Yesterday, in face all of the weekend, was that glorious kind of late fall weather when it is imperative to be outside for at least part of the day.  On both days, I spent hours raking fallen leaves and pruning back the garden beds.  I offered up apologies to the dear flowering plants that persevered this growing season amidst drought, weeds and neglect from the gardener.  I promised a better next year, to the extent that I can make such promises.  Two of my big leaf bearers hold tight to their yellow cloaks until after Thanksgiving and so my work in not nearly finished but for the moment and in the rain of the day, the lawn and garden beds look raked clean and full of next year’s possibilities.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in a furious cook.  Sweet potato chili (new recipe, not bad, but needs a bit more tweaking), sautéed bok choi, baked squash and oatmeal cookies.  Some for consumption last night but also for the frig and freezer.  My busy days do not permit substantial cooking during the week and so, I am back to my old cooking ways.  I had a measure of joy in the work and later a measure of physical exhaustion that propelled me to sleep at a very reasonable time.

Sleep, at times, still eludes me.  Some of that is because I dither after putting Julia to bed or, instead of writing or reading, I watch much too stimulating tv or snack to ward off dozing when I am trying to read or write.  I have resolved to work on sleep and to the extent that I am attentive to my cycle, I have success.  Seven hours is delightful, and I am dreaming on a regular basis.

When Julia and I do food shopping, I allow Julia to pick out cookies for her lunch and for our sometimes desserts after supper.  She favors original Oreos but last week, she found special edition football oreos and begged me to get them.  She also brought up football in a poem she wrote about fall as her favorite game to watch.  Now, this line of thinking is not from me, one-half of the old anti-sport parenting team.  In truth, I have nothing against football or sports in general.  I just don’t like them and so, never, ever watch sports or engage in sports talk if I can help it.  And considering that we don’t have our tv hooked up to anything but netflix and the DVD player, I don’t even know how I would find football to watch.  And so, the dilemna -- possibly finding an adult to watch a game/part of a game with her.  Then again, there are three boys at the bus stop -- two in her class -- who wear their football jerseys almost every day, but I never imagined that she even registered those outfits.  

Does Julia have a secret life that I am unaware of?

This morning as Julia was putting on her coat on her way to the bus, she ran back to the living room to grab something.  I was amazed to see her strut back into the kitchen with a purple scarf tied around her neck.  What a hoot!  I posted a picture of it on facebook with the message, “After 6 years of living with me, Julia (finally) decided that a scarf is a necessary accessory.”  And there it is, I wear scarves every chance I get -- only the worst heat of the summer finds my neck naked.  And purple -- my favorite color.  This is a found scarf and Julia is very pleased with that as well.  We were in JoAnn’s Fabric and Julia found a chiffon-y scarf on the floor.  We asked the people around that spot and offered to turn it into a lost and found, but there were no takers and the guy at customer service told us he would just throw it away.  My girl couldn’t bear that and so it came home with us.  It went through the wash and Lizzy wore it for a few days, but today, Julia became the fashion queen.

Sometimes when Julia does something she has never done before, I try to look back to see what triggered the utterance or event.  Most of the time, I can see some reasons -- like the fact that I wear scarves all the time -- but usually not the proximate cause.  How does that brain work?  What are the proximate causes for the growth that I can see?