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The holiday hoopla is over and done. All fine and well and good. It’s a New Year. We’re moving on. Already, resolutions made and broken. Such is life.

And now, the COLD spell begins. I saw a headline in my Google feed this morning containing those dreaded, winter-month words, polar vortex. Yikes! I remember well, those frigid days and weeks, from just a few years back.

Ah, well. Bring it on, I say. We’re Iowans, Midwesterners. We can handle a few frozen temperatures. We’ve got Netflix and Hulu and Apple + TV. There are LOADS of books on our shelves and downloaded to our Kindles (and we know where to get more). There’s the Internet! Streaming! Painting tutorials: watercolors, Bob Ross, acrylics! We’ve got quilting, reorganizing, Sudoku, baking bread, crock-pot lasagna. Take-out, for crying out loud.

Knife sharpening!

The miraculous wonders of YouTube….

Yeah, we’ll manage alright. That doesn’t mean we have to like it.

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I want to apologize to those of you whose blogs I follow – and also thank everyone who continues to visit and support A Sawyer’s Daughter. The last couple of months have been pretty busy and the rest of October promises to continue in like fashion.

One of my morning rituals is scrolling through my Reader and catching up with what others have posted and offering my comments and Likes. I’ve been pretty lax in doing that of late and hope to resume my contributions as a member in good standing in The Land of Blog after we make it through the rest of the month!

We’ve been absorbed in all things ‘boat’ this summer and early fall. Husband just finished winterizing our new toy and we’ll be hauling it to the storage shed later today until warmer days return next spring and we can once again take to the water!

I’m hunkered down this weekend and will be likewise so throughout the first of the week preparing and distributing ‘poetry packets’ for next Saturday’s Iowa Poetry Association’s Fall Workshop. For the past three years, I’ve served as the Spring / Fall Workshop Coordinator and while I’ve enjoyed the experience, I’d like to step down now – yes, now after I’ve finally gotten everything all figured out and have my methods and processes down to a (somewhat) well-oiled machine! I’ve decided it’s time and I look forward to just being a participant instead, going forward.

Most pressing right now, however, is that both my husband and I are also dealing with the health concerns of our parents. Bill’s dad has back surgery on the 21st and he will be staying with them, out of town, for at least a week. In the meantime, my mother was just diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer and it looks like her doctors are moving quickly in response. She has a troublesome heart so that will play into any available treatment options which they will discuss with her next Thursday.

October is my favorite month of the year but with all that’s been happening, I’m not able to fully enjoy and appreciate it as I’d like. But — the weather has been absolutely glorious this year and for that I am so grateful!

Take care, friends, and I hope to reconnect with you all after the fun and spirit of Halloween gives way to the thankfulness of gobble-gobble in November and the wintry joys of the holiday season throughout December — and beyond!

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~ for Wesley

my son delights

in music theory

the pursuit

of dissonant chords

the fundamental elements

of harmony

form and melody,

all the hallmarks

of a lifelong propensity

to outrageous creativity