You just never know what's going to inspire me to blog....do you?  Even after a nearly six month silence  it's nothing momentous. 

It's a glorious sunny day here in Indiana and as I prepare psychologically for the fact that it's soon going to be getting dark at 4:00 p.m. I decided that I definitely shouldn't squander the sunshine so I went out to take care of this:

I was a bit surprised to notice a guy on a jet ski on the lake.  He apparently shared my opinion about squandering the sunshine...but dude - it's NOVEBMER!  There also must be an antique car show in the village today because several drove by while I was mowing....very fun.   So this is how my yard looks now:

And here's what concerns me:

My guess is that tomorrow you'll never be able to tell I did anything out there this afternoon.  Yet I feel really good about myself for doing it.  And as the remaning leaves fall I'm thinking I may just leave  them so that in two weeks when Elliot is here I can rake up a huge pile and let him run and jump in them.  What's a childhood without ever doing that?  One of the few things that he'll miss by living in SoCal.  I think that jumping in palm tree fronds can be quite painful.

Also, too, (as Sarah Palin would say, or is it just Tina Fey when she's imitating Sarah .....I can't keep that straight!) when he's here we're gonna to have a "far"...that's what we southern folk have in a pit on our back deck when the nights get nippy.  One of the few things I look forward to about the cold coming. There will be many roasted marshallows and maybe even some s'mores.  Can't wait!!!

I do have one more thing to say. I saw myself in this editorial column in the FW Journal Gazette today. "At last, the end of crazy is in sight.  Come Tuesday night, maybe we can all..just......stop.  What ails me and multitudes like me isn't in the mental health profession's guidebook, but it should be. It's elective compulsive disorder - a relentless obsession about this election." My obsession became about wanting each of the candidates to tell the truth ALL THE TIME, and be nice.  Not gonna happen.

Lastly, I saw a Starbucks commercial saying that they are giving a free tall coffee to anyone who comes in Tuesday and tells them they voted.  Kind of cruel since I don't have a Starbucks ...(.at least not yet - Owen's/Krogers is getting one ...for y'all that used to live here they're remodeling the front where customer service used to be)....so I think I'll go to FW Tuesday and claim my coffee. 

EDIT:  Monday A.M.  What did I say?

....getting a new garbage disposal is the highlight of your weekend.  Well, that's not technically true.  We went to a Grace College basketball game yesterday with some friends and then out to NOA NOA for dinner.  I'd forgotten how much fun basketball games are when you're there in person.  So that was probably the highlight but the garbage disposal is a close runner-up. 

When we took on the project that is our home nearly ten years ago there were so many HUGE and overwhelming expenses; what with plumbing and electrical not even being  up to code, etc. that we scrimped on others.  We got a wimpy garbage disposal that has never been a very vigorous participant in the process.  Anytime I offered it potato peels, egg shells and other items that I'd always fed to my garbage disposal in VA I ended up plunging.   This winter it had become progressively sluggish and finally this weekend Wayne decided to give it a look.  He discovered two things - first, it was all rusted out and needed to be replaced and second - someone had put a plastic bag down it at some point in the not too distant past, which no doubt explains a great deal of the sluggishness.  (I figure this probably happened during the holidays.  Not blaming any of my offspring - I'm just saying that when all of us are here crazy things happen - for instance there's the time I accidentally took a case of wine belonging to the Behars out with the recycling.)

Anyway, back to the disposal - anytime you have a home repair that costs under $150 and takes less than an hour to complete I think that's worth celebrating.  So that's what I did - I celebrated by peeling a whole bag of potatoes and making a huge pot of potato soup - which just happens to be Wayne's very favorite.  And then the fun really began - I sent all those peels down with nary a plunge!

(I'm also considering the possibility that I'm just giddy because we've had two days in a row of SUNSHINE!)

So... we arranged to have a photographer come to our house the morning after our Christmas - meaning the 27th - to take a family photo since we don't really know when the whole clan will be in one place again.  He took lots of shots of different groups - the families within the fam and all that.  Tonight while browsing through the CD of photos he sent - 45 in all -I started thinking about how it's always a challenge to get a group photo where everyone is even looking at the camera; never mind having a pleasant, unforced, not too bright smile and how there are always stories behind the photo.

In this case, as some of you already know, poor Mackie girl.............. ummm .................how shall we say it? .... hurled? ....tossed her cookies?  all over the sofa just as the photographer was setting up his lights.  It was unfortunate in many ways but mainly because normally you could never ask for a more FUN person to photograph than that Mackie girl.   But alas on this morning the sparkle was gone and a tiny bucket was barely out of camera range just in case. 

It made me think of another day 20+ years ago when Wayne was on a long trip and I decided to surprise him by sending a studio photo of all three kids and myself to one of his destinations right before his return home.  I had everyone nicely dressed, hairs all in place, etc., ready to walk out the door when Whitney asked sweetly if she could take her purse along.  I gave her a stern look - "You may - but go straight upstairs, get it and come straight back".  A few minutes later she came back with the purse in hand but her hair was completely disheveled, standing on end from static, completely un-photoworthy.  With one of those mom sighs that are legend I said - "I thought I told you to get your purse and come straight back."  Her reply?  "I did....[pause]..... it was under my bed."  We still have that photo and seeing it always makes me smile, though I'm certain I was not smiling at the time.

 Anyway, it's kind of fun to look at pictures and remember the details that can't be seen.  As with all families, we have our moments of being less than kind, being snippy, snappy, and otherwise disagreeable, along with the really good times, but when all is said and done the people in this picture are all the people I love the most in this world and having them around through the holidays was, as they say on the Mastercard commericals, ........ PRICELESS!