Thinking...

Near the end of July, my thoughts inexplicably turn to the approaching school year.

We don't start school until September, so there is no reason why my mind has to start a month early...except maybe for the fact that I like to have a schedule. One that goes the whole day.

Or maybe it's because Fall is my favorite season. Calm, tranquil and a lot cooler than hot summer sun. Leaves that are supposed to turn red and orange turning brown, long sleeves, and the schedule. Why does my mind keep coming back to that schedule?

I like to have the whole day on paper. Anywhere from "get up-go to bed" to "visit so-and-so, go to IKEA, clean house, do schoolwork, and go to the pool".

Oh dear.

In Fall the pool closes.

So maybe we couldn't do that particular thing. Go to the park instead.

Which brings up yet another rabbit trail. In Fall when it cools off considerably, Mr. Honey and Mother Auma take Cornflower and Mariel and I on Bike Rides and Nature Walks and Trips to the Park and the Zoo and the...World of Outside. My favorite place.

To go on another trail that is clearly a rabbit one...

My rabbit, Thumper, can stay outside for the whole day when it gets to be nice and cool and only gets up to 70 degrees outside in the middle of the day.

And church meetings! Almost as good as singing schools except you have to stay in your nice clothes all day. There are kids you've never met and people you knew a long time ago and friends you just made a month or two ago at Harmony Plains. Makes for some very good Indian bands, Castles with Invaders (usually boy-invaders against princesses and lady warriors (Ray and I, and whoever wants to be a warrior with us)), Cowboys (and Cowgirls), and any kind of pretend game you can get 20 kids to play all at once. I really enjoy church meetings.

I REALLY enjoy Fall. Just Fall.

I checked out that season test...

Turns out I am Spring!

Not my favorite season (fall is, really) but quite possibly my next favorite.

If you want to try it, here's the link.

Photos, Photos Everywhere- and memories of a little house

I was looking at a stack of old photos (from when I was about 4 or 5) while Mother Auma sorted another stack into an album (a typical scene from our house this last week). I came across some from our last house. First there were some from a hands-on museum called "The Science Place" and then some from the house.

We had, then, a little wooden house, only about 5-6 ft tall, in the corner of our backyard. Mounted on cinder blocks with a muddy patch behind it, the little cabin was a central figure in our pretends back then. As I looked at the picture several memories ran through my mind. I turned to Mother Auma.

"Do you remember our little Troll doll? And how we buried her purple hair in the mud behind our playhouse so it would turn brown?"

"I remember something of the sort," grinned Mother Auma.

"And how we gave our dollhouse people beautiful smooth brown clothes? That mud was just Play-Doh to us," I laughed, remembering also that I liked to squish around in it barefoot.

Another stack of pictures featured my 5yo birthday party, in which the little house was also a big player. A friend of mine is in one, right before opening the little log door, and another shows 2yo Mariel teetering along the stepping stones to the log cabin. The little house was a home, a hotel, a castle, Laura Ingall's log cabin, and anything our active imaginations could think up. I remember writing things like "Ore Clubhous" and "Ore Hotel" over the door in pink or blue chalk, and taking the little plastic table and chairs in there and sweeping and being called "Mommy" by baby Mariel.

Oh, sweet, careless days of seven years ago.