{pretty, happy, funny, real}

The past two weeks have been lovely and unhurried.  Last week our van had to go in for repairs and so we couldn't go anywhere.  This week we've had a nasty cough in some of the little ones.  We normally would have our PE class on Tuesday morning, but instead stayed home.  It was wonderful.  I am finally catching up on housework, school has been humming right along, and I even managed to get in a little baking.  Heaven.  It's got me thinking about how we are spending our time.  What's important, and what's filler.  Everything this semester is already paid for, so we'll be finishing as planned, but I think I'm going to make some changes for next semester.  I like being home.

{pretty}

 

This morning I baked up some leftover gingerbread cookie dough (see funny below) to make some fall leaves and whipped up an easy powdered sugar frosting.  Not only are they pretty, but they are delicious and festive as well.

{happy}

 

After seeing my dear husband off to slay dragons this morning I marveled at how cool and crisp it felt outside.  We have a few leaves on the ground (fall comes late to this part of the country) and the ground was still a little wet from the massive rain we had a couple of days ago so it smelled amazing and reminded me of fall time back home in Wyoming.  I couldn't let it pass, so after a quick breakfast the crew and I headed out on a nature walk around our neighborhood.  Our goal was to look for birds nests since we've been reading about them in our science book.  Fritter brought his camera along (our old camera that we just replaced) to document our journey.  Not only was the walk refreshing for all of us, but the pictures he took are delightful.  It's fun to see the world through Fritter's eyes.

 

Look closely.  Can you find the moth?



A woodpecker's nest in a saguaro.

A nest up a pine tree.

Landscaping in someone's front yard that I wouldn't have looked twice at, but I can now see how they must be intriguing to the little ones.

Tiny pebbles Ladybug found.  I think she said they are fairy eggs.

We call this little spot our fairy spot.  The oleanders are cut back so it's not quite as magical right now, but just imagine it all overgrown and kind of dark.  Back where I am taking the picture on the sidewalk is a little metal "troll bridge" and everyone runs over it quickly whenever we are on this walk.

 

{funny}

 

On inspiration from The Year and Our Children, I decided to make little gingerbread apostles on the feast of Saints Simon and Jude.

 

Can you guess which is which?

We decorated them together as a family after dinner and of course I couldn't stop the creativity from happening.  Even dad got in on the fun.



Dad's pirate.

Ladybug's gingerbread lollipop.

Fritter's astronaut.

I don't know who made this guy.
 

 {real}

 

And now on to the real.  Tonight when I went to get our pizza out of the oven for dinner I noticed that it wasn't even close to done.  Sad was my heart when I realized that the heating element in our oven must have burnt out.  I tried to use the broiler to finish cooking the pizza, but it was unsalvagable, and we ended up having ham sandwiches for dinner.  And the uncooked cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow are left rising (or not) in the fridge.

 

Worse is the fact that if we order the part (which my husband tells me is easy to fix) it won't be here until Wednesday.  And worse than that is that Fritter's birthday is on Friday and I promised him a rocketship birthday cake.

 

My dear husband is going to go to the Sears part store tomorrow in the hopes that they will have the part in stock.  Otherwise I'm going to have to think of a solution fast.  And we might be eating lots of sandwiches.

 

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