Thank Goodness for Fridays (the overwhelming feeling for kids home from school)

This morning was nice and cold. 37 degrees when I woke up the girls.

By late morning, the sun was up and the chill was gone. By midday, the temperatures were up to 70 something and I felt like pouting.

Of course, by now you know I love to bake bread. Milling grain into flour and mixing it up with Coco's milk and honey is alchemy. I love witnessing magic as the natural glutens develop and gloppy dough becomes satiny loaves.

However, there are days like today when the sun is shining and I feel distracted and wish more than anything that I could be out working in the garden, pulling weeds, finding rows, mulching and preparing for the winter so we can be ready to plant in the springtime. Hence the pout.

At some point I ran up to the mailbox to get the newspaper and took it out to the garden and sat in the middle of the weeds to read. Yanked some monster lamb's quarter. Found some ripe tomatoes (however in the world did the chickens miss those three?). Shed an almost bitter tear and went back into the bakery to resume my work.

So I guess the point of this post is that sometimes farmers have to go to work to be able to pay the bills to be able to stay on the farm. And sometimes the things you really want to do have to wait. I will get to the garden, soon. Won't get it all done, but I think that the pouty feeling was a good indicator that I better find some time to work outside. Winter days are coming and I need to take in some Vitamin D!

Supper is almost finished, the bread is wrapped and the kids are playing together outside. Patrick is desperate for someone to practice lacrosse with so I saw him teaching Rose how to hold the stick. Nora is setting out some mums to make things look nice and fallish. Thomas is taking a nap and Maggie is working on something. The evening sky glows pink and blue like a baby blanket.

For some reason, this time of fall makes me feel steeped in melancholy. The colors and the feel of the air touch my spirit like a winsome violin piece. Guess I better run downstairs, milk Coco and enjoy the piercing music of the dusk and appreciate the ability to feel. Melancholy, grateful, pouty, tired, sad, happy, expectant, at least not mad for the moment!