So FESTIVE!

Sunday, 23rd - Parents house - siblings arrived!
Monday, 24th - Celebrating @ In-laws!
Tuesday, 25th - Cerebrating @ Home!, then parents!
Wednesday 26th - play at home then annual bookstore trip!
Thursday 27th - siblings over to visit - must clean house!
Friday 28th - Took Jul to the airport
Saturday 29th - Drove 4+ hrs. to see extended family!
Sunday 30th - More cleaning, Paul worked upstairs!

Any bets on me seeing in the new year tonight?
!
It's all been a lot of fun but I am tired.
We did a little school work & craft time today. Laundry is in full swing.
I'm working hard to get the energy up to get the kids out to play in the new snow.
My other goal is to download the pictures from all this holiday-ing.

Third

This is a picture from the ultrasound on Monday. I'm pleased to say that everything looks good! I've been terribly remiss in keeping track of all the little facts, milestones & kidney stones but things are moving right along. Paul & the kids have all felt the baby move - so exciting! Progress on names is very slow. As is progress on the upstairs, but I don't think we need to think about that until after the holidays. I need to get to the post office (if I can get the car out of the driveway!) & make some goodies for the Christmas party tomorrow.

Egypt

Egypt makes for great crafts - and school, too, of course.
We finished the crook & flail a couple weeks ago, but I finally got a picture:

What's more, I posted it & wrote a little text. I haven't been keeping up w/ all I want to, but here's some progress. We have also made a pyramid:
And yesterday's project was a hieroglyphic scroll. I'll get a picture of that when we make our cuneiform tablet.
The Mummy is coming up fast. I can't wait.
How do you feel about Egypt, Des?

Putting the yard to bed

Today was remarkable in the co-incidence of a warmish day & me feeling well enough to get things done.
After the grocery & lunch it was finally time to go outside. I got a bunch of stuff done, like digging up the gladiola bulbs, planting the rooted climbing rose cuttings that have been on the porch all summer & fall, collecting the seeds from the giant tom thumb impatiens, carting away the pile of pine needles I raked up a month ago, putting all the potted plants and the trough in on the porch, and most importantly pulling up the few remaining plants & turning over the garden soil & adding some more lime. I am so excited to have gotten all of this done. I feel like I haven't done anything in the yard since the start of August. It felt good to be out there. The kids also had a great time - they harvested worms from the turned soil. Max dug a really deep hole for them to live in. Dessa took a great picture of me.


I took a picture of a worm.

A belated Halloween picture

Things seem so busy when I'm under the weather. The kids had a good time trick or treating - all the way around the block! We had a last hurrah of candy after lunch today, then I put the remainder in a bowl (wonder who'll eat that?) so I could put the pumpkin buckets & the rest of the Halloween stuff away.

Seige!

We had our annual trip to watch the trebuchet throw pumpkins. It was as fun as ever & the throws were creeping up over 2,000 feet. Sounds like Yankee Siege will get the world record in Delaware again.
We had everyone over here for food afterwards. The pork was pulled this year (we discovered the merits of pork shoulder!) Potato salad, carrot soup, cider, & those wonderful chocolate chip cookies. Now I'm hungry all over again!

Latest Favorite

Breaking the Silence

I've been quiet for a while. Because I'm pregnant. I've been finding it pretty hard to keep up w/ the general news & latest events when theres a big item being ignored. Now that the majority of the people that I want to tell in person know I suppose I can post it here (especially since nobody knows this blog exists!)

Today is 12w 1d. The above picture is from 8w. My next Dr. visit is Nov. 7th. I've been feeling sick off & on - currently on for the last 4 days. ugh. We are very excited but just getting through the week has been tough enough that I don't have a lot to say. So, back to my couch.

Closing in

The floorboards are down. Tonight we fill, tomorrow night we sand & for the weekend?

TUNG OIL.

A Forrest Hike

A treasure map & a edge of fall day.

Trail Mix!

Happy Hike.

And some Cosmos in the morning sun.

Milestone

The first day of school for the year!
I'm sure homeschooling makes it a little different, but it's still a big deal. We went outside to get that 'off on a big adventure' picture.

Another test.

I'm still trying to get this picture glitch figured out.
Frankly, It's bogueing my blog.

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Sometimes I...

Scrapbook.
Digitally, of course.

Just a quick note

to "blogger"
Your photo managing crap is all outa whack. I am new to this but it can't get it to show pictures the same way twice. About half of my 'landscape' oriented photos are chopped - cruelly.
I'm sure there is some easy answer - but I haven't found it yet.
anyone care to enlighten me? Oh, wait, no one knows this is her....

One more

I love this plant.

How can I type with this in my lap?

mmmmmmmmmmmmm
That's for T- Rex!

Paul

Thank you for six incredible years of marriage.

Balancing Act

Good day for a hike.

You never know what you'll find around the next curve
- until you look.

Our Mini Vacation

What a wonderful long weekend!
We had day at the ocean.


Full of sandcastles, sun, ice cold saltwater, shell hunting & sunburn - culminating in fried clams on route 1. It couldn't have been a better day - well, maybe skip the sunburn.


A Mountain Climb



Another perfect day - the temperature was just right for hiking. The dog got to come along & the kids loved it.
It's been such a great summer. Remind me of this when it's 12° ok?

10d Cut Nail

The worlds most beautiful nail.

A swinging hammer.

The second third of the boards.

More floor.

Hydrangeas

Full bloom






This hydrangea was a gift from my mom - I'm kind of amazed that it made the transition from it's little pot last spring to blooming this summer. It had a lovely pink bloom when she gave it to me, now I think it's truly bluple.

Can of Wasps

This house is, to put it kindly, a work in progress. I'm proud of all we have done so far - and there are miles left to travel before we even catch up w/ the immediate needs. Right now our prime project is finishing the upstairs, but you never know when something else will demand attention. This past weekend we opened the next can of wasps.


After more than a week of spraying into the hole & never seeing a dip in the wasp traffic it was time to tear into it. The hard part is having to draw the line of where to stop.
It's nice to see a little less green.

Why Banana Puree?

One day I walked up to Eastown. (nevermind) Not through a good neighborhood. I was convinced of the basic goodness in people - which meant if I was doing no harm then no harm would come to me. Back then the harm stayed away, so lets just go with that, shall we?
As I passed Richard Terrace I looked into the back lot of the apartment house on the corner & saw a 55 gallon drum - blue, steel, a little rusty. It was labeled in yellow block print "BANANA PUREE". Boy, has that stuck w/ me! Must have been about 21 years ago. I did actually Google it before putting it in internet print & sure enough there is a banana puree dot com - even w/ a picture of a fork truck loading a semi w/ 55 gal. drums.
My god, what would you do w/ that much banana puree?

I'd swim in it.

Some Days

Some days are better than others. So true. Yesterday was a beautiful beach day.













Today has been hot, sticky & nothing has come easy.
There's thunder rumbling & I'm hoping that it will start to pour - wait - sprinkles.

Discovery

Some days the learning opportunities just land on the floor.
That is not to say that I'm always ready to take advantage of them, but a little effort is better than none.

They do, in fact, eat grass.

It took a fair amount of persuasion to get them to set their new friend free. I'll admit it - I let grasshopper-in-a-jar (a.k.a. Hopp) sit on the table through lunch.

Espresso

I used to drink it on summer days like this. 4 shots w/ ice in a glass reserved just for me. I used to serve it w/ a dark attitude & love. I still get twitchy if I hear someone scalding milk as they steam it.
These days I'm down to 1 cup of coffee a day. last time I had espresso was probably over 5 months ago.
These days 'Espresso' is a gladiola in my garden.
How could I resist? I can almost taste it.