TODAY is Halloween?

With this much candy already gathered, I thought we'd already had it! 

Soup, Anyone?

I made a new soup recipe the other night (I wouldn't recommend the recipe), and started out with my regular soup pot.  I soon found that I needed to use my larger pot!

Misc.

This is one of my best ideas ever (I think).  I have some bookshelves in my living room that aren't usable as such because the kiddos ("J") enjoy taking things - especially books - off the shelves.  So the shelves have been sitting empty and/or cluttered for the greater part of this year.  After thinking and pondering for many months, I came up with the idea of a flannel board of sorts.  Using felt and sticky back velcro dots, I created this scene to go along with the book/poem "5 Little Pumpkins".  I figure I can change it with the seasons, it's a decoration and child-safe.  

"A" got his hair cut earlier this evening.  He does not like getting his hair cut, so I always put it off as long as I possibly can.  I took the chair outside, because we usually get less crying out there, the cape, the clippers, the extension cord - it was all set up before I took him out (he did not go willingly.  I had told him what I was going to do).  Even though there was a bit of whining at the end, there were NO tears!  I explained what I was doing and what the next thing was every step of the way.  He asked me to turn the clippers off a couple of times and I did.  He looked for airplanes and birds and helicopters when I needed him to look up.  He showed me his feet when I needed him to look down.  I'm not saying he was laughing through it, but he wasn't crying.  And that's a huge step for my boy-o!

Have y'all heard of Halo Heaven?  It's my absolute favorite go-to place for hair-bows.  Like the ones pictured above.  And butterfly wings - because "N" loves being a butterfly.  And is going to be one for Halloween this year (again) and why pay $5 at W@l-m@rt when I can pay $1.50 at Halo Heaven?  I have a serious weakness for this store.  This is not meant to be an advertisement.  I just love them.  

Freezer Meals

We recently purchased a large freezer.  And this month my goal is to fill it up with freezer meals.  For those days when I know I won't have time to fix a dinner or for when I forget that I'm supposed to fix dinner or for when a friend needs a meal, etc.

I have a tendency, however, to forget what I've put into the freezer - especially since it's downstairs and my kitchen is upstairs.  So I made a handy chart to put on my fridge, so that I can remember what I've put in the freezer, and know when I need to replenish it (cheese, etc).  My method may not work for everybody, but you can take the idea and run with it.  But if you make a better method, will you tell me so that I can use it, too?

Caterpillars

We found this guy in our carport, while unloading children, after an unsuccessful caterpillar hunt.  Funny?  I think so.

 This is him next to a regular-sized bubble wand.  He was a little skeptical of it and didn't want to get to close.  When he's fully extended, he's about the same length.

 This is him next to an extra-long bubble wand.  He's seriously big!  I've been searching and searching online to figure out what he is, so that we can feed him the correct kind of leaves.  No luck yet.

This is our other resident caterpillar, Gracyn or Mickey, depending on the day.  She's a Wooly Bear Caterpillar, that eats grass and hibernates all winter, spinning her cocoon in the spring and turning into an Isabella Tiger Moth.  

The kiddos have had a great time playing with her.  This is what we were hunting for today, when we came back empty handed.

Sadly, I think the kiddos might have had too much fun with her.  She's not moving a lot (at all).  "N" thinks she's already hibernating.  I'm not convinced...

From the Garden

It's our first ever, home-grown cantaloupe!  We had some left-over seeds when we planted our garden, and I let the kiddos plant them in the front dirt that will one day be over-flowing with beautiful flowers, not even thinking that they would survive.  I was surprised to see a cantaloupe vine growing and even more surprised a month or so later when there was a cantaloupe on the vine!  It's taken a very long time for it to ripen, but it finally did!  And it's delicious!  The funniest part is that the cantaloupe that we planted in our actual garden never took off, and still has no cantaloupes on the vine, which finally started growing about a month ago.   Now we'll see if the other cantaloupes have time to ripen, before the cold weather comes and never leaves.

Yard Sales and Rollerskates

I love yard sales!  I picked up these skates (and a few other things) for $5 today at a random yard sale, we weren't even looking for yard sales!  The kiddos had a blast outside, every chance they had.  After dinner,  DH and I put on our rollerblades and we all had a go.  So much fun!

Canning Entry 2011

This is going to be a rather boring post.  It's more for my records than anything, because I won't lose it.  The question is, will I remember where I recorded it?  We'll see...  


It's been a busy year for canning.  Here's the list:

• 1 bushel (2 boxes) of peaches turned into 18 quarts - 2 didn't seal.
• 1 1/2 bushels (3 boxes) of pears turned into 35 quarts of pears - 1 didn't seal.
• 3 batches of salsa (2 with roma tomatoes, 1 with regular) turned into 14 pints of salsa.
• 1 case of pickling cucumbers turned into a whole lot of pickles.  We made dill, sweet relish, sweets and bread and butter. I was not impressed with the sweet pickle recipe we used.  Anyone want sweet pickles?
• 24 pounds of strawberries turned into roughly 34 pints of jam.  Some went into plain ol' frozen strawberries, also.  I was done making jam.

Still to be done:

• Strawberries
• Apple Jelly
• Black-Apple Jelly - It's the best!

Hooray!

Even though it's completely out of focus, this picture thrills me!  "N" is riding her bike again!  She has been suffering from a paralyzing fear of so many things that live outside that when we go outside, she wouldn't move an inch away from me - unless I was near the garden, and then she would wait in screaming suspense for me to return to her side.  I had always heard of paralyzing fear, but "N" was my first first-hand experience with it.  Today she even ventured outside without me.  It lasted less than a minute, but she did it!

Labor Day

We went hiking on Labor Day.  It was a overcast and drizzled a bit, but we had a great time.

It took a while for "N" to warm up to being outside.  She's developed a phobia (read: PARALYZING FEAR.  Literally.) of bees, wasps, dogs, moose ... it goes on and on.  So being outside wasn't her idea of fun.  But once she got used to it, she didn't want to go home.

We missed the gorgeous wildflower season, but still were able to some pretty flowers.

 "A" had a blast.  He needed no prodding to have fun.  He climbed, jumped, dug and got PLENTY dirty.