Thanksgiving Dinner–In Courses

First Course: the ambiance

Poor Kobe is always left outside (but dinner is nicer because of it).

Course 2: the preparation

Course 3: the main course

Nolan's plate

.
My plate.

Course 4: the after supper party

Course 5: the participants

For all this, I give thanks.

A Week of Waiting for the Bus.

One photo a day.

An Evening at the Park (in Autumn Time)

There is Nothing Special About a Day Until We Make it So

My wife is beautiful. She is the other half of every step I take. I love to do many a fine thing with her, and yesterday it was taking our family out into the gloriously crisp afternoon of an Autumn sabbath.
Leaves are golden.
The ground still squishes with mud when you step.
Those tell-tale wisps rise from your lips when you breathe.
You can enjoy a nice sweater.

My son Gerret was made for Autumn. He hates swimming. Check that. He hates any kind of water activity (though I do succeed sometimes at getting him to drink it). He doesnt care for the beach. He doesn't like jackets or sweaters, and he's been known to dart outside in nothing but pants and a t-shirt when I won't go out to get him without a hat and jacket. That's just Gerret, and so while the rest of us moved about with a little more reserve, he...well...he was Gerret. Albeit Gerret with one shoe off

.

Family First

The only thing I remember thinking was, "This is the right thing." That was the beginning of parenthood (and I only 24, Lindsay 21).
It was no vision from heaven. There was no outside pressure. We just sat there one night and talked about it. We talked about it and did it.
Now, six years later, we're parents three times. Three beautiful, taxing, worth-every-minute-of-it children (two boys and a sister). Did I mention we also have two cats, a dog and twelve chickens? 

By the world's standard we squandered our Young Adulthood. We could have travelled much more extensively. We could have gone to more movies. More fine theater. Without kids we would have easily gone on to more schooling. Wouldn't have to worry about making sure dinner catered to our sons' tastes too. Really without these three children life could have been much easier on us. Definitely cheaper. 

But I would ask you (and those with children know the answer already,while those without children can only hope to guess at it), gazing into your child's face, would you ever claim they came too soon? Would you ever wish for just a few more years without them? Or do you know now, as I know, that until you risked family, you were but a lonesome kayaker paddling in the city pool. 

Sent from my iPad

Day of Snow

As an adult we no longer feel it so poignantly, but there is a beauty to that first day of crisp winter air and snow that you never again experience the entire season. It's the first time in months that you've felt every part of your lungs as they come alive in those first cold breaths. There are still leaves on the trees and early morning daylight to catch the snow and frost. Your body quickly begins to reclimatize itself and winter never feels quite the same again for the year. I love it. Midwinter I grow weary of the cold, the bad roads, and the long hours indoors, but that first day of the season I relish every breath and sight.