Apple Picking

It seems like it's getting harder and harder to squeeze in all the things that we love to do in the autumn, but we did make it up to Skytop Orchard for apple picking this year, without Daddy-o, but with the rest of the gang.  (And we brought home some of the delicious apple cider donuts, which let's be honest, are the real reason we want to go each year.)

 

It was one of the coldest days of the fall when we went, but there was sun and lots of walking to do, so we stayed warm enough.

Our favorite apple, the Gold Rush, is ready late in the season, so we always go towards the end, and by that time, there isn't much to pick, but the kids really wanted to actually pick apples so we hunted around for a few trees that still had fruit on them and picked a basket.

Then I went and bought a bunch from their store to round out what we had found.  We got enough for a batch of applesauce, a bag of dried apples, and a couple pies, plus plenty for eating.

Then, we headed off to the Carl Sandburg Home where there is a small goat farm.  The kids look forward to this stop almost as much as the cider donuts.  Almost.

Peanut was cracking me up.  He had seen the kids checking the name tags on the goats, so he went around behind them, grabbing each collar, and then rushing off to the next goat.  Everyone's favorite was the goat named Addie.

After that, it was time to head home.  Peanut said goodbye to the goats, and we started the drive home.  And it's worth noting that Peanut will finally watch TV shows.  It's only taken 2.5 years to make driving a few hours bearable.  He watched the entire Curious George Christmas movie on the way there, and Brave on the way home and was mostly happy.

Rainy Days

The weather has turned very autumn-like the last few days.  It's finally cooling off and been drizzly.  Good snuggle up with a book weather, which we've all been doing a lot of, in between the rest of the activities.

I've checked out a dozen books in the last few weeks, although a lot of them came from general recommendations in magazine articles and I've been disappointed by a few.  But a couple have been worth mentioning.  I read The Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich based on a friend's recommendation and was completely drawn in by the story.  I also got the kick in the pants I've needed to get back to purging and organizing with Scaling Down: Living Large in Small Spaces.  I appreciate a good "throw it out!" book every year or so and this one had some good stories to keep me motivated for a bit.

The kids and I also just read the first of The Series of Unfortunate Events, which they loved, even though they were worried about it at first and made me tell them if any of the kids died or not in the first book.  We just started Magic By The Lake, by Edward Eager, which was a favorite of mine as a kid.  And Bean and I finally made it through the first Harry Potter book together.  I'm not sure how long it will take her to read the whole series since she gets scared so easily and even this first one had some tense moments, that are only going to get worse as we read more.  But I really love getting to share all my old favorites with the kids.

But the rain hasn't kept us in reading most of the days.  The kids see rain and it's a call to play outside.

 (Some of our rainy days haven't been quite as cool as others--I promise I'm not being completely negligent letting him run around half dressed, only lazy with is post-nap clothing choices.)

 Bean has gotten back into her farm chores (re-reading Farmer Boy seems to do that to her.)  She has the whole backyard mapped out to be her farm.

 She wants to be out there, rain or shine, taking care of her "animals" and crops.  We've actually gotten some leaves raked and weeds torn out in the process.

 They've been loving outside time.  I love that school gets out early enough that they can have some free time most days.  (I also love that Bugaboo is still wearing the same raincoat he had 3 years ago--judging by the sleeves, I think he's overdue for a new one.)

 This weekend, we braved the drizzles and went out for the Halloween history day at Latta Plantation.  They read stories about Blackbeard and the Headless Horsemen (and had a headless soldier wandering around who was actually a little freaky and made the kids nervous.)

We learned how pumpkin carving originated in Ireland with rutabagas and turnips, and switched to pumpkins in the U.S. because they were more plentiful.

And of course we had to visit our favorite donkey, Oreo.  Peanut is obsessed with the animals there.  He ran off a dozen times, trying to get another look at the chickens or "ah-bee".

It's Been Too Long Again

Life keeps getting away from me.  And I can't even claim that I don't get computer time, because I do seem to find plenty of time for other things on here, but the life reporting has been sadly lacking.

So, what have we been up to this last month. . .

School and afterschool activities for the Bean and Bug have been occupying most of our time..

  Bean's playing tennis one day a week and just finished up a sewing class at school this week.  She's had fun with the projects they've done, although as far as real sewing skills, I think she had a lot more experience before even starting this, but she did learn to sew on a button, which I'd never taught her.

Bug has been doing soccer 2 days a week, at the school, and has really enjoyed it. He'll be playing again one day a week in the next session and then doing a Lego building class the other day.

 I love these afterschool classes they offer because it saves me the hassle of picking them up and then having to rush kids to various after school classes in different locations.  Instead, Peanut gets to nap as long as he wants 2 days a week and we both love that!

Add in 2 days a month of 4-H, where we've visited a fire station and are learning about maps to go geocaching next time, and Bean has Activity Days at church twice a month, and the kids have been busy.

Bean also had her first field trip (Reid's Gold Mine) and I drove with her.  It was fun to finally meet all the kids she tells us stories about each day.  I haven't made it into the class to volunteer yet, so this was my first time with them.

Bug had his first play yesterday which was really fun (separate post  here for that).

Peanut and I have been going to story time at the library each week and he loves it.  He asks about going to the "liberry" all the time and as soon as the librarian walks through the children's section announcing story time, he's off and running for the room.  It's fun to see him getting into his own activities instead of just sitting on the sidelines.  We signed up for a couple little classes at the nature center, too, which I'm sure he'll love.  Maybe he really will be ready for preschool next year. . . if we can just get him to go to nursery at church.

And when we aren't off playing or running errands, we've been working on getting the household organization back in order after a year of homeschooling.  I felt like between being pregnant, having a newborn, and then a baby  with some health issues that took up a lot of my time and focus researching answers, and having 3 kids with me for 15 months straight, our house just kind of fell apart these last few years.  My goal is to get it back this year and Peanut has been "helping" me plug away at that. 

Daddy-o spent last weekend in California with family for his grandfather's funeral.  It was a pretty quick trip but he got to see lots of siblings and families, some cousins and their families, an aunt, and his parents, of course.  And then he conducted the funeral services and it sounds like they had a great service.  Wish we could have all gone, but we're just grateful that we all got to see him this summer and celebrate his birthday with him.

While Daddy-o was gone, the kids and I tried to make it a fun weekend (we were originally going to go to the beach that same weekend, so we needed a little vacation feel to help ease the disappointment.)  We went out to dinner, walked around uptown visiting some of our favorite spots, did crafts, watched a movie, and had special desserts.

 

We also started the weekend off by helping out with the kids' school's ground clean up weekend, which I'm seriously regretting.  My 5 minutes of weeding before I started in on the bulb planting landed me with a pretty bad case of poison ivy.  I felt my arm start to tingle and ran to wash it off immediately, but I'm apparently very sensitive to the oils and it has spread all over my neck, face, both arms, and random spots on my legs and torso.  This is my 4th time, in 4 years, and I'm now officially retiring from weeding duty.  I can still mow the lawn, garden in our front yard and garden beds, and I can hike on well marked trails, but otherwise, I think I'm done with the outdoors here.  Sad thing for me since I usually love working in the yard, but I can't stand this.  It's serious enough that I finally resorted to going to the dr. today and am taking steroids for it, which if you've followed along with any of the changes I've made the last couple years, cleaning up our diets and medicines, you'll know is a big deal.  I have only had a few Tylenol and a couple doses of Benedryl in the last 6 months, and nothing for the 1.5 years before that, so I hate that I have to do this, but my face was swollen enough that a friend didn't recognize me yesterday when I first walked into the room, so yeah, it was time for a trip to the doctor.

Other than itching, I've also been relearning to knit.  Or maybe the first time I learned, it doesn't really count since I never even finished that first scarf, and it was almost 10 years ago when I was pregnant with Bean.  One of the other parents at the school started asking about interest in a knitting group and we've now met a few times and I've finished two scarves and am working on a new project while learning to incorporate different colors and add texture.  I love having something that I can do while I catch up on all my shows that have new seasons available on Netflix now :)

Add in a lot of Bishop-ing for Daddy-o, the kids' program at church (they both did fabulous with their talks and sang a verse of I Am a Child of God in Spanish with Daddy-o which also sounded great), my new job of heading up the women's group activities (as well as teaching one Sunday a month and trying to help people work on their emergency preparedness), playdates, making movies and plays with friends, occasional substitute teaching for me, birthday parties, yard work, yard play, and more chores than the kids care for and we're staying pretty busy. 

 

 

But mostly good busy.  There's only been a few moments when I just want to cancel everything and have us all sit at home for a couple days with no phone or email coming in.  Maybe it's time to go camping somewhere really remote.

Fairytale Reader's Theater

 Bug's first play at school--a reader's theater for Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk.  These kids worked hard for the last few weeks, studying the stories, and learning their parts.

Bug was the wolf when he pretends to be granny (we got lucky--he was the wolf back here, too, and had a big head as a baby, so we had his costume already.)  His final line, "All the better to eat you with!" said with a growl was a big hit.  He was a little nervous that morning, but he really projected his voice and did great!

They had also learned a couple songs to go with the stories, complete with actions.  The kids songs are always one of my favorite parts.  Loved getting to see Bug doing this.

I was trying to load the video of their Little Red Riding song, but blogger isn't cooperating so I'll have to come back later if I can get it to work.