Now that we’ve securely settled into our routine with school, the weeks just seem to fly by. This past week was one of those. We didn’t do anything out of the ordinary and basically just plugged through the week. It’s totally fine that it was that way, though. I know that once Halloween hits, the holidays will take over and we’ll be crazy busy (a fun busy, though). The upcoming months have always been my favorite time of year and this year is no different! Bring on all the holiday cheer!
Abigail’s friend convinced her mom to buy her a dress exactly like Abigail’s (in fact, the fact that Abigail had the dress was her exact reasoning for needing it). Her mom and I coordinated it so that they would wear their dresses to church on the same day. Girls can be fun!This girl always needs to find at least one stick and one leaf on every walk we go on.The breeze made it chilly enough for me to want to wear my light jacket on one of our morning walks.I still love that I can just throw ingredients into this thing and it’ll make soup.Look at that steam coming out!Baking the grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the soup is much faster than doing them one at a time on the stove top!Yummy dinner!Trying to fasten the belt on her swing…she did finally get it on her own (she kept saying, “No Mom, it’s okay…I got this!”).Aaaaaand more sticks. 😀Texas skies…all the heart eyes for Texas skies.She loves to go out and play ball.She has finally learned how to go down slowly enough so that she doesn’t go shooting off at the very end.She said she had to show me again and that I needed to take a picture so that she could see.The swings are always more fun when Joseph joins in.I’ve decided that oversized earrings are really fun. I used to think I couldn’t pull them off, but I think I can! Exhibit one in my realization that I may have a slight obsession with gingham.Exhibit two also supports the idea that I may also have to include pumpkins in that slight obsession.Exhibit three seals the deal. 😀An important part of our morning walks: a water break!My geraniums love October weather just as much as me!“Ta-dah!” She asked me to take her picture and then this is what she did. Silly, cute girl!School pictures! I don’t have the printed copies yet, but I got the digital copies!I can hardly believe how big they both look!This morning’s delicious experiment. The banana bread itself wasn’t the experiment…but adding chopped pecans, butterscotch chips, and mini chocolate chips was. I remembered (at the last minute) to toss them in flour before folding them into the batter…that made it so that they didn’t all sink to the bottom as the bread baked. It turned out so good!Chicken and cheese tortellini soup with a fresh homemade roll on the side. It was all the comfort foods for dinner tonight.
This last week was kind of a shortened one because Paul didn’t have work on Monday and the kids also didn’t have school (because of Columbus Day). We plugged through the week and then today we drove out to the pumpkin patch for some fall fun. We’ve had a couple good rainstorms move through, which was nice. We need the moisture for sure!
Since there was no school on Monday, Joseph came along with me and Abigail on our walk. We got to this part of the walk and Joseph said, “See, Mom? This, right here, is why I love Texas. It’s just so pretty!” I have to agree.No school also meant no having to go back and forth, so I had time to make rolls (and make them big enough to use as sandwich buns…so I also made meatballs).Cut a roll in half, pop on a couple of meatballs and a slice of cheese…and serve with a side of steamed broccoli. One of my favorite dinners!Tuesday was picture day. I realized Abigail’s bangs were rather long and hanging down in her eyes, so I fashioned some side French braids to pull them out of her face. I got this side really well (probably because my left hand was reaching for the new strands to add into the braid)……but this side didn’t turn out nearly as well. Luckily, she really wanted her octopus clip put into her hair, so I used it to cover up the messy braid, haha. I would have redone it, but I ran out of time.This is what happened when I told her to smile. 😀 I remember thinking that I hoped she wouldn’t smile like that for pictures (but also thinking it would be kind of funny if she did), haha.Here’s a good smile!October means bat earrings!It also means getting to wear one of my favorite shirts. The caption for this says “Mother of Nightmares” (and yes, the kids know it’s a play on the movie and that I don’t really think they’re nightmares). Paul found it for me a couple of years ago and I love that it has a mom with a boy and a girl.An October rose. 🙂A fun wildflower that Abigail and I saw on one of our walks. I love it so much! It’s spherical and looks like it has fluff like a dandelion, but it doesn’t. I also love the sparkly tips!Yup. That’s just a group of seven vultures just hanging out on the roof of one of the houses across the street from our house.Crazy-looking fungi that we spotted on a tree by the school. I posted this picture on Facebook and had a friend tell me that they were called “turkey tails” which I think is the perfect name for them.One of my friends went to Disneyland a few months back and bought these towels for me. Now that it’s October, I can put them out!One favorite part of the pumpkin patch is dressing a scarecrow.Abigail maneuvering the hay bale maze.These were some fun painted tires that the kids could climb on.Barrel train ride! I was so glad Joseph could ride with Abigail. My hips and back still remember the last time I rode that thing, haha.She scooted back and wanted him to hold onto her…which was pretty cute.I love watching them walk. She sure loves her daddy!I love this sweet boy!I also love this sweet girl (and her wild side, haha).This is such a beautiful place!Petting a pony.Climbing on the hay tractor.Smile for the camera! Watch out! Abigail’s behind the wheel.On the hay ride.Watching the music show.They were really fun to watch. They got the audience involved a lot and sung some fun songs.Abigail was eating it all up (she was also munching down on the kettlecorn there…we still have quite a bit of that left over to snack on for the next few days).Joseph and his tambourine. Baby pig “races”. They didn’t really have a winner…the three little piglets just ran some laps while a pre-teen looking boy encouraged them to keep going by chasing them a bit and sprinkling some food out for them, haha.
This past week seemed to go by in an eye-blink. It was full of walks, exercising, school, work, errands, piano teaching, cooking, baking, friends, and a spontaneous trip to Buc-ee’s. It went by so fast that I even forgot to do this post yesterday. Enjoy the photos!
Last Saturday and Sunday were General Conference (a semi-annual event where the head leaders of our church address the entire worldwide membership of the church…it’s broadcast over the Internet, so we can watch it from home). One of our traditions for conference is cinnamon rolls. I found out that my sweet roll recipe is perfect for cinnamon rolls. Here they are fresh out of the oven.I found a really simple icing recipe (powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk). I was able to simply pour it over the top, so it was perfect!I had a craving for something curry-based, so I made mulligatawny. It has chicken stock, half and half, curry, chicken, onion and garlic, and apples. I serve it over rice and have some sort of flatbread with it. I had forgotten to get the na’an that I normally get at H-E-B, so I asked Paul to get some from the Neighborhood Walmart on the way home…but he said they didn’t have any, so he grabbed lavash bread (a Middle Eastern flatbread that’s more tortilla-like). I think we prefer na’an more, but it did the job in a pinch. Sometimes I forget that it can be hit or miss sometimes with different international foods.We also had National Night Out. This is the night where our neighborhood gets together at the neighborhood park to hang out…there are booths for local businesses, food trucks, the middle school band plays, and the firefighters usually show up and let the littles in their truck. Abigail got to try on a helmet, which she said was really heavy, and sat in the different parts of the truck.Mornings have been a little tough for this one. Luckily school for her doesn’t start until later in the day, so she has a few hours to really get herself good and awake.I thought the windmill that’s over by our mailboxes looked really cool against a totally cloudless sky. It was so, so blue and beautiful.She came up to where I was sitting and snuggled up to me. Joseph came over and sat down with us and she grabbed my hand to cover her eyes. She said, “I’m too nervous to see people.” (I’m still not sure why she said that), but what I heard was, “It’s too early to see people.”. I couldn’t agree more. 😂Octobers mean jack-o’-lantern lights and fresh popcorn for evening treat.If I have to be up at sunrise on most days, at least it’s pretty.We had friends over, so I made some treats. Treat one was rice crispy treats. I used orange food coloring to dye the melted marshmallow mixture orange. Then I sprinkled both mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and butterscotch chips on top.The other treat I made for our friends night: apple cider doughnuts. The dough had flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, apple pie spice, an egg, apple sauce, and some frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed.Once they were baked, I tossed them into a mixture of sugar and more apple pie spice. They were pretty tasty!One of my favorite sights during this time of year!The obligatory picture with the Buc-ee statue.
