Fleeting

I went running this morning and mostly looked down at my feet, because that's where all the gorgeous beauty was. I swear, I am about to crash my car, just driving around town distracted by the leaves. This afternoon, we played freeze tag on the front lawn and the girls rode their bikes through big, glossy piles of yellow and red that the neighbor was trying to organize near the curb. Then we came inside and made a fire, which is one of my favorite things to do on a fall Sunday evening. I can't believe Halloween is this week, or that soon the rest of the leaves will be off the trees and sucked up by the leaf truck.

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Kevin came to visit today. He knocked on the front door while Jemma and I were folding and sorting her clean laundry in her bedroom. While Annie looked for someplace to hide, Jemma perked right up, ran out of her bedroom mid-sock-matching, answered the door, and gave him a big hug. Then she helped Annie out of her shyness by announcing, "Hi! This is my friend, Annie."

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Annie had a classmate come home from school on Friday. All three girls were sitting around the dining room table, eating their grilled cheese and tomato soup. Jemma looked up and announced, "Kate Beeney, I am going to be a bunny rabbit for Halloween!"

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Jason forgot he was a dentist for one minute at the grocery store (and forgot that I try to keep junk food out of the house, though who has been eating all that candy corn this week?) and bought the girls a pack of Fruity Snacks. I like to call them Sugar Gel. Or just Sugar. But anyway, he bought them, the girls love them, and I let them have a package each on our way to Meijer Gardens the other day. When we got there, Annie hadn't finished her whole package, and she looked at me with a gleam in her eye.

"Mom, I'm going to try to forget that I have these fruity snacks left and leave them in the car. I'll go play at Meijer Gardens, and then, when I get back to the car, the fruity snacks will be a SURPRISE!" It worked. She was pleased.

It's the little things. It's the one-liners. It's the forgotten fruity snacks. It's the leaves.