Life These Days: A Late Fall

I got this amazing coat (from The Superior Labor) which has all these pen slots in it, and it also has side pockets that can fit a trade paperback, so it’s basically perfect. Two weeks into wearing it, I had a pen disaster (featuring the Kaweco Al-Sport Piston) and now there’s a green stain on it, probably forever. Alt-Goldgrun. A metaphor for life. I don’t want to talk about it.

Life is full these days—and tense and bright and a slog and so sweet my teeth are aching with all the leftover Halloween candy. The kids have been keeping busy. Caleb has graduated from making breakfast for his sisters to more involved meals, like lunch, and it has been interesting to see his concept of a balanced meal. He’s not bad! I guess I’ll keep him. Naomi has joined a book club, and for one of their upcoming meetings we decided to try a new library that was, according to Google Maps, 28 minutes west of the shop, but ended up being 75 minutes due to a film shoot and a lot of traffic. An adventure. Junia has been wearing a lot of stripes.

The days have been getting shorter, and we have begun our annual decline/deterioration in the morning wake up routine. It’s too cold, it’s too dry, everyone is tired, why is it still dark out, why are there no socks anywhere, why are there so many children, Jon quickly moves from cajoling (was he ever even there?) into bulgy eyes and threats as he shuffles us all out the door. Tuna lurks in the background hoping someone will remember to feed him, Chicken licks his paw from the neighbours’ yard, pretending he doesn’t know us, probably having gotten fed from the neighbours.

I wrote this blog post several weeks ago, promptly forgot about it, and since that time we have had a whirlwind of excitement and change and emotional upheaval (we moved to the west end, to be closer to the shop). But here was this snapshot of our late fall, that beautiful, crisp, golden crunch of time, sprites visiting to see what we have to offer and deciding they might stay for a bit, big sisters running too fast for tiny legs, library books clutched tightly in hand, the full moon holding her promises for us all as we meander and traipse on the journey.