too.

3. The Truth About Forever - Sarah Dessen - This was the right book at the right time for me. About a girl who tries to be "fine" and "perfect" after she loses her father. It's a great "slice of life" story.

4. Levin Thumps & the Gateway to Foo - Obert Skye - This was fun fantasy. Boy and girl find out they have to save life as we know it and battle dark things and win - you know how it goes. :-) But it's well done. There are more in the series I'm going to have to read.

OK - Got to go catch up reading!

Autumn in California

It's been autumn for a whole week now. And this is what our trees look like.

Still as green as can be. It was 90 degrees yesterday. No chill in the air here. Nope, in California, autumn happens just about the time we go trick-or-treating. Then the leaves all fall off the trees the week of Thanksgiving and we're done.

So we like to make our own autumn... indoors!

The kids have a tradition of making their own autumn/Halloween decorations and covering the house with them.
Our stairway (and the door and the television armoire) have the candy corn chicken pox this year.
Lone Pumpkin Man embraces the full moon. And looks incredibly styling in his yellow plaid flannel.

Happy Autumn!

The Mother of Invention

My brother recently shared with me a memory of something our grandmother said to him. He told me that when he was 10 and he mentioned within her hearing that he was bored, she told him, "If you're bored, it's your own fault." He said he was never bored again.

My childhood was blissful in the fact that my mother let us create, invent, and otherwise make a mess. We got to make our own home movies. We got to turn the hide-a-bed into a spaceship. We even got to dig our own "pool" in the backyard. We went as far as lining it with a black tarp to keep it clean - which didn't work of course - and we ended up with a spa mud bath.

I vowed early on to let my own children create, invent, and on occasion make a mess. :-) I encourage activities that don't involve a screen and do involve a great deal of thought. In the midst of all of this, my son has become quite the inventor.

He recently spent hours putting this together:

It's a light and fan (made of balsa wood) that really works! He used a little battery power pack and taped the whole thing up to a piece of cardboard. Then he proceded to tape the whole thing up to the underside of our dining table which then of course had to be made into a secret tent. And they had to sleep there that night.

I went to bed smiling. No wonder my mom let us make the mud pit. This is cool.

Sunshine in Seattle

Sunday I left very early to catch a flight up to Seattle for my grandmother's funeral. I had packed well, prepared for the rainy, cloudy, cold weather that the Olympic Peninsula is well known for. But as I drove around Puget Sound to my grandparent's house, the clouds parted and a beautiful blue sky broke through. And it stayed that way the whole time I was there.

Sunday was a wonderful day spent visiting with so many family members. All of my grandpa's children were there with their spouses, as well as 13 of the 24 grandchildren, and 4 of the 19 great-grandchildren. (Actually there was one more in utero. :-)

Monday was a beautiful day. The graveside service was simple and lovely. The cemetary is beautiful and my favorite part is that my grandmother's grave is right near a hillside of blackberry bushes. Just right. The memorial service at the church was wonderful. My aunt had put together pictures and mementos of my grandmother on tables and also put out her wedding dress and her harp. My dad gave a sweet overview of her life and the other siblings shared memories of her. That night we continued to visit and remember.

Tuesday came all too soon and after a brief visit with my grandfather, I was off to the airport again and heading home. It had been so long since I had been to my grandparent's house - 15 years - that this was a trip I really needed. I got to see family that I just adore, tell my grandpa how much I love him, and celebrate my grandmother's life and Graduation.

And the sun shone through it all. Even in Seattle.

Fall Into Baking

One good thing about this time of the year ('cause of course I'm not happy to leave the warmth of summer) is that when it gets cooler, I can bake more! That's my way of heating up the house.

My kids and I decided to have a baking night. They each got to choose a recipe and make a treat. My son chose Chocolate Zucchini Cake. My daughter chose Eclairs. Mmmmm. Happy tummies and the house was warm. Double treat.

Going quickly!

The Rules

When my kids were younger (and I was home more) in the summer time we had what my kids called The Mom School. Every weekday for a couple hours we did projects, field trips, etc. and each week was a different theme. It was something I learned from my mom and it was great for keeping busy and having fun on long summer days.

Tonight I happened upon a binder filled with items the kids created one summer. I think they were about 4 and 6 years old. One item in particular that cracked me up was their maps of imaginary lands and the rules they made up (I think we were studying countries that week). I thought I'd share the rules they came up with - they are so fun!

My daughter's rules of the land:
1. Do what I say.
2. Be kind.
3. Do not hit.
4. Love everyone.
5. Never put sharp things in your mouth.

My son's rules of the land:
1. No picking grass.
2. No picking leaves.
3. No picking flowers.
4. Stay stil when I'm talking.
5. Do everything I say.

Oh my! I'm wondering what I was saying to them at this time of their life! :-)

It was a dark and stormy night...

I was reading an article on writing today and this famously trite novel opener was discussed. My brain started thinking about dark and stormy nights. Really, there's nothing wrong with a good story that happens to begin on a dark and stormy night. In fact, some stories would be really bad if they didn't begin on a dark and stormy night. Did you ever see the movie, "Clue"? I mean, if it started all bright and sunny, we'd all be horribly mislead and probably demand our money back.

Anyway...

I thought about a few of my own stories that have happened on a dark and stormy night. Not stories I've written, but stories from my own real life. And there is one particular dark and stormy night that really tops them all.

Only... it actually did begin bright and sunny. That would be because it began in South Africa.

My husband at the time and our children and I were visiting a friend in Cape Town and we had driven along the southern coast to spend a few days in the George and Knysna area. On our last morning there we drove inland a bit to the Cango Caves (amazing) and the Cango Wildlife Ranch where we rode ostriches and ate crocodile (chewy).

It was mid-afternoon by the time we were ready to make the several hour drive back to Cape Town. We all consulted a map and found that there was a little road that seemed to take a shortcut that connected us up with the main highway on a diagonal, rather than driving all the way back down to the coast and then along the coastal highway. We turned onto the road.

After a few miles, the "road" turned to dirt. We decided to continue on it, thinking that since it was on the map, it must be fine. I stared around at the landscape of the Little Karoo Desert and didn't see much of anything. Except that our bright and sunny day... was slowly turning to a dark and stormy night.

I sat in the back seat of the car with my 4 month old son and 23 month old daughter on either side of me and asked if there were lions in the Little Karoo. My friend laughed nervously. That was my answer.

Black storm clouds rolled in as we continued to roll along our dirt road. I glanced at the fuel gauge and noticed that we had less than a quarter tank left. None of us had any clue how much longer we were going to be on our "shortcut" through the desert.

It was a dark and stormy night. A night as black as ink with not a light in sight other than our headlights and rain drops the size of golf balls. Very little fuel left and no idea where we were... I seriously thought that this dark and stormy night was going to be my last... when we finally hit a paved road again.

I breathed for the first time in over an hour as the lights of a place in the middle of nowhere dotted the side of the road. We stopped quickly to get gas and then continued on to Cape Town.

You think this is the end? Oh no... because the storm (of aforementioned dark night) became more furious as we drove. Lightning began to flash across the sky. It lit up a huge rock, the size of a volleyball, in the middle of the road... just before we hit it.

My friend held control of the car and got us to the side of the road. Then she and my husband got out to survey the damage. One tire was blown and the axle was damaged. In the driving rain, they got the spare tire on. They climbed back in, competely soaked, and we continued to drive slowly to Cape Town.

We arrived sometime in the very early hours of the morning and collapsed into bed. I thought again about how I had seriously thought that dark and stormy night was going to be my last.

But it wasn't. And the next morning dawned bright and sunny.