Fall, Floriday style

The change of colors in the fall, a la Casa Barnas. 'Cause that's how we roll.

giving thanks. everyday

I've been doing this (almost) daily post leading up to Thanksgiving on my facebook page. It's a daily entry on being thankful, having gratitude, which for me really translates to being present. When I'm present, when I'm in the moment, oh the gratitude. It's unavoidable really, an all-consuming reality, this gratitude. I don't actually live there in . I have moments, flashes of grace, a halting of the race in my heart and mind and I'll think, oh yes, this is perfect, this life. This blog has always been a realization of those moments for me. Soul Expanding Life and Loose Ends Flying gives me a place to stop and document the grace, and the facebook page has upped the ante in an interesting way - a daily 420 character or less gratitude post. Get in get out, go where the action is, short and sweet baby.

I fell away from blogging because I had an expectation of the posts. An expectation that they be a certain way or a certain thing, so I found myself resenting the time and effort, hence the avoidance. Could I be more predictable? What the break in blogging gave me was a fresh perspective and a reminder of why I'm blogging, who I'm blogging for, and the payoff for me, my family, my friends and the random readers that might visit. That payoff is a document, visual and written, of our pedestrian mundane glorious and grace-filled life. And that, it seems, is enough.


From the top:
Eleanor's delightful Apple Pie With Stars. Yum.
My favorite Soren on the planet, more than Kierkegaard.
Wow, I guess I didn't realize it was still Halloween. Oh wait, it's not. That's right, Augustus told me in absolute intense seriousness - mom, I'm turning into Peter Pan in real life.
What Eleanor has dubbed the "Seasonal Susan", with the season in full swing.

I am thankful.

and a bit more...

Some pre-Halloween celebrating at Tita's house for pumpkin carving and preparing for Samhain. Which I recently found out is not pronounce Sam-hain, strangely enough, but something like sa -wayn. Feel free to correct me, I don't have all the little pronunciation keys on my keyboard or if I do I am not going to hunt them down. I digress. A celebration of harvest and fall and Jack-O-Lanterns.

This year Magdalena decided that she actually loves touching and feeling and scooping out the pumpkin guts. Oh what joy! And the picture of Frida, long hair and naked body and hands in the pumpkin? Well I do seem to remember an almost exact same photo of her mama from years ago. Aahhh, the cycle of life. It is good.

Finally, our Halloween Eve sojourn to the Zoo Spooktacular with Butterfly Tita and Tinkerbell.

Here we have the Captain of the Lost Boys aka Peter Pan, Butterfly Tita, Tink, Mrs Darling and Tiger Lilly. Did I mention that life is good?

Halloween!

Oh Halloween, the glory of it all! The history of the traditions, the Jack-O-Lantern from Ireland, the apples from Rome, the Day of the Dead, all Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, All Souls Day. What a rich and storied history of rituals and cultures all coming together to be celebrated and re-enacted and explored. And don't forget the Treats, of course! We can talk about it all, we celebrate it all, we reference the history and what tradition came from which culture, but basically, for my two, it comes down to one thing: Candy. Sigh. Sugar wins. As I guess sometimes it must.
Here we are, in preparation for our tricking and treating.


The Wicked Witch, Glenda the Good Witch, Mrs Darling (mother to Wendy, Micheal and John), Peter Pan, Tiger Lilly, Dorothy, Sunflower Lulu, the Magical Blue Fairy, Tinkerbell, the Fantastic Rainbow Fairy, Sunflower Liza, and Toto to!

Children, rapt at the prospect of Treats!

The best house on the block, of our entire journey actually!