It has been a productive couple days thanks to my family. My husband took off yesterday so I could do some shopping.  Alannah rode along and we made a day of it.  We found some lovely clothes for Tess which have inspired me finally.  (Ready made wardrobe items for the school aged girl are generally UNinspiring, if not downright discouraging.) While shopping locally we found some lovely pieces in shell pinks and champagne colors.  Soft and elegant and sweet.  

 After clothes shopping we managed to find many of the gifts on my list.  As we drove home Alannah said I hear the bell ringing. I said what are you talking about?  She said, "The bells, on that thing you bought."  Still nothing for me.  "What? Am I the only one who believes?" she laughed.  Which of course meant Polar Express for the next bedtime book. Yes, that was a change of topic.  Husband usually asks me to preface these with "break, break" To which I usually say, " Keep UP people!" 

Today she and I helped the little girls put ornaments on the trees the guys set up this weekend. We didn't use all the decorations this year because that move date keeps creeping closer – literally, it's creeping closer. Still we are doing a little bit every day.   I told you, Austin Family Christmas. (Have you read it?  You must read it.  Take my word ok? : ))  

And that's it.  Am blogging like I am decorating, a little bit each day.  And am going to reload that winter reading list back onto the sidebar on that note.  

We decided to be proactive and make some things ahead this year.  You know, instead of waking at dawn and killing myself for 6 or 7 hrs straight before we graciously dine in thanksgiving. I realize to most normal people with some years of cooking experience under their belts this is not groundbreaking stuff.  For whatever reason it hasn't fallen together this way for us very often. 

We have three pies, a large pan of apple crisp, and one of the three smallish turkeys made.  Our European ovens are small so we are moving a small flock of turkeys (or rather a flock of small turkeys) through the kitchen to feed our friends and family.  Real dough turned out to be much more engrossing than play dough.  The three littles sat rolling and making and remaking dozens of small pastries while I made pies.  

The boys spent the afternoon vacuuming and cleaning their rooms. They are teen and preteen boys so this was not as idyllic as it sounds in print. It took allllll afternoon and the vacuum did not survive the venture. But it's mostly done and ready for their big brother's arrival tomorrow.  It still seems surreal he will be here in this kitchen tomorrow.  

Abbie asked if this was our first thanksgiving with Asher.  I said no but it's the first one in a long time, so maybe it's the first for her (that she remembers.)  She said oh, because when you were a little girl you had Thanksgiving with him.  Newly 6yo logic and time perception and all. ; ) We probably won't be so fortunate next year so we are all especially thankful for these few days we get. 

And you? Are you pinching pie crusts and drying out bread for stuffing?  

Big thoughts and big news have taken all our waking hours lately. Come evening I sit down here and mean to share it all and then…..nothing.  I am all thought out by then.  There seems to be too much to say or not enough to make sense.  So I ramble on a bit just like this and then delete and go to bed.  Lather, rinse, repeat and you have a fair picture of the past few weeks.

The big news is that our life is changing again. It isn't entirely unexpected.  In a few months our visas here will expire and we turn into a pack of Cinderellas. We knew this.  We have been planning for this.  In many ways it is time.  We have a new daughter-in-love and are anxious to be closer.  Our older daughters are looking at the next steps in their lives and those steps are leading across the ocean. We miss our sons. This particular adventure has stretched out longer than we first expected and we have wrung every drop of joy from it we could. There are no regrets.  But there are going to be new chapters, new places, new experiences. Lots of new.

This past year has been one long mystery.  We knew transition was coming but as the months unfolded it became clear that it was not taking shape as expected. Going into this European journey we fully expected to return to our very familiar life in Colorado eventually. In retrospect it was that safety net that gave me the courage to step on the plane and go. While we dove head first into new places and experiences, there was in the back of my mind a forever, never-changing place that would follow.  As time passed and that white-knuckled grip on "familiar" has loosened slowly and steadily I had a sneaking suspicion that God had another plan.  

Turns out He definitely did.

There have been nudges along the way that this was more than just a little foray in adventure. Rather it was to be a way of life that was to extend beyond Europe for some time to come.  Without belaboring all the ways the pieces fell together I can tell you that we are heading to snowy peaks of Utah in a few months.  Once again, we are not certain for how long. We are still sorting out short-term logistics.  We have accepted a position there but now are working out where we will live, who is coming with us, where people are going to college next year.  

There may not ever come the day when I can string together a series of in-depth essays here and really, that is ok too. These pages record the overflow of a full active life.  I have, however, had a lot of random thoughts about change, big family living, and what is transient and permanent. This involves a ton of organizing, planning, decision making. We have to be exceptionally tuned-in to each other to ensure everyone makes the transition as peacefully and positively as possible.  It seems like these things might also speak to others out there so they will find there way to these pages and this is the prelude of sorts, explaining.

Life, it's a wild ride. It's unpredictable, it stretches us far and wide, makes us brave if we let it, and rewards with great blessings we just can't see til we are right upon them.  I wouldn't want to miss it, so I am buckling up for the next stretch.

Let's do this, shall we?

There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch.

 ~Robert Brault

It has been a delightful, if incredibly full several days preparing for and celebrating All Hallow's Eve.  We read stories from Carolyn Haywood's Halloween Treats at lunchtime over several days.  The boys and Dad carved pumpkins one evening while I was able to sit in the relative quiet of the living room having a heart to heart with a military  mom friend who dropped by.  

The little girls and I tackled pumpkin painting this year as well. In typical me fashion we tackled this for the first time on Halloween day itself.  Seat of my pants sort of girl <g>  We struck out with the stencilled pumpkin but Minnie was a great success.  While we had pumpkins on the brain I brought out Thomas Locker's Family Farm. 

Then we finished our costumes and took the children to the local military base for treat or trick.  (I have shared before that trick or treat is a highly personal and highly controversial topic, one I have waffled on over the course of 28yrs of parenting.  This article best describes where we are with it these days.)  We are so grateful to have a huge, safe community celebration to attend. There was music and hot cocoa and crafts and neighbors.  It makes for a very Peanut's Great Pumpkin sort of  holiday.  This definitely isn't an option everyplace so our plans adapt as we move around. 

and since I am not above making a fool of myself to make my children laugh….

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."  Nathaniel Hawthorne here

The quote caught my eye but now I want the journals.  Speaking of which I am going back through this one and finishing up this.  Years and years and years that last one has taken me but I feel like I have digested it in chunks and each next section hits me at a certain point in life, no doubt the very right point at which to read it. I was drawn to finish this last section after recent discussions about end of life laws and suffering in general. The accounts of Louis Martin's last years came to mind during these talks and I am revisiting his final trials now.  

Anyway, today found us discussing Ghandi and hence, Tolstoy, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King. (maybe tomorrow we will just discuss fashion or latte or something but you know, probably not)  Can you guess why?  The increasing inability to disagree with others and the tendency towards coercion that seems to be rampant everywhere I turn lately. Lawsuits, slander.  Gah.  After reading a comment on an article that insisted, "It's ok to hate a bigot,"  I realized our current teens missed the first round discussion years ago about how to oppose civilly. That it is ok and sometimes necessary to challenge a wrong position but it is never ok to hate anyone, no matter how terrible their actions may be.  Digging up some examples of what that looks like in history. Much of this they smile and nod over and it no doubt goes over their heads but I pray they leave our home with this message firmly planted in their hearts.  We hate the sin, and we oppose wrong always,  but we love the sinner – because we are that too. Respect is not just for the few. 

What else?  I read part of Beowulf aloud to Moira for her lit class and became fascinated and inspired.  Tutored some Spanish, which is funny because I don't actually speak Spanish.  What they say about the Romance languages seems to be true though.  Somehow it's clicking after dabbling in French and latin.

We made birthday cupcakes.  That was enough though since Moira and I are catching a cold so husband brought home pizza.  Abbie practiced a song she wrote for the piano.  Moira put the letters on the keys with washi tape so now Abbie is bent on writing songs as a series of letters and then replaying them.  

And the Aga is on.  ahhhhhhhh.  It is so very nice to be warm at night.  I will never again read Dickens nor any other British author describe the cold months without a slight shiver. There is something especially chilly about an English autumn and winter though the thermometer teases and assures that it isn't as cold as many other places.  Damp I guess. 

Daytimes are still lovely and crisp though.  These are from a walk on a new trail locally. 

Both of us doing the same work in different ways this weekend. Building bit by bit we are.  Me, pausing from my window.  This one, pausing from the roof.    

We hit the jackpot with this creamy dill sauce.  Dutifully I have been buying fish and trying to like it but Friday was the real thing.  It was really, really good.  We had houseguests and the oven was full so I marinaded the salmon in half butter (vs the olive oil) and half lemon juice and then lightly sauteed.  We served it with the dill sauce and it was heaven.  I then proceeded to spoon the dill sauce over every vegetable I ate all weekend.  It was that good.  It made the veggies good.  And the fish.  

I heart this sauce, folks.  

We are celebrating first's and last's at every turn right now.  Tomorrow, a new decade. She slipped right out of childhood gracefully, quietly.