Our favorite holiday is almost here! Nate had a dress rehearsal of his costume this weekend. Though he decided against the beard in the end. He's loving the holster and gun though and is wearing them throughout the day. As you can see, Sheriff Nate's day starts early.
***UPDATE*** I apparently jinxed myself with this post. Not an hour after posting this Nate declared that he wants to be Han Solo for Halloween instead of a cowboy. At least we can work with that, AND it does mean that we can trick or treat as a family with a cohesive theme this year! Something I've been hoping for for a while. :) Now, obviously the theme is Star Wars but the big reveal of who is who or what won't happen until Saturday.
Sometimes, Tuesday Tunes illustrate an emotion, or a theme that fits our week or mood around here. Today, it serves to prove a point to my husband, that this was an actual song before it was a theme song. Once again, my bizarre knowledge of songs written long before my time, comes in handy. I really need to find a quiz show to show off my full potential, and win some cash.
Brother Louie - Stories She was black as the night Louie was whiter than white Danger, danger when you taste brown sugar Louie fell in love overnight
Nothing bad, it was good Louie had the best girl he could When he took her home To meet his mama and papa Louie knew just where he stood
I've managed to get quite a few projects completed in the last two months. The key to this sudden rise in productivity? Deadlines. The things I've finished were all time sensitive and I'll tell you, it seems to make a difference. It's funny to me how knitting, my leisurely, relaxing hobby can still be just as calming even under pressure. It really is versatile.
Two of my favorite projects were these hats for a friend of mine who is fighting Leukemia. It was hard to put these down while working on them, the patterns were fun and different and knowing they were going to add some cheer and comfort to a friend's day, well, what better motivation? The surprise personal benefit of working on these hats is that they forced me to learn how to use Double Pointed Needles or DPNs. I've always been terrified of them and thought they were for very advanced knitters and something I'd get around to when the kids are in college. Well, Ha DPNs! Ha I say! I managed these very well, with the kids in the house, including frequent nursing breaks for the toddler and mediation sessions with the 7 and 4 year old.
I see some cozy winter hats on my needles for this Yule! (Indeed, there is one already started now)
I opened up my eyes And found myself alone alone Alone above a raging sea That stole the only girl I loved And drowned her deep inside of me
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
"Show me how you do that trick The one that makes me scream" she said "The one that makes me laugh" she said And threw her arms around my neck "Show me how you do it And I promise you I promise that I'll run away with you I'll run away with you"
Spinning on that dizzy edge I kissed her face and kissed her head And dreamed of all the different ways I had To make her glow "Why are you so far away?" she said "Why won't you ever know that I'm in love with you That I'm in love with you"
You Soft and only You Lost and lonely You Strange as angels Dancing in the deepest oceans Twisting in the water You're just like a dream
Daylight licked me into shape I must have been asleep for days And moving lips to breathe her name I opened up my eyes And found myself alone alone Alone above a raging sea That stole the only girl I loved And drowned her deep inside of me
You Soft and only You Lost and lonely You Just like heaven
We ventured to the Boston Children's Museum on Friday and had a fabulous time! I'll admit, I was really nervous about driving into Boston, on my own, with the kids. I'm not familiar with city driving at all.(shocking, I know, see how you learn little known facts thanks to a blog?) So I was worried about missing the turn for the parking garage, or an exit or any of the other mishaps that could easily happen to us on unknown, busy roads. We made it just fine though, and made it well worth our while. We spent a good 5 hours there, and still didn't make it to every exhibit. WELL worth the minor stress I had heading out, and made our Reciprocal Membership with the Children's Museum of NH a smart purchase for the third year in a row!
Exploring the three story climbing structure.
The Bubble Room was very popular!
Tied for first place with the Bubble Room is the Dance Floor. Check out Ben's excellent Dodgeball skills!
The beginning of the three story climbing structure.
Peep! (this thing is bigger than me, and yellow! I must have it!)
We found apples! Hurrah, hurrah! I forgot to bring my camera along when we went picking though, so sadly there are no apple picking pics this year. It's sad to say 'this year' too because I like to go at least twice but there just aren't enough apples to be found this fall. Hopefully next year will be a better year for the trees. The apples we did find were lovely and delicious!
We used a few for an apple pie, because really, how do you NOT have apple pie in October? The rest, a whole 1/2 bushel of drops, was cooked down into applesauce and canned. This was my first attempt at canning anything ever. I was a little intimidated by it at first, even though I saw my mom can all sorts of jams and chutney as a kid, it's different when you're doing it yourself.
The applesauce seemed to turn out just fine though! The half bushel only made up 3 quarts of sauce, so next year I'll know to get at least a full bushel if not two. I canned the 3 quarts and put them up, but I couldn't wait long to open one. We each had some with dinner last night and I am very confident that it was a hit. I would have taken pictures of the boys enjoying theirs as well, but they devoured it so quickly there was no time to get proof.
