November 4

I'm grateful Ruthie finally figured out chopsticks. So is she, actually.

November 3

I've mentioned this before, that Jack Schrader has the nicest arrangements of choral music I've seen. The choral parts have incredible harmonies and you really get to play with your big gospel voice. The piano accompaniment is always peppered with bluesy licks and more often than not, a few difficult parts that keep it interesting.

I'm grateful for my trusty metronome, a gift from my piano professor back in college. Without it, speed-learning What a Friend this afternoon would have been much more difficult.

November 2

I'm grateful for the Hart's lightbox, specifically the fact it was able to save my grumpy butt and give me something to be grateful about today.

November 1

It may be mundane, but I'm grateful there are no more dirty dishes in my sink.

October 31

After an evening of escorting (read "trying to keep up with") Luke's boy scout troop around the neighborhoods, I'm grateful that Halloween is over for another year.

October 30

Luke's book project this month was the genre "realistic fiction" (last month he authored his own autobiography ABC book).

For this assignment, he read a book his wonderful Grammy Nan gave him for Christmas last year - And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold, the story of a 12-year-old boy born into a shepherding family in northern New Mexico and at that awkward lifestage of no longer a boy, but not yet a man.

He fashioned a great costume to give his presentation to his class as Miguel. He found a bandana to cover his face from the dust the sheep turn up, a blue wool sarape to keep him warm during the cold nights sleeping in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, and a sturdy walking stick to not only help him in that climb but guide wayward sheep back into the flock.

And in his words: "The sheep like to eat salt crystals that look like rock candy. I wanted to bring you all real salt crystals like the sheep ate, but I didn't think you would like that too much so I brought you sugar rock candy instead."

I'm grateful rock candy hasn't gone the way of the Halloween Carnival and I was able to find enough to go around. I'm also grateful for his wonderful teacher and her creative assignments.

October 29

As we started into town this morning for church, we encountered an unexpected surprise of four hot air balloons hovering over the valley. I'm grateful that one of those balloons was directly on our path and we were able to pull over and watch it land.