Squirrels, a Golden Goose and Roman Numerals - Oh My!

What we woke up to one morning. The pumpkins were fine the night before!

Jacques – see his scar? (taken through our kitchen window)

The Waldorf Alphabet: Golden Goose – Can you see the ‘G’ in the goose?

Roman numerals (and Saint Martin)

I have been thinking a lot of my Grandpa this past week. He was such a big part of my life. I pulled out his book of prayers from the war (WWII) and used it while praying for him on All Souls Day. Something little that has been bringing him to mind even more so lately is the group of squirrels visiting us on a daily basis outside our kitchen windows. I admit I love those furry creatures. I named one of them (that has an easily identifiable scar on his nose) Jacques in honor of him. My Grandpa had an endearing relationship with squirrels. I can still see him in his backyard feeding them peanuts from his hands.  He had names for each squirrel but the one that I clearly remember was one names Jacques. I always thought my Grandpa had some sort of gift or special power to be able to get so close to the squirrels. I tried time and again but they wouldn’t come anywhere near me. I think squirrels will forever remind me of him.
I found it quite fitting that we received our latest Mariposa Forest story over the weekend and it was from Alistair Squirrel. Psst. You can win some of these stories yourself here!

Our lead sled dog is down and out. He has been limping for weeks now but he goes back and forth between his front paws. Huskies live to run, breathe to run, so weeks of no exercise is unacceptable to our poor Paw Paw. Kevin took him to the vet Saturday and they couldn’t find anything wrong but some soreness between two of his vertebrae. They gave him a cold laser treatment to help soothe the pain as well as some homeopathic meds to bring home and serve him until we see results. When Kevin came home to report the news I first has a sense of relief that it wasn’t anything serious but that was quickly followed by a short twinge of envy. Can you believe it? Me, envious over my dog? The horrible pain my back has been in the past year or so due my diastasis had me wishing I got some of the cold laser treatment myself!
I hope old blue eyes (he’s my little Frank Sinatra, don’t ya know?) heals soon, he gets so crazy when he sees the other dogs leaving to exercise without him. Seeing him act this way reminded me of how down I feel when I can’t run and I haven’t been running in months… I hope things change and I can get back to it someday soon.

I may have found a new sewing soundtrack for this upcoming Christmas season sew-a-thon: Mumford and Sons (Thanks,Ginny!). I get a huge dose of energy when I hear them, which is just what I need while sewing. Last year’s soundtrack was a mix of the Avett Brothers and Ella Fitzgerald.

Speaking of Ginny, she is hosting a giveaway for some lovely Luna Grey yarn this weekend. You know how much I adore this yarn, and I think all of you would, too, so I wanted to pass on the news. But hurry, it ends Monday!

I meant to tie in those number and letter pictures with news on K but I think I have already said too much for this post. But I will say there is much excitement in the air around our home. K will be an angel in a Martinmas pageant this Friday. I still can’t get over how big she is getting!

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