scenes from a rainy november afternoon

 

Before the rain started after lunch, I raked and bagged golden maple leaves in our backyard for two hours.  I looked out the back window a moment ago, and it's as though I did nothing.  Ah, well.  This poem aptly describes the experience.  

Now, with the hush of drops on the street, we have gathered in the house.  The littles were sandwiched on the couch until a moment ago, reading sweetly with each other.  They've moved on to a raucous game of their invention, of a kind that only appears on dull rainy days.  Someone will inevitably get hurt and there will be tears before the afternoon progresses too much further.   

Throughout the living room, too, is the litter of projects in progress.  Little M insisted upon photographing one of her favorite books (kept only because it was her father's book), which we have read ad nauseum.  She likes to chirp in with her favorite lines.  My oldest is reading Basic Economics and working on her Camilla Blanket.  She's also been transcribing some of the boys' recorded narrations with her typewriter.  It's a delight to hear the clickety-clack-ping in the evenings.  

Our schoolroom is quite a-bustle, despite this week being our break between terms.  Christmas presents have begun arriving--since my in-laws will be visiting for Thanksgiving, she and I are trying to gather our gifts to swap when they come.  Despite the appearance of the box in the photo, that particular gift arrived totally intact!  Now to await the others and make sure we have wrapping paper.  Our Christmas cards arrived and I am trying to organize the mailing list.  Z has asked that we delay taking a picture to send in the cards until she gets off her braces in a few weeks.  I pulled out the advent spiral in preparation for the Nativity fast which begins on Sunday.  How, oh how, are we entering the homestretch of this year?  

And lastly, there's G's sweater, in Peace Fleece.  I now want a sweater for myself out of it!  The yarn is soft and squishy in a rustic way, completely different from Merino wool, but equally wonderful.

I hear the boys making mischief now in our dungeon of a basement.  Little M reports that they've stolen a whole container of animal crackers that they're consuming in secret down there.  I hear a lot of giggling, too, which means I need to go check on them.  

Have a lovely afternoon, friends!

p.s.  That coffee drink is one of my favorites--a tiny Nes ( ενα Νες).  I make mine like a frappé, except I add hot water instead of ice water, and top it off with a little evaporated milk.