I must say…today. was. perfect.

After knitting an entire hat for my daughter last night between midnight and 2 am, I groggily fell into a wonderful state of sleep until a glorious 7 o’clock.  At the gentle urging of my dear husband, I climbed out of bed and set off for an early morning training run (that dreaded half-marathon is fast approaching).  A solid 6.5 miles and one hour later, I returned to ready myself for the day, while aforementioned dear husband left to get our weekly groceries.

By the time he returned, the kids and I were ready to head to their first ever organized race.  They’ve been talking about it for weeks!  Once there, we headed to the start where we happily cheered for our friend who ran in the Museum Mile race before readying ourselves for their big debut.  About 5 minutes, 250 kids, several parents and several more tears from many children later, Calder and Seneca were collecting their medals and we were on our way to the van.  All in all, they enjoyed themselves, but I’m not sure we’ll do it again next year.  I think Calder was still confused about the name of the race (he thought he’d get to see some dinosaurs) and Seneca seemed to think the whole thing was a bit too much if you ask me.  I love that they enjoy running and being active, and I can see them doing more of these types of events as they get older.

By 12:00pm we were enjoying the warmth of our vehicle and headed to meet one of my college friends and her family for lunch.  Part of the perfection of today, was thinking about all that we’d accomplished in the day and it was only then half over!  It sure made me think about how much more I could do if I had that same attitude everyday!  We enjoyed great food and even better conversation and catching up, and piled back into the van for the trip home.  Surprisingly, every stayed awake much longer than I expected.  Truth be told, I think I was the first to drift off, then the kids finally gave in about 10 miles from home.  Quietly, carrying them in to their waiting warm beds, we all enjoyed a restful afternoon.  (See what I mean?  Perfect, right?).

To round out the night, we headed back in to town where we had so much fun hanging out with the teens at our church.  It’s always great to see current and former students and to see them somewhere outside the classroom.  I know we’re looking forward to helping and connecting more.  As we headed home, I realized I still had to make the pumpkin scones my kids were taking for their pre-school snack tomorrow, which is why I’m still up finishing this post!

Within the day’s hectic schedule, I didn’t get to head out with my camera to complete the assignment, which was to find the hidden beauty of fall by focusing on the less obvious, for example the thorns of the rose instead of the unfurling blossom.  However, as I looked through the images I captured today at the race, I was saw the potential in one.

With some careful cropping and creative editing, I was surprised myself to see this

become this.

Today is the first of what I assume will be many more moments of gratitude for the Picture Fall class.  If it weren’t for this assignment, I would never have noticed the potential of the original image.  In many ways, I hope for my assignments to students to have the same effect, to help them see the potential of their original thoughts and ideas – to crop them and create them into a final product of which they can be so very proud!

Disclaimer: I am currently listening to the audio version of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which may have influenced my word choice and the internal British accent I heard in my head whilst composing this post.  Please accept my deepest apologies for my inability to switch back to modern day language!  ‘Tis a wonderful book, though and I hope you may be inclined to give it a read/listen!