November Leaves

We spent the past two days raking leaves and putting away our children's outside toys (Big Wheels, a plastic kiddie pool, a fleet of Tonka trucks). These are things we should have done in October, but we have a big yard with many trees--mostly oaks and maples, along with four good-sized white pines, a couple of hemlocks and a long row of cedars. The yard looks...well, as if we did our weekend-best to be useful citizens, though I am not sure the neighbors would agree.

Tomorrow, back to my day job and then off to class. I have four more sessions with my poetry students. I've enjoyed the chance to teach poetry, though what I'm teaching is actually a "poetry for non-majors" class that is intended to fulfill an arts-before-you-graduate requirement. Next semester, I go back to teaching English 113, the Hope College version of Freshman Composition. The Department lets us design our own course, and my students will be writing on creativity. We'll be using The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life by Twyla Tharp as a text, and will also be reading The Habit of Being, Flannery O'Connor's letters. I picked two books that I wanted to read again, and between now and mid-January must actually design a course that uses the books and gives the students something sensible to write about.

That should make for a busy Christmas.