It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

So, Halloween is over and I have Thanksgiving and fall on the brain. I even revamped my blog colors to reflect the season. I went out shopping for some fresh fall decor yesterday and guess what I found?

C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S!

Everywhere!

ACK!!!

I have been bitten by the fall bug only to have Fa-la-la-la-la shoved at me everywhere I turn! Bah humbug! Ok, not really, but where the heck are the turkeys and the leaves?????? Apparently they morphed out, overshadowed by pumpkins and frankenstein and huge bags of candy and straight into Rudolph and Santa....

So, what's a girl to do? She hit the clearance section, where shockingly enough I managed to cull through the dredges and pull together something prety good! I already had an assortment of mini gourds and pumpkins from the trip to the pumpkin patch. I found a grapevine garland with acorns and berry effect. Next I headed for the basket section and I found a lovely dark brown to load up with the gourds and pumpkins.

Not what I had envisioned exactly, but nice none the less. I assembled it on the dining room table, gourds and pumpkins in the basket with the grapevine garland woven throughout. Not one comment from the members of my family. Apparently the men in my life (all six of them who live with me) are completely unmoved by my decor. But, I shall press on and gaze upon it's loveliness...at least until I put it aside for Rudolph!

Conversations From The Backseat....

DS #4 (7)...
"Mom, you can't run over the skunk. If you do your car will stink, and then WE will stink, and THEN, we'll have to take a bath in tomato sauce and I don't like tomatoes!" (After Mom notices a raccoon in the road. Apparently DS #4 is confused...)


DS #1 (9)...
"Every kid who's popular in the fourth grade has it. I'm popular, that's why I have it." (Speaking about his new book, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, to DS #3, age 7)

History.....

Last night we as a nation made history....

We elected our 44th President...

I voted...

I am curious as to what will come form this...

Crazy squirrels...

So, I get it, it's nut hunting season and the squirrels have, well, gone nuts, but come on. Don't cross the road UNDER my tires dude, all that work gathering nuts, gone to waste!

I am a mile and a half off the main road. It's takes a few minutes to get up there. How many squirrels can I kill along the way? Apparently the three that were dumb enough to run under my tires...

Enough already. I was tempted to turn around and go home after all the carnage, but seriously, it was safer on the main road, away from the squirrels.....

Observations of the day, a parents perpsective!

Want a glimpse?

DS #1 (16) when I asked him to log in to his email so I could check his activity he looked at me and asked if I was going to yell or speak calmly about what I would find. Um, guilty? Nothing bad, but he had broken a couple of limitation rules (which I already knew about from parental control reports, but...). Yep, we talked calmly and then I blocked his access for the rest of the week. No pouting, no fussing. Admitted guilt and accepted punishment...something is going right!

DS #2 (9) is up in his bed singing songs from the 70's and 80's (lots of Jackson 5). Why he isn't sleeping is beyond me, he's been tucked in for two hours and the house has been quiet for just as long. On the other hand I love listening to him...

DS #3 (7) On the ride home from school: "Mom, I will love you forever if you buy me a milkshake!" You know what, I did buy milkshakes and I do think that he will love me forever!

DS #4 (7) After consuming the milkshake prompted by his brother proceeds to look at me as we get out of the car and says, "Don't watch me, I have to throw up! I'm going behind the tree!" and he did, go behind the tree that is, where he proceeded to hurl multiple times. Lovely. Fortunately he was OUT of my van! Fast forward to bedtime...he brings me a note (he loves to write notes) "Dear Mom, sorry I threw up my milkshake. It was good." Um, which part, the milkshake or the hurling???

DS #5 (7) While running through the house DS falls, emits a high pitched scream followed by a wail. DS #3 calls out, "It's okay Mom, there's NO blood!" Alrighty then. I walk over to the injured one, "DS #5, are you okay?" "Yup, see, there's NO blood!" Perfect!

Flower mosaic

This is my first attempt at a mosaic. I {love} flowers and I really wanted to capture the beauty of them!

Summer Harvest!

It's a wonderful thing living in a farming community. I feel richly blessed in a way that the average city or even suburb dweller can't compare. I live in an area surrounded by farms, traditional, organic, Mennonite, Amish, and I am able to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables year round.

That said, I do miss out on things like regular exposure to the theater and amazing restaurants, but seriously, as I wipe the fresh tomato juice off my chin I think I'll live, for now, and relish (pun intended) the bounty that surrounds me.

Thursdays are magical days here. Our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box arrives. For about $29 a week, we get a box of seasonal fruits ad veggies plus a dozen eggs. Sometimes we get a stewing or a roasting chicken as well. We've been doing this for three years and I am amazed at the transformation of myself and my children. We always ate veggies, but not like this.

This week included white eggplants, two quarts of cherry tomatoes, a quart of ugly (seriously, they are ugly, but they are the BEST in flavor) tomatoes, a generous allotment of cucumbers, okra (um, yeah, not my favorite...) a sweet baby watermelon, and a dozen cage free eggs. Oh, and the best part of the week was the extra box of cukes for any subscriber to help themselves too. Oh my, it you have not eaten a freshly picked cuke you have not lived. Seriously. There is NO comparison to the cukes you find in a grocery.

Today's lunch consisted of and ugly tomato and a cuke, sliced up, tossed in Kosher Sae Salt and a slice of Havarti cheese tossed in for good measure. YUM! I just had some more for my afternoon snack...heaven, pure heaven.

Tomorrow is the Farmer's Market. I'll go and bring home the most amazing array of delights! On my list: peaches from the T. Farm (like no other peaches I have ever eaten), corn on the cob, watermelon, cantaloupes, plums, a couple of jars of local jam, a jar of local honey, peppers, more cukes, potatoes, bread and scones from the Organic baking lady, etc. Sigh.....who needs chocolate when you have tomatoes and sea salt?

Oh, just in case your interesting in finding great locally grown produce near you, you can check out this site: Remember good eating is just a click away! What are YOU hungry for?