Out my window: wind. It is sunny with high cottony clouds wafting across the sky. The crab apples are all blushed and swinging wildly from the tree in the orchard.

Listening to: “Blue 42 – hike! Floor to table. Hustle hustle hustle!” Kieran is leading schoolroom pickup. Chores are just more fun during football season. ; )

Musically- am loving BBC radio. Loving it. I am picking up a radio for the kitchen so I can bring all that fun out of the car where I linger in the driveway when we get home. New fave – Jerry Douglas.

Reading: finally finished Jane Austen’s Emma since I have been reading other things with it. It really picked up after page 300 fwiw. It was a fantastic read considering nothing actually happened in all 400 pages. Not an action title to be sure, but spot on characterization. You will see people you know in those pages.

Afterwards I began “Horses Don’t Lie About love”. Sorry no links. Story about a woman who moved out west and began a horse farm with some nearly feral stock. Totally different tone from Ree Drummond but I love a good memoir.

From the learning rooms: making new file games. Journaling. Lots of art. Tess’ reading is taking off.

Creating: embroidery. Tess has been working on a back stitched pear for a tea towel. I had Moira sit with her supervising when I had to leave the room. Moments later Moira announced she wanted to sew. And she did. A butterfly, a shamrock and finally a large DANCE on her dance shorts.

Around the house: been here long enough to have to clean the cabinets out in the kitchen. Feeling much tidier now.

Plans: football practice – the new normal. A date which will likely net a new computer set up this weekend. Which means all kinds of fun for my camera with the over flowing memory card. ; )

It always seems to come in unexpected ways and at just the right time. Life expands and contracts and our circles do the same in this ever changing landscape of our mobile life. Giving birth to a life is like that. Labor and rest. Confidence and doubt. Peaks and valleys. Very often it is those dips into the valley that spark the most progress.

This week was frustrating without my camera or software. My card is full and the computer must go to the shop. I don’t dare clear my card til I can back up the images. But I don’t sit on my hands well making nothing. I ended up trying two things. Instagram and film.

I pulled out my old film camera which I only used in automatic mode all those years ago. It was a good camera, however, with a couple nice lenses which I knew nothing about when I won that auction on eBay 8 years ago. My phone yielded a PDF manual to bring me up to speed and locate all the functions. I very happily dropped off a roll of film with a very nice British gentleman the other night.

When I told my husband I had nearly convinced myself to switch back he listened quietly. Then said he still wanted also push forward with the new computer and software and equipment we have been planning for. A both/and solution to the either/or scenario in my head. : ) You can do this and more he said. And more. And we are going to make it happen.

Then came a long overdue phone call on a slightly crackly line to an old friend who can be counted on to always say oh yes you can! You can can apples. You can read more Jane Austen. You can tend a cutting garden. You CAN.

This morning I listened to that yes you can and pushed myself out into chilly morning air to jog (jog-walk-jog-walk) with Toby Mac. I came back thinking how beautiful the clouds were over my chimney and how much I love the kitchen door. And geraniums. And being brave. And saying yes.

I checked mail and found a sweet comment from the wildly creative Jennifer and clicked back to catch up with her doings. Turns out it was the National Day of encouragement this week. I missed it. Officially anyway. But certainly enjoyed all the perks in practice. I paid it forward by taking a couple extra minutes to tell her what I often think when I read her notes – thank you.

She got me thinking about how the Internet rather encourages a bit of consumerism. We click in and out. We glean. We use ideas and off we go. Those people don’t often know how much they have blessed us or just how amazing they really are. I am trying not to forget that as I visit and learn.

If you haven’t visited here before you are in for a treat:

http://studiojru.com/2012/09/12/national-day-of-encouragement/#comment-15591