feeling thankful for ...

:: the resurrection of a long, rainy day provided by good rain pants and boots.
:: sunny days for hanging linens that ended their journey from Hong Kong smelling rather musty. Really, not pleasant. We need more sunny days, too ... I'm not done yet.
:: the wonder of homemade ketchup (yes!) with oven-roasted fries, made with tomatoes from the school's garden ... at last, a tomato product that Finn will eat.
:: the apple-sowing journeys of John Chapman (better known as Johnny Appleseed), to whom we owe a debt for starting many of Ohio's apple orchards. Did you know apples aren't native in the US? And that the first orchards started by the colonists failed because of the absence of honeybees, also not native? Many of these orchards today grow direct descendants of Johnny's apples, my favorite being "Rambo," a name that just makes me giggle.
:: a clogged milk duct. Yes, I know this is a little perverse, or maybe even tmi, but really it's just a good reason to put my feet up and relax and let Willa do her thing. Go Willa go!
:: Burton antiques festival ... a long morning of me-time that resulted in the discovery of several just right organizational pieces, already making our porch and bedroom work so much better.
:: the beginnings of color on the trees! This, my friends, I have missed so much the last three years, and I am thrilled to see it again. Fingers crossed that the rain doesn't just blow all those leaves down early ...
:: unpacking the final boxes. We are so ready to move on from this stage of "moving in."  I think I can, I think I can ....