Mud Run & Pumpkin Carving

New mural at Andy's Produce

Going to work has been harder and harder for me lately.  It's not that I don't like my job, I do.  It's just that I love being in my house more and leaving my homey cocoon on a Monday morning to head to school for an 8 am meeting and then to the office in Sebastopol is not my idea of easing into the week.

The mornings start for me when it's still dark and I shuffle out of bed to turn of the alarm clock, turn on my laptop, start the water for coffee and organize my day.  I nudge Grady and have found that enticing him with 10-15 minutes of reading time is the best way to get him out of bed without constant nagging. Oh, make no mistake, there is still constant nagging to make progress in the morning but the get out of bed speech has almost disappeared.

After my meeting at school and my stint at work, I made my way over to Andy's Produce to do my weekly shopping trip.  It turned out that I left my key in the car with the radio on and I returned to a dead battery.  Oh, it was going to be one of those days.  Steve ended up saving the day with jumper cables and I got to admire the new art mural recently installed on the side of the building at Andy's.

G is the red speck in the middle of this picture

The day ended with making good on a punishment handed out over the weekend and Grady had to run to the top of the hill behind our house and back as fast as he could.  He fell three times, shed hot, angry tears and hid up a tree in front of our house until we called him in.  Unfortunately for him, he made great time (10 minutes roundtrip) and future punishments will use that time as a benchmark.

He's been interrupting and correcting us with big NO's a lot lately and it's just not acceptable behavior.  We've let it slip, issued warnings and finally had to find the punishment that would make him stop and think about his actions and words.  This did the trick.

We have such a smart, creative and funny kid and it's not easy or frequent that we have to implement this kind of punishment.  The good news is that it worked!  Slowly it is seeping into this young man what we expect of him and we are slowly seeing the results.  I want the end result and, so, I have to parent in tandem with Steve and stand firm.  It's not that hard, but it would be harder to do alone.  I'm grateful every day that I parent with SL and his strong, moral compass.

When all was said and done, I wiped Grady's tears away with a warm washcloth & gave him a big, loving hug.  He cried into my shoulder and hugged me back.  His dad talked to him about why we issued that punishment and how proud we are to have a kid like him.  It ended well, but it was hard.

1.) Valley Ford; 2.) Petaluma; 3.) Cotati & 4.) Valley Ford/Bodega

The rains hit us hard early Monday morning and then the skies opened up and the clouds danced about.  The week was filled with daily cloud shows over the valley and surrounding towns.  I couldn't get enough of the white, billowy formations.

So we weathered the first rain storm of the season pretty well and the rest of the week was filled with pretty moon rises, soft sunsets, eating the last of the apple harvest at work and strolling through community gardens admiring the late fall flowers.  I wanted to soak up the last bits of autumn before an early winter set in.

Gigi phone date, Tuchbands here for dinner & Scott V. made us a fire pit!

Grady has devoured Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder this weekend.  We also watched part one of the Disney movie and I really enjoyed sharing this with him.  I loved this series as a young girl (the books & the television show) and it was nice to see that the books held up in this modern time.

Garter snake on Johns Street & "Fern" painting inspired by the book Wildwood.

We learned about shabbat on Friday night from our friends, the Tuchbands.  They introduced us to challah bread (which was awesome!) and explained a bit about the tradition.  We decided to honor that tradition and rest all day Saturday.  We visited with neighbors, read and painted.  It was such a nice day with the boy.

Before, Laundry Pile & After

It was a good thing we rested on Saturday, because Sunday was our first Russian River Mud Run 5K (with an obstacle course, of course) with the Rangels.  Oh, yes!  That Stephanie can talk me into just about anything.

Out of 740 participants :: G finished as #440, Sophia #441, Steve #438

We all got good and filthy, went down a 50' mudslide and finished with minor injuries & smiles on our faces.  The best part was that Steve & Bert joined us for this little adventure.  I know our kids loved it, but I'm thinking next year should be a father & son only event for the Salas-Hecht clan.  I mean, someone has to stay clean and take the pictures, right?

I love how strong and beautiful our children are.  I am continually amazed by them.

My happy cyclops, SL's bull dog & G's Yoda.

This weekend ended with us attending the annual pumpkin carving contest at the Chutes' home.  Last year Steve took 1st place with his one-eyed gourd and two years before that I took 1st place with this one.  This year Steve finished 2nd with his very original green, wrinkled, toothy bull dog.  This man has a knack for carving.

This is my book club selection and I'm almost finished with it.  It's all about one woman's quest to learn about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books, homes, life and legacy.  Grady is going to attend our meeting this coming week and share his thoughts on the two books he read from the series.  He's pretty stoked, as he always wants to come to book club with me.

And while I don't long to live like the pioneers, I do love my life in our little house in the valley.