Day -5 and counting

Today it is raining here in the Ozarks. It's a warm rain for this time of the year. The trees are just past their peak autumn color and have taken great strides toward shedding those colors. The ground is littered with leaves.

Change is in the air not just for the season but also in our lives. We are in the process of making plans to change a number of things in our lives. I don't know how long we'll be living here in this rural setting but I feel that our time here is extremely limited.

Last night my husband gave away most of our chickens. He got paid for them such a small amount that I say they were given away. Not only did he give away the chickens but he gave away their pens as well. We have one chicken wandering around the yard. It feels good in one sense to be rid of that ravenous hoard but in another sense it's sad. We raised those chickens from eggs laid by chickens that we raised from day old chicks. That lot of chickens represented 3 generations and now they belong to someone else.

We still have too many cats around here. Nine at last count. My brother who lives with us has two dogs. Just two of the cats are ours. We'll probably be giving away those cats too.

I guess since this is the last week in October and in just five days the NaNoWriMo begins, I'm getting very in tune with the fact that something new is about to happen. Next month, I'll be giving birth to a new book and right now it's like the last month of a pregnancy. Change is in the air.

Day -56 and counting

It rained last night but it did more than rain last night. It was the beginning of the passage from one season to the next. I feel the changes in the weather and there are the changes in the daily patterns as well. My husband and daughter are already back at school and my husband is talking about setting up the wood heating stove and bringing in firewood. This morning I woke up and made blueberry pancakes and bacon and the family sat down to eat breakfast together. The first time we'd done that since the hot weather settled in. This afternoon I'll be baking a German Chocolate cake and making blueberry muffins for tomorrow. I don't think it's quite cool enough to bake bread just yet but soon stoking the fire and baking bread will be part of my routine again.

It's just 56 more days until the 2009NaNoWriMo I am making my way down my list of projects I want to get done before then and I'm happy with my progress. It's amazing how much more easily things move when I have a plan and I work the plan using the paths of least resistance. There's something to be said about taking the easier path, the path that the fewest obstacles are in the path. At least I think it is for the creative side of me anyway. I associate this side of me with my inner child and a child doesn't work, a child plays but in the process the child is always learning, always growing. A child is always growing and learning faster than adults ever could no matter how hard they work at it. Maybe that's why we adults don't learn as fast, because we are trying to make things too hard, too complicated. Maybe we should lighten up and stop trying to fight the changes but accept them and flow with them, learn and grow with them. Maybe then we like children can learn and grow faster than we ever dreamed possible.