November 13

Today I am grateful for Tuesdays.

I really think Tuesdays are one of my favorite days of the week.

For one, they are not Monday.

Also, I have double planning at school, which means I can eat lunch at something approaching a normal lunchtime.

On Tuesdays I am thankful for my mother who takes the kids while Nat and I meet for coffee.  I am very, very thankful for  cup of Starbucks coffee AND my wonderful husband, waiting for me at a cozy table at the end of the day.

I am grateful for family dinners, for enforcing a habit that would be all too easy to let go in favor of absent minded meals in front of the television.  I am grateful for my exuberant and intelligent children, even when that exuberance and intelligence means they wheedle their way out of things and into trouble and STILL get oreos for dessert.

I am grateful for the way Ivy says "eerios" instead of oreos.

And, I am so grateful that Tuesdays bring choir.  I love choir.    I love making music.  I love singing in mixed position, hearing the unique blend of voices, the rumble of the basses, the float of the chords.  I love, simply love, the Faure Requiem.  I am grateful for the kind and generous and music-loving people from all these different backgrounds, who all come together because they love the Faure Requiem too. I am grateful for our tireless director, for his passion and dedication and the way he gently leads us towards excellence.  I am grateful for the soaring, glorious, resounding finish at the end of Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.

I am grateful for rides home with Fiona, for our wide ranging conversation, for her stories and color and inspiration.  It is good to know what one wants to be when one grows up, after all..

I am grateful for quiet companionship and good TV, for the way my dog looks up from the couch as soon as my front tires hit the driveway, for the warmth of my home and cool clarity of a November night.

I am grateful for the first flakes of snow and for my red wool coat.