72 Degrees on the week of Thanksgiving

There are a lot of cultural things that strike me as odd about living in the South as a transplant- and because I am still here by choice, I will not use this space to fuss about them. I do, however, LOVE the weather here most of the time. In the summer, it is HOT everywhere, Atlanta being no exception. I wish there were a better way to shield me from those 90 degree days than just the plethora of trees surrounding the house, but no other viable options have presented themselves, so AC it is. The fall and winter, though, that is where things here get amazing. Three days until Thanksgiving - an occasion that typically is heralded by snow in Indiana, I laid out in the yard in the sun over the weekend and today, drove with the windows down and the sunroof open - being caressed by the sun.

I put in a crop of garlic and leeks last weekend to grow over the winter. The asparagus is lovely with its delicate ferns covering the patch in my garden, carefully guarded by St Francis.

The mums are still covered in miniature firework bursts and bright-faced pansies will winterover in the pots on my south-facing porch. I have pepper plants growing on the windowsill of my kitchen, just waiting to be put into outside pots this weekend. The same weekend we will decorate the house for Christmas. Can't get over the fact that I plant and put up Christmas decorations in the same week. Not a bad deal at all. Lots of crops do well over the winter including the root vegetables like onions and leeks and carrots. I still have tomotoes ripening on the vine and parsley vivid green along the walk. The fruit trees are just branches now and the blueberries have fiery red leaves disguising them as fire bushes for the remainder of the season.

Like nearly every person in the US right now, money is tight, but we have been blessed with a lovely piece of land, a little garden to sustain us and a ton of Ball jars filled with the bounty from this year. There is enough fallen wood to build a skyscraper and if I handle it right, I should be able to have firewood for the bonfire for months to come- now if I could only figure out a way to get a fireplace in my house - I really miss that - and it seems a waste not to have one with so much wood fallen about. But that is another story all together.

In this season of Thanksgiving, I am grateful for a full pantry, and enough money to pay my bills.

10 foot Titans in a 6 foot world

Do you remember when you grew into the adult sized body that you have now? Ever since I can remember, I thought I was huge- like Jolly Green Giant type huge. I walk loudly, I make noise in the kitchen, I slam the door- like someone who isn't aware of their own strength even today. I remember many many times that my folks would tell me not to walk so heavily or not to tear off the door to the car. Along with this feeling of being 10 feet tall in a 6 foot world, comes the gawkiness of banging into things. I have a nearly constant bruise on either a hip or an ankle- often times both.

I cannot begin to tell you the number of stitches I have had-and three sets that I remember right off the top of my head occured doing dishes where I caught a knife or shattered a cup and then picked it up like a rocket scientist. This week my graceful moves included running over my debit card in a drive thru and pouring boiling water into a plastic jug in an attempt to make tea. This last feat involved watching as the tea bags leapt for their lives out of the top of the pitcher and the bottom of the pitcher imitated a rogue Shrinky Dink: becoming smaller by the second and scaring the wits out of me. I only regret not having it on video because I was genuinely shocked that it didn't work out. It is unfortunately a familial trait.

Bear went through a time where she was always bumping something - or worse, dropping a glass in the kitchen. Honestly, I have gone through 18 glasses that were purchased as a wedding present 51/2 years ago- not all of them were Bear, but the majority were. My friend Mary bought me some glasses when Justin moved out - only one brave one remains - and that one is in my bathroom for my vitamins. Just call us Grace.

Joshua has broken a camera, an ipod, an video recorder and numerous other devices in his possession and he cannot say exactly how. Twice he has WALKED on his guitars, requiring costly repairs. This could be carelessness, but it is actually just a symptom of our BIGGER problem.

Jake is in that phase now- where he has grown nearly 7 inches in the past 12 months and he just can't seem to get his spacial perception to match where his body actually is located. We went to the movies tonight and he refilled the popcorn for our drive home. He set it on the counter and when he went to pick it up - it went flying - with most of it landing in the bucket- but a healthy shower of it decorated the floor. The man at Venture was very kind about getting it swept up for us. And if that wasn't enough, when we went to get in the car, he again held the bucket and somehow half of it dumped onto my floorboards - it was too dark to get it cleaned up, so there it will stay until morning. That will be an interesting smell in the morning.

I went to lunch with a friend today and mentioned that I would love to have stone walls- and while they are beautiful, they might be good for us! I have patches in the wall on the way down the stairs from where I turned to quickly and put my elbow through it- another two upstairs where I opened the door too hard and slammed the knob into the door behind it- and my personal favorite: the cutaway shelf that now exists in the hallway where I tripped and put my shoulder through the wall- and fearing it was too big to patch, I just made it into a shelf. If you look closely enough, you'll see some oddities in this house- and most of them are from the Titans banging into the walls....