Bathe me in the colors of Fall

The leaves have nearly blown away, but I had one more good day of photos just before the election. (See my Flickr link on the side of the blog--you'll find many of my Fall photos there).

Today, the leaves remaining on the trees at Stephens Lake are faded and waiting to hitch a ride on the next big gust of wind. At home, the woods behind us are bare, revealing the skeletons of the trees. Only the brown oak leaves hang on--and they will for a good portion of the winter, trying to give us some color during those long bleak months.

These two pictures were taken a little over a week ago. They are the essence of why I love Fall: the color combinations, the blue skies, and the bright, yet translucent leaves that overwhelm me with their beautiful colors.

This Jack Johnson song "Talk of the Town" has been in my head lately and it seems to go well with this post. I'm so excited I finally figured out how to add YouTube videos (although this one is just audio for you people like me with slow-as-molasses internet connections). Enjoy!

Beautiful...

Someone said this in response to an article about why Jesse Jackson was crying during Obama's speech on Tuesday. It's so beautiful, I just had to share:

Rosa sat so Martin could walk
Martin walked so Barack could run
Barack ran so our children can fly

Kai racing his shadow at Stephens Lake

Speechless

I have so much to say but am at a loss for words right now. I feel like I have been crying for days. Tea woke up during Obama's acceptance speech so I brought her out to the living room so I could watch. She was lying in my arms and at one point looked up at me and said,
"Mama, what's on your neck?"
"Tears."
Tears of such joy.

I so agree with Obama when he said this election brought together so many people: young and old, Republican and Democrats, gay and straight, white, African-American, Hispanic, Native American, and really the whole world. There is an amazing slideshow on Huffington Post of the rest of the world reacting. It's incredible to see people in other countries weeping tears of joy for us. They, like us, know this is something big. I am so thankful this happened in my lifetime--it really gives me hope for my children's future.

Kai and Tea went canvassing with me yesterday, and when they woke up today, I told them Obama won. You guys were part of history, I said! They don't understand now but someday they will.

Here are a couple of images from Monday that seem to reflect my mood right now. I feel such peace now.

Hope...

I voted and drew this on my driveway afterward.

Hope is in the Air--literally!

Hope is an airplane flying above your head with a sign flapping behind it that says, "VOTE OBAMA."

This was as we were walking to the car from Stephens Lake. I was wearing my "Another Mama for Obama" shirt and had just finished an interview with KBIA 91.3 FM at the playground (they approached me). I'm on a roll with the media lately. Last Monday, it was my Mario Manzini photo. On Saturday, I opened my new Mothering magazine and started reading a letter that sounded familiar and realized it was mine! I had written to the magazine telling them how much I loved them and how their magazine always gives me hope!

Now we will see how this interview turned out. I would much rather be the photographer than the one photographed, the interviewer not the interviewee! In high school and college, when I had to tape my speeches in speech class and my radio shows, I never watched or listened to them. I couldn't stand it! And I just am that sort of "foot in mouth" person that says or does something stupid. I shouldn't even share this, but I have learned to laugh at myself. When I worked at The Buckle clothing store in college, a TV station was doing a story and filmed me dressing a mannequin. Not even realizing it, I was dressing the mannequin in the same cream sweater and red skirt I was wearing. Boy did everybody at work get a kick out of that one!

But this post is not supposed to be about me. I'm not an egomaniac, I swear. It's about hope. I hope that airplane was a sign. I hope Obama wins. And if you haven't cried yet today, look at this lovely "Tears for Obama" slideshow on Huffington Post.

Now I'm going to go and blanch and freeze some spinach to distract myself. Doesn't that sound like fun?
A spur of the moment piece of art I created outside after we saw the Obama plane fly over our house

Ghosts and Goblins and Great Pumpkins, Oh my!

Kai's drawing for my 14th Annual Chili Party / Halloween Costume Party.

We've been mourning the end of Halloween around here (Kai was crying about it being over two days before Halloween). Hopefully, Halloween met all of their expectations this year! We visited a Haunted House put on by a group of local homeschoolers and trick or treated in our neighborhood. Tea actually understood and enjoyed it this year, and unlike Kai, she knows what candy is and was unwrapping it and eating it before I could swap it out with some better stuff. He just figured out what candy was last year. Before that, he just played with it or gave it away. What are they putting in candy these days, anyway? Hydrogenated oil, food coloring, something like PSPB (what is that?)? And with that melamine from China getting into the candy, I'm more than hesitant to let them eat it. When I was little, poisoned candy was just an urban legend. It's a reality for my kiddos--too sad.

I remembered very last minute that the Great Pumpkin comes the night of Halloween to get his share of the candy and to leave gifts in place of it. He took more than the kids gave him but he left a felted bat and an orange felted flower purse with a tiny pumpkin baby inside (which Tea has already lost). The Great Pumpkin was up until midnight frantically felting the gifts and downloading and burning the Curious George soundtrack to leave for the kids (what a great CD--I'm sorry I waited so long to buy it!)

Kai is adamant about keeping the Halloween decorations up. He can't imagine life without the Haunted House in his room. Maybe someday he'll be like one of those people on HGTV and have his entire house decked out in Halloween decor year round.

Tomorrow we're heading out with the camera for some final fall shots. Things have really peaked and the hillsides are ablaze in rust, orange, red, burgundy, and ochre. One big wind and it will all be gone, so we better enjoy it. I think in an ideal world, it would be Fall forever.

Baby Love

To say that Tea loves babies in an understatement. She adores them. Here's a beautiful interaction with my friend's baby Elliot. I love how he tries to play peek-a-boo with her. He was practically squirming off my lap to get closer so he could touch her. So sweet. And you can see how much she enjoyed it. I love her expressions in these pictures.