End of summer + wild mushrooms.

Suddenly, summer has turned to the limbo season that is chilly mornings, fog, and lots of rain. Huge wild mushrooms that weren’t there the day before simply pop up over night. Over the past week, I’ve picked two five gallon buckets of them from my garden. They even grow boldly through the crushed rock — no soil necessary.

I’m starting to count the days until Eric comes home. So excited.

Dean and Grant start school again next week. Allen begins preschool a week after that. I’m loving my semi-retired work schedule and plan to continue working only for myself — which is the best kind of work imaginable.

Oh, and these two coordinating scarves are for my parents. No reason required to send beautiful gifts. The yarn choice was inspired by — you guessed it — wild mushrooms.

The pattern & yarn details can be found on my Ravelry page.

The sweetest things.

I love those moments checking in on my sleeping children and watching their faces — so peaceful and beautiful.

The past few weeks, my middle child has been extra adorable asking me if I need him to scratch my back before he goes to sleep. ( Let me think — yes! ) And so as he scratches away, he starts talking about whatever happens to be on his mind. It’s so fantastic and I never want him to stop. ( Talking, that is. ) Reluctantly, I tell him that he needs to get some sleep and then another hour goes by and I catch him with his light on reading. Not to single him out from his brothers, but I just want to remember and appreciate this about him, forever.

The blooms are leaving the garden. Summer is quickly coming to an end. We’ve had lots of rain lately and the hugest wild mushrooms you can imagine have been popping up over night.

We’re all getting very ready for Eric to come home. The radiologist replacing him arrives on the 23rd and he’s scheduled to leave Afghanistan on the 30th. With any luck he’ll be home by… my birthday.

Hot diggity health care reform.

It’s shocking, right? Shocking that some changes we actually NEED to make might actually be passed into law. And even more shocking that so many people are getting down-right-crazy-pants angry about it. You might not agree with the bill as it stands (What did you expect it to be? Perfect?) but when you add up all the things that it will improve, it’s pretty darn good news for millions of people in our country. And I can hardly wait until such things like “It’s a Government takeover of health care” will no longer be said without immediate laughter from the listener.

I know I shouldn’t talk politics, but it’s my blog, so there.

Let the sun shine in.

Nothing like a little sunshine to lift the spirits. And then suddenly you notice all the dust you couldn’t see before and are seized with the compulsion to clean!

Can’t win.

So, the most noteworthy news first. With the military’s usual perfect timing, Eric left for Afghanistan last week while I was at my brother’s wedding. I had a feeling it would happen when I made my plans to travel but for a while it looked like everything would work out perfectly. Then, boom. They moved his deployment up a week. He’s at Bagram now working 12 hour shifts with another Radiologist. Living conditions are spartan — including lots of plywood, fungus infested showers and an outhouse! And if I think the dust in my house is bad, I can only imagine being there. He’s going to be there for the next six months. We miss you, Eric.

And the second biggest news is my baby brother Rich got married! Welcome to the Dutton family, Michele! We are going to enjoy getting to know you. It was a lovely wedding and reception and I was super pleased to have been part of it and see them so happy.

And with that quick update, I’m out to enjoy the rest of the sunny day.

It begins with the letter C.

an it really be here?

Merry Christmas, everyone. Hopefully your day was as enjoyable as mine was. The moment finally came watching Allen and Grant playing the guitar and singing to Lego Rock Band. They were hilarious.

The letter “C” is brought to you by Jessica Hische at dailydropcap.com — a very talented illustrator and very cool project.

The holidays have caught me off guard this year. I’m not sure why but it seems to be a trend that is becoming more and more the norm as the years go by. Thinking back to the big Christmas productions of my youth, I wonder if my parents experienced something similar to this, as all seven of us grew older. I hope so. We must have been quite the handful. At any rate, this morning was almost comical as around ten o’clock Eric said, “Well, should we wake them up?” and I actually hesitated before replying, “I guess so…”

And then we ate buttermilk pancakes with chocolate chips until our tummies could take no more. That was my favorite part.

Is anyone else out there a bit freaked out that we’re entering the year 2010 in a few days?