Monday, October 1, 2012

HELLOOOO, October!!

Eyes open.  Eyes focus.  First thing each person in our house saw this morning?


Yes - my funny, sentimental, tradition-rich husband wanted to make sure we ALL had a good month.  So he either hung this over our beds or he held it in our faces this morning.  Sooo - the first words out our mouths on October 1st?  You got it.  RABBIT RABBIT.   Why????? You ask.  Here's why silly kittens!!!

"Rabbit rabbit rabbit" is one variant of a common British superstition which states that a person should say or repeat the word "rabbit" or "rabbits", or say the phrase "white rabbits", or some combination of these elements, out loud upon waking on the first day of the month, because doing so will ensure good luck for the duration of that month. Today, it is a frequent tradition in many English-speaking countries.

I know - who knew???  Well - WE knew!!!  It's the first day of the month.  Gotta say it!!!  Every month.  That's not to say that we remember every month - but everyone gets quizzed.  I usually fail...

It's very hard to believe it is the first day of the 10th month of the 12th year of the new millenium.  But it is.  I need to GET OVER IT!

At any rate - it's time to start saying good bye to summer.  LOL - notice I said start?  Actually - I LOVE fall.  It's my favoriteist season.  Is that a word?  I'll have to try it out in a Words With Friends game!  So watch out Laura, Aileen, Ellen, JoJo, Judy, Liz, Mike, Peter, Michael, Kris Anne - did I forget anyone???


Woohoo!  I beat Laura!!!!!!


Ok - back to the subject at hand...I had to start my fond farewell to my beautiful Morning Glories.  I know I post a lot of boring pix of them but, it's my blog and I can do what I want I just love them so much.  SNIFFF.




I'm a bit frustrated because I don't know enough about photography to stop my camera from snapping these in more purple than the deep, rich cornflower blue they really are.  Sighhhh...I'm hopeless. Tried all kinds of ISO, AV, TV settings.  Whatever I was taught, I've not retained.  But you catch my drift...

Such JOY they gave me!!  But I said my goodbyes and moved on.




Aren't they beautiful?!  Big AND little JOY this morning.  I was running with my son (Huge JOY) at the HS track yesterday morning and couldn't resist the beautiful trees (little JOY).  It looks like it's really shaping up to be a great leaf peeping Fall.  

Yesterday afternoon I cooked while my kids caught JOYJOYJOY pulling all the Fall/Halloween "stuff" out of the basement and tossed them mindlessly placed them carefully and decoratively around the house.  Funny how in my mind I see a cozy Norman Rockwell scene of us decorating the house or the Christmas tree.  Then reality bites and I'm yelling.  And yelling.  And yelling.  Every single time...I gotta work on that.  Maybe when they are adults a little older?  Sigh...

But they just ignore me and keep skipping around throwing the crap everywhere catching JOY.

I DID catch JOY when it was all re-arranged done.  AND my oldest brought me to tears.  He is JUST like his father - so sentimental, so LOVING the holiday seasons, not for the gifts and candy but for that special feeling he experiences inside himself.  

I really hope he can hang on to that JOY he feels and not become jaded.  I have hope because it's in his genes and afterall - he is 13 in 14 days.  I think I lost that childlike magic much earlier than 13.  He embodies all that I seek - that JOY you experience inside yourself.  Truly in the moment.  It's almost a kind of "grace", I think.   Yes - he is his father's son...


I love these pix of my children in their very first Halloween costumes.  I bring them out every Fall. 




My owl!!!  Love him!!



Oooooh - there's my self portrait!!!  At least my husband would say that...giggle!


Here's the Halloween dish towel that my middle child can't keep his hands off and usually looks like...


THIS!!!!!  Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!  



And so it begins.  The pathway to Christmas.  It's a short one!  Before we know it - Halloween.  Turn around and you're cooking a turkey, take a breath and it's MERRY CHRISTMAS!  So stay in the moment.  Take a moment to look around and actually see the beautiful foliage.  Enjoy wearing your Fall fashions - BOOTS!!!  Bask in the warmth of a great big fire.  It's there.  The JOY is there.  You just need to pause...and see it.  For a fleeting moment, perhaps.  You'll experience it inside yourself.  Just like my oldest baby boy...you need to: