Peaceful {and Reading}

I just love fall colours. I really do. I would wear them, and actually - I do wear them...year round. They are just so perfect. To my eye, anyway. My new yard (and the "screamed in" porch, as Grey calls it), provide us with so much beauty. It's just so peaceful here. If I'm having a harried moment -

{I'm telling you all the honest truth - teaching people how to read is the worst! It's gotta be the most patience-inducing thing of.all.time. You just want to fall on your pencil and end it all. No. Start at the first sound. No, the first sound. Is that the first sound you see? Then start at.the.first.sound. So you're telling me that th makes the "ch" sound? Start over. I can't tell you, it's something kindergarteners know. Well we'll be sitting here until you figure it out, so look at the page and concentrate... If you've ever taught a child how to read, you know what I mean. Sometimes they are so absolutely dumb it almost seems unreal. Like they're faking it. Because no one is really that dense. Are they? And these particular idiots are -presumably- related to me. I often wonder if they were switched at birth. Because certainly, I have never been so difficult:-) }...

So anyway, if I'm having a harried moment - which as you can see by the above example - I have often occasion to have...I like to look at the trees. And the water. And the colours. It's really so just peaceful, interesting and calming, all at the same time.

Brian says the ivy will kill the tree. But it's just so pretty!

Leaves falling into the water

The tree in our front yard is so vibrant!

Some roses are still hanging in there! It's hasn't gotten too cold yet, so we've got a good mix of summer and fall

We have lots of raking to do! But the kids love it!

Speaking of kids...:-) My little readers. They are actually good little readers...when they want to be

Vibrant yellows in the backyard.

...Speaking of reading, in order to encourage more of it (and perhaps because I am a glutton for punishment) I instituted a new house-hold rule a few weeks ago. Read me one story, out loud, to earn 1 tv show/episode/movie. If you want a show, you have to read a book first. I believe I've really put a damper on their tv watching excitement:-) Tonight while I was making dinner, they read me a story (altering pages between them), so they could watch something after dinner. After dinner and that show, they said to watch another one, and I said "for another story" and they decided they'd rather not watch tv after all. Haha!