Things are pretty quiet here right now. I like a spell of quiet now and then when everything goes as planned, the usual routine, no surprises. The week passed the way it usually does – school, work, chores, meals, a bit of leisure time. Nice.
The weather was typical November –cold, a bit of rain, some snow flurries. I saw a report on the long term forecast for winter. It mentioned a la Niña effect, the polar vortex, abnormal cold, high quantities of snow. But not yet and that’s fine. We’ll deal with it when and if it gets here.
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| This morning. |
I was pondering the other day, as I stared out the window at the bare trees and cold rain, how the seasons move in a pattern like a day only 8,760 hours long instead of 24 hours. Spring is like dawn when things stir to life. Summer is the daytime of the year, full of light. Autumn is the dusk when the world settles in to rest. And winter is the time of sleep. Trees and plants go dormant (from the Latin dormire, to sleep). Many animals hibernate. Spring and fall, like dawn and dusk, are the fleeting and often lovely approach and retreat to the bright and warm daytime of summer. Winter, like the night, is dark and beautiful in its own way, a time for rest. I think if I were a wild beast, I’d be the sort that hibernates.
This week we will celebrate Thanksgiving. That means a short week for me at school. We have a half day on Wednesday and then we’re off until the following Tuesday. Our Thanksgiving will be humble this year. There will just be three of us here. Miriam flew to Utah to spend the week in St. George at the Shillig gathering there. She left yesterday and will fly back on Saturday. I will miss Miriam a lot while she is gone. She works at the school now and we often go to work together. I love having my children around. So that leaves just me, Stacey, and Hannah at home for Thanksgiving. We’ll have lots of leftovers.
Yesterday after we dropped Miriam off at the Rochester airport, Stacey, Hannah, and I drove over to Palmyra and went to the temple. We were early for our session so we stopped along the way at a park on the Erie Canal and took a walk by the locks. Then we went to the Joseph Smith Farm and took a short walk. The day was cold and damp, but pretty in a bleak sort of way. The session we were in at the temple was the smallest I’ve ever been in – just six people – but it was a great experience. After the temple, we went shopping. I dislike shopping, but it’s a long drive to Rochester and Palmyra, so when we have to do it, we do all we can while we are there. I bought a new winter coat and we bought groceries for our Thanksgiving meal.
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| Good-bye to Miriam. |
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| The Erie Canal at Palmyra. |
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| By a lock on the canal. |
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| The Joseph Smith Farm. |
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| The temple as seen from the farm. |
We were gone all day yesterday and by the time we got home, it was getting dark (which happens about 5:00 these days) and the chickens had already gone to roost, so it was too late to do the chores. I knew they had plenty of food, but were probably low on water, so I went down this morning to fill their waterer up. It was cold and windy and there was a crust of snow on the ground. It was nice to go into the dry and cozy barn and have the chickens greet me. They are always happy to see me. They run to me and gather around me and make happy noises. At least I think they are happy noises. I will go down again in a little while to do the evening chores and they will be happy to see me again.
We heard from Daniel in Italy that he has not been accepted into an apprenticeship program and has used up his allowable time there. He’ll be flying home the first of December. It will be nice to have him home. We missed him. But it’s sad because he loved it there and wanted to stay. That means our plans for me to go to Italy in March have been canceled. Now the plan is to go later in the year, as we originally intended, when the Rome temple has its open house, whenever that is.
I, like many people I know, get annoyed when the commercial world starts decorating and advertising for Christmas earlier and earlier every year. Some places start putting up Christmas things while their Halloween merchandise is still on the shelves. Poor Thanksgiving gets lost in it all. At our house we put up our outdoor lights early because of the weather. Hannah and I put them up on Tuesday last week. We don’t do much, just a strand across the front and back porches. We never turn them on until after Thanksgiving. We never start on the indoor decorations until after Thanksgiving. And we don’t start watching all the Christmas movies until then. The one thing we do start early, before Thanksgiving, is the music. Beginning in mid-November, I can’t hold out any longer. I love Christmas music and we have a very large collection of it. It takes us a long time to get through it all and we have to start early. I always start with my Celtic Christmas and Winter Solstice albums, then add in the more sacred and traditional music and then later add in all the secular stuff. Right now we’re listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir album Sing Choirs of Angels. It’s one of my favorites.
It’s the sort of dreary, cold, snowy Sabbath day that begs for a fire in the wood stove and a long nap. But first some lunch. And then the chores. And then to bed.
