Making our way through the autumn...

Morning all! It's nice to be back to my regular routine. I'm having a quiet moment on the reference desk after just dealing with a highly annoying patron (in a very polite fashion I might add, *angelic librarian beam*), so I figured I deserved the blogging respite. :) I was listening to "The Catholics Next Door" podcast on my way into work this morning, and contemplating what to write about today. As I did so, I drove by the sugar maple that you see pictured here at left and stopped just to take a picture of it. It's just down the street from Henry's school, within minutes of our house, and I think it's the prettiest tree I've seen so far this autumn.

Thus, it seemed to me that a quick reflective post on the progress of the autumn was timely, and that's what I decided to do. So, what's happening?

This fall semester has progressed very rapidly. Due to Mike's intense teaching schedule, plus my trip this past weekend, we haven't gotten to all of the family autumn-related activities that we wanted to. We still have some time, so we're hopeful we can squeeze at least one more outing in, but we'll see. The fall is clearly winding down here in Western New York to that gray November place, you know? It gets dark early, clouds and wind seem omnipresent, the foliage is falling rapidly. I don't mind that time of year; it's cozy, plus it means that the holidays are coming, but it does signal the beginning of the end of the gorgeous, colorful autumn.

Henry's year in school so far (4th grade this year), while good, has been a lot more work for both him and us. :0 This is a year in which his school administers state testing, and the workload has been much increased from last year. He's persevering, but our evenings certainly include a lot more homework than they used to.

Anne is growing in leaps and bounds, and is becoming quite the nurturing little lady. :) She talks a mile a minute and carries around a purse with all of her "necessities" so that she can be like the big girls. Necessities in Anne's world being things like rocks, plastic Easter eggs, and random small stuffed creatures. She's looking taller every day, taking after her brother. Mike and I seem to produce these very tall children. :)

Speaking of Mike, he has the worst fall cold EVER, poor thing. And in the midst of all of this teaching too, wherein he really needs his voice and the ability to speak without coughing every few moments. Mike has this gorgeous deep voice *happy lift of eyebrows* and I hate to see him struggling to get through a day of teaching. His cough has been so bad at night that he's been sleeping downstairs to spare me the poor night of sleep that he is certain to have, and the miserable look on his face as he gathers his pillow to go down there just breaks your heart. We rarely sleep apart, and I miss him so much when he's not there. I do, however, plead guilty though to reveling in the quiet interior of our bedroom sans coughing, and immediately pouncing on our small television, flipping to The Hallmark Channel, and setting the sleep timer to 2 full hours of "The Golden Girls" soothing goodness.

ahhhhhhhhhh..... :)

I slept well. :0

He seemed a bit better this morning, and said that once he did manage to fall asleep, he stayed asleep until about 6 am, which is a very good sign. Hopefully, he's on the mend.

As for me, I'm progressing happily through my 54 day rosary novena. I've missed a few days of getting through a complete rosary, but if I've learned anything in the spiritual life it's to keep going, even when I screw up. Which I do. Frequently. :0 So, I persevere, and it's going well. I've been busy at work, October is always like that. I have a few classes to teach on Friday, and I'm catching up a bit still from my trip, but it's going fine. Things should slow down in a few weeks. I've also been knitting and crocheting like a mad woman, working on gifts and other fall-themed items. I will post pictures in this week's 7 Quick Takes, where much fun will await you. ;-)

And how is YOUR fall going, dear reader? Leave me a comment. :)