Another super Saturday

I am almost too tired to write this! It was such a busy day. Fun, but busy. The kids woke early as they always do on Saturdays. Awake at the unseemly hour of 5:45. Ugh. This never bothers me in the summer when the sun wakens early as well and the birds are singing etc etc. (cue your favorite cute Disney animals be bopping to the dawning of the day.) But for the record, it snowed here yesterday. The leaves are not off the trees yet and it snowed. Not just a flurry. A messy bit of weather oddness that frankly still rankles my summer loving spirit. Ah well. Back to the unseemly wakening. I lay there looking at the still totally dark rooms and convinced the wee gremlins that they would like to lie in bed and whisper with me. They are actually pretty good at enjoying that. I can't sleep of course, but I don't have to leave a warm bed, so it is a reasonable compromise. All too soon though it was time to breakfast and make ready for the day.

Saturdays begin with KC's dance class. I get to observe the class the first week of November and I can't wait. He seems to be enjoying it so much. As a former dancer I know what he is saying when he speaks of the foot positions and how to hold his hands and he seems to be grasping concepts quickly and happily. But for now, no observation so I spend the hour keeping Lissa content while he dances. From there we go to the library and chat up our friendly librarians and get books and videos for the week. Then it is grocery shopping. If I am super organized I can actually do this at 7:30 on Saturday morning, giving me time to shop and unload and then get to the dance school. I am rarely that organized and it usually happens mid day after the library. By the time we got the shopping done it was lunch time. I bought things to make lunch and packed them separately from our "regular" groceries and we ate with Kirsty at the clubhouse where she works. The kids admired the halloween costumes she is making for them and played and chatted.

Then I cleaned up from the devastation of our visit--well not devastation but it seems unfair to blow in and leave things all awry so I tidied--and then we went to a Forge In. This is a local blacksmithing competition held in a neighboring town. The blacksmithing is amazing to watch. It is a lot more than just making horse shoes and plow shares, though there are some of those as well. But there are also amazing art pieces that are created. Vines that are so detailed you would swear they were real. Butterflies, lacey pieces that just boggle my mind. We watched part of a competion and it was a woman blacksmith. Slender, average in height, totally not the beefy bearded blacksmith that springs to mind when most of us think of that occupation.

There is a bit of a party feel to the competion and there are tents with things to buy if one is so inclined. I am not, but we wander around and do whatever freebie things are there for enjoyment. Today it was face painting, a raffle for books and driving one of those remote controlled cars. It was supposed to be horrid weather today but it was only cold, not rainy as they had forecast. It was interesting because I was really so tired (I am still fighting the creepy respiratory virus from Hades) and I half heartedly opined to the kids earlier in the day that maybe we should skip the Forge In this year. KC was appalled. He remembered virtually everything he had seen and done there last year (and they were different things, voting on pumpkin carvings, a bounce house, and a spectacular blacksmith creation) When I heard how much he remembered, I was horrified that I would so cavalierly try to bypass a chance to make more of those kind of memories. So we went and I am glad we did.

Came home and put away the groceries and did the housework. Made a soup for tomorrow and cookies and supper for tonight. Helped KC and Lissa stencil Halloween decorations while Robbie had some computer time. Then I packed up everyone, including Chet and we drove 20 minutes to our church. Another annual event in the fall is our church's peace vigil. It was supposed to happen a couple weeks ago but was postponed due to torrential rain. We stand outside at the end with our lit candles. We have a peace pole on our church grounds and we encircle it with our bodies, with the light of hope that we are holding and with the songs we are sharing. Watching my kids hold their candles--Lissa being helped to hold hers by a dear friend from church--was another magical moment.

But we were home late for our brood. Walking in the door with tired kids at 8:30 when Lissa is normally in bed a bit after 7. Tomorrow should be um, interesting!