Slower days, slow autumn colors

Not one grandchild picture since the last time I posted!  What is my life coming to?  Hahaha!  

We are having such a drab autumn this year!  I grabbed some colorful things when I got groceries one day just to have something pretty to look at. 

So just mundane activities since Tuesday - cooking for Anthony and Lori (and us too, of course), grocery shopping, lots and lots of music prep.  No Bible study on Thursday morning because the State College School District had off and we follow their schedule.  No babysitting because Lori and the boys are away at a family funeral.  

We did have choir practice Thursday evening.  Our Christmas cantata is coming along really well.   The songs are easy and beautiful and fun.  You can listen to them on this YouTube link if you'd like. 

We're doing an unusual one tomorrow morning.  One of the men in the congregation sent me a song that was written by his 6x great grandfather!  He wondered if the choir could sing it on Laity Sunday.   I could barely read the tiny score, and the melody looked really unusual.  That's all there was - a melody and the lyrics.  No harmony, no chords, no accompaniment.  

So I first of all put the song into my composer program on my computer and set the tempo really slow so I could figure out the unusual rhythm and melody.  Then I decided on some chords to go with the melody and added some harmony parts for the last line of the song.  Last week I introduced it to the choir and they were game to try it.  Definitely not our favorite song ever, but not as bad as I expected when I first saw it.  

I was so happy to see this lovely sight when I pulled away from our bank on Friday.  I remember from other years that these were usually the first to turn, so maybe other trees will follow even as late in the season as it is.  

But for now, most trees just look like this.

Today the sky was constantly changing.  Sometimes it just depended which direction you looked.  Brilliant sunshine one minute, rain the next.  

This morning I finally did something for the first time in a very, very long time.  We have this wonderful big bathtub with jets, but the grandchildren are pretty much the only ones that ever take the time to enjoy it.  I decided to take the time.  Complete with lavender epsom salts.  It was really, really nice.  Hopefully I won't wait so long before I do it again.  Maybe it would even help my lower back.

It was nice to sit there and look up at the picture of Multnomah Falls.

Well, that's all for this time!