P.S.

Happy Halloween!

Jake dressed up as Captain Smith from the doomed Titanic. He's been obsessed with this fated ship for months now, so we thought it fitting.

He enjoyed spending the evening shouting "Iceberg! Dead ahead!"  

Boyd made pumpkins:

Daddy's Titanic/Iceberg inspired theme.

Grandpa's creation,

Grandpa's hand drill inspired creation.

 Hope you had a spooktacular evening!

October

This October has certainly held it's highs and lows for us. Much like the weather this month life has fluctuated with the warm Indian Summer days to the cold gray rainy days reminiscent of the long winter still to come.  But I believe that life needs equal parts sun and rain in order to be fulfilling. It is on those dark and rainy days that we most challenge ourselves. We find new and creative ways to get through them, we find strength to get up even though bed seems much more cozy and inviting, we come up with ideas of how to entertain our children indoors for twelve hours, we cook comfort foods, and get through the gray. We do this because we have to, because lying in bed all day is not how we were built to last. So taking the cold wet days along with the warm bright ones and turning them into days worth remembering are all a part of living this one wild life we have. Especially life with children.

Reenacting scenes from the Lion King with Uncle Jon, to get through the last leg of the day.

With a high on life child like Jake, who seems oblivious to changes in the season, it sometimes takes a lot of creativity and will on my part to turn a gray day into a yellow one. This week was particularly challenging for me. The cold dark days have made our comfortable and warm bed seem all the more inviting, but I have kicked off the sheets each morning, and used the excuse of Halloween to inspire me into action. We decorated, we crafted, and we helped Nana make decorate pumpkin marshmallow rice crispy squares. When it wasn't raining Jake leaped outside to do more raking with his Grandpa. When I was at a loss of what else to do, when the rain belted mercilessly on the rooftops, when it was an hour shy of Jake's bedtime and he still had spades of energy stored we turned on the radio and had dance parties.

Gramps splurged and got them matching rakes.

And all of a sudden, the Monday that loomed so dauntingly has turned into a week worth remembering. And October, from her warm beginning to her chilly end, with her brilliant colours, her earthy scents and her inviting coziness, has delivered to our door the perfect reminder of how precious and beautiful life can be.

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible is we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it?"      Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables.

The Leaves of Fall

The last couple of days Jake's favorite past time has been hanging out with his Grandpa in the back yard, raking up a pile of leaves and jumping into them, kicking them everywhere, running back and forth through them, destroying the pile, raking it up again with his Gramps and then doing it all again. And again.... and again.

They are usually out in the back yard a good one to two hours in the afternoon doing only this.  Then he comes back in red cheeked and starving.

I imagine it's hard for any child to resist a fresh pile of fallen leaves. The earthy smell, the crispness of autumn wrapped up in all the perfect fall colours, the crunch under your feet.  It is a part of this season that I remember fondly from my childhood, and now I am sure it will be a part remembered fondly by our boy too.

I hope you are all enjoying your Fall whatever it looks like, wherever you are!

Giving Thanks

Yes, it's true, we are in October.  It took me a few days to actually believe it but I have come to accept that September has pretty much passed me by and we are now in October and heading full steam ahead towards the end of the year.

The last few weeks I have laid pretty low, lower than I have in months, possibly years.  Not only have I not taken a single picture over the last month but I haven't really even done anything to write home about either.  It's as though September never really existed.  In part I am feeling drained, like my creative juices have been sapped out of me, and in part I have just been enjoying this sudden lull.  Sometimes I need that break in my life, times of stillness, where pressure melts away and life just plateaus for a while.  But it's October now, and my plateau is going to become a flat line if I don't snap out of this funk fast.  My break is over and it is time to embrace the creativity that Fall inspires in me and get going again.

Today is Thanksgiving, as good a time as any to air out my brain and start up again.  What better way to show thanks for all the wonderful things in my life than to get up and do something.  Time to bake! Time to get creative! Time to go for Fall walks with my boy! Time to decorate! Time to live!

In the meantime, there has been something I have been meaning to thank someone for for weeks now, and I am ashamed to say I have never quite gotten to it.  My sister sent a package to Jake over a month ago, and it made him so happy to get a present in the mail when there was no birthday or holiday in sight. It made him feel special and loved, and he put it on immediately.  When I look at the smile on his face in this photo I am reminded again to be so grateful for having the thoughtful family we do.

Thank you sister.

And Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to you all!