Weekly Happenings: It seems that Abigail has gone from asking when it will be Halloween to asking when it will be Christmas. 😀 I’ve explained that Thanksgiving comes in between, which she is happy about, but she’s definitely looking forward to putting the Christmas tree up and putting up her stocking (those were the two specific things she mentioned). This week has been a pretty ordinary one. It’s hard to believe that we’re less than a week out from Thanksgiving and then full-launch into the holidays after that. I’m really looking forward to it. Watching the joy of the holidays through my children’s eyes is kind of my favorite.
The Weekly Weather: it has definitely not been acting like we’re in the middle of November. This year reminds me a lot of how it was the year Abigail was born. It’s not hot, per se, but it definitely isn’t cold, either. It’s that “jackets in the morning and shorts in the afternoon” weather that Texas is famous for. 😀 No rain, either…which is weird.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy with stuff with the neighborhood and he’s also been getting the decorations ready to put up at the different entrances to the neighborhood. He’ll be doing that a week from today. It’s crazy that we’re already at this point!
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been testing out my new pressure cooker. So far, I’ve made boiled eggs, steamed some spaghetti squash, and used the slow cooking function to cook a pork shoulder (I ended up pressure cooking it at the end because I had greatly underestimated just how much time I would need to cook it, since it was a bigger cut than I usually get). I’m excited to see what else I can cook in there!
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He made it through his last week of school and is now officially on Thanksgiving break (which he’s really excited about).
What Abigail’s Been Up To: Because the mornings have been cold, we’ve pulled out the hats to wear while dropping Joseph off at school. She has enjoyed wearing all the different hats and has also enjoyed pretending to be different superheroes, cartoon characters, etc.
This Week in Pictures:
I was finishing up Joseph’s lesson and Abigail wanted in on the fun.It was in the 40s one morning, so we bundled up. She also had her mask on since we were getting ready to walk up to the school to drop Joseph off and her sunglasses on because it was really bright out. When I realized I could only see the top of her nose, I just had to snap a picture.Pretending to be the Incredible Hulk. She was stomping around saying, “I’m pretending to be Hulk!” Then she grabbed a little plush Incredible Hulk she has and said “Hulk is chasing my nice dinosaur! He’s so angry. We need to put him somewhere!” I told her to put him in the “pillow prison” (under a throw pillow) which she agreed to. Then all of a sudden several other toys of hers all each became the Hulk and they all had to go to the pillow prison. Then, after they calmed down, they were allowed to leave the prison. Then she said she needed to get her Cinderella finger puppet to help Hulk (the original one) stay calm.Several years ago, I bought Joseph a long-sleeved Mario shirt that came with a matching beanie. I royally messed up the shirt while trying to get a stain out of it (I was using rubbing alcohol to get out a marker stain from the back of the shirt and it soaked through and took part of the silk-screened design off of the front ). He was devastated, so I went and bought a replacement, which meant he ended up with an extra hat, which has always been just that: extra. It’s come in handy a couple times when he’s misplaced the other one, but it really came in handy one day when Abigail was bent on matching him in some way, shape, or form.I love these flowers. I love the subtle bit of darker pink right that surrounds the yellow right at the center. I love the contrast between the pink and the green. I love their delicateness. I just love them!I just got this tool and it is awesome! It easily broke down my ground beef into smaller, more uniform pieces, which made it cook a lot faster. I’ve also used this thing to smash boiled eggs for egg salad sandwiches. I have more plans for it, too (mashing potatoes, smashing fruit to make filling for pies, breaking up frozen fruit juice concentrate…the possibilities are vast). I love multi-use tools!This is my pressure cooker. It came with this glass lid to use when I want to use it as a slow cooker. Here’s the regular lid. That little red button pops up when the cooker is under full pressure. I also like how far the pressure-release button is from the valve itself. I’m not worried at all about scalding myself. Also, the outside only gets warm to the touch, not hot, so I’m not worried about the kids getting fingers burned. That’s a huge benefit!Some days I’m just glad she’s eating breakfast and the location isn’t important. Funny enough, as soon as she heard I wasn’t going to let her have a coaster to go with her drink, she was quick to get back up to the table.I used my breakfast sandwich maker to make an individual serving of…well, the recipe called it French toast, but it was probably closer to a bread pudding. It was so yummy!She loves this Minnie Mouse. If you press its hand, it sings a song.I love seeing how much joy she finds in little things. It warms my heart.
Weekly Happenings: This past week, we pretty much just hung around the house. I think that’s the new norm for how life is, to be honest…we don’t really go anywhere unless we need to. I’m okay with that, though. I’ve found that as I get older, I’m getting to be more of a homebody. Plus, with the holidays coming up, I’d much rather cozy up at home instead of being out in the hustle and bustle (unless it’s fun hustle and bustle with memory-making opportunities for the kids…those are always fun).
The Weekly Weather: It’s been kind of in-between cool and hot. It’s been kind of muggy. Pretty typical November weather, actually.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He had some use-or-lose time to use, so he took Thursday and Friday off. He already had Wednesday off (for Veterans’ Day), so he’s had a lot of time to get stuff done. On Wednesday, he built a platform and ladder for the slide he picked up from someone in the neighborhood. It’s attached to the swing set and looks great! He did some maintenance work at the park (cutting tree limbs, spreading mulch) on Thursday. We have a company that’s supposed to take care of that stuff, but they’ve been dragging their feet, so Paul applied as many bandaids as he could and sent out emails to hopefully get them fixed soon. It’s kind of a tumultuous time because we’re in the middle of the HOA being turned over to homeowners from the developer, but we want the developer to take care of any already existing issues before the official turnover. We have a feeling that the developer wants to try to stick us with as much of it as they can. Hopefully we can come to an amicable agreement.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I ordered a few more things from Pampered Chef that arrived this week (a pressure cooker and some accessories for it and some little odds and ends: some oven mitts, some oven rack protectors, another batter bowl, and a new little gadget that’s supposed to make it easier to cook ground meat more evenly). I love finding things that make cooking/baking easier!
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a good week at school, but he did make sure to tell me that he is looking forward to the week after next when he has the entire week off for Thanksgiving. 🙂
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She has enjoyed playing outside with the cooler weather, has enjoyed playing inside (it’s fun to overhear her imagination at work), and has enjoyed being my little constant companion.
This Week in Pictures:
We’re actually seeing some fall colors which is really nice!She wanted to set up a picnic in the kitchen for lunch one day.One of my favorite sights this time of year: so cozy!My second attempt at making rolls from scratch, using my recipe that requires hand-kneading. I let the yeast sit in the water/sugar mixture for a bit longer and I increased the second proofing time to a full hour (as opposed to the 30 minutes they suggested) and they turned out a lot better!Since Wednesday was Veterans’ Day, I felt like sharing one of my favorite pictures of Paul. This was in Iraq, back in 2005/2006, when he got to go see the ziggurat at Ur. It was really neat knowing that he was in Abraham’s birthplace.It’s been warm enough for my rose bush to bloom!These are my silicone oven rack covers. No more accidentally burning my arms when I go to pull something out from the lower rack!Working on the slide. Someone in the neighborhood was looking to get rid of the slide part, so Paul nabbed it and then used his time off to get the wood required to build the platform and ladder.The finished product.I just love the autumn light in the trees.Abigail and I tagged along when Paul went to the park to do those few things I mentioned before. We took a walk back into the trees and I wanted to take her picture.I sure love this little ham!Headed back down the path to the playground.I’m really loving that the trees are changing this year. Some years, they aren’t as noticeable.She loves the swings!Sometimes you need to just make yourself comfy with a pillow and a cozy blanket.She told me that she made the piano spooky again by adding her “spooky stuffies”. I think she misses Halloween, but she’ll be okay. We’re putting the Christmas tree up in a couple of weeks. 😉When I put her jacket on, I said, “Oh! You’re so stinkin’ cute!” and she then said, “Yeah! You want to take my picture?” 😀She wanted another picture later without her jacket on. That scrunchy nose gets me every time!She was calling it a tree house. 🙂While Abigail was playing, I noticed movement above me and looked up to see vultures circling. There were so many of them! I counted forty before I wasn’t sure if I’d counted some of them multiple times. They moved on pretty quickly, though, so I guess they didn’t find anything tasty. 😉The full view of the swing set and slide.Being a princess can be exhausting! 😉
Weekly Happenings: This past week, we were coming down from the high of Halloween and gearing up for the official holiday season (the stores were really helpful, since they have Christmas stuff up already). We didn’t really do too much out of the ordinary, to be honest. It’s going to get progressively busier the closer we get to the end of November and into December, so it’s nice to have down time.
The Weekly Weather: It’s been typical fall weather: cold mornings and warm afternoons, followed by mild evenings. We haven’t had any rain lately, but could really use some!
What Paul’s Been Up To: He was the only one in the office at work (everyone else was at a training). He’s also been asked to help with the camera for the recorded parts of church services that we broadcast to the church members who are more comfortable staying at home due to COVID.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I tried a new roll recipe! This was the “yummy experiment” I referred to in the title. It’s the first time I’ve ever actually kneaded dough by hand (well, I watched my mom plenty of times when I was little, but I don’t remember actually helping her do anything other than making my own little roll every once in a while). They turned out pretty good, but they were quite a bit denser than I expected. The recipe said to let the dough rise for an hour, then to form it into rolls and then let them rise again for 20-30 minutes…which I don’t think was long enough. I think I probably should have let them rise for forty-five minutes, or even an hour. Every other bread recipe I have says that both rising times need to be an hour. So, I think that the next time I make them, I’ll try letting then rise for longer for the second proofing and see what happens.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had a great week at school and is excited for the upcoming holidays (especially since he gets a full week off for Thanksgiving and two full weeks for Christmas). He was also excited that we found him a costume for next Halloween already. Target was trying to get rid of their surplus costumes, so they had them for half off, which was great!
What Abigail’s Been Up To: She was also excited to get a couple of costumes from Target’s half-off sale. I got her a couple since she likes to play dress-up (I got them big enough that she can wear them right now for dress-up, but they’ll still fit her next Halloween).
This Week in Pictures:
After getting the dough all together…that silicone pastry mat in the background was a life-saver. My counter tops are slightly textured, so dough has a tendency to stick quite a bit. Having that nice, smooth surface to work on made it way easier. Plus, I was able to just kind of scrunch it up and bring it right to the trash to dispose of my extra flour, so that was nice, too.Doubled in size after the first rising.Portioned into rolls…After the second rising (and brushed with honey butter). I can tell they’re bigger than they were in the first picture, but I don’t think they’re quite doubled in size. Next time, I’ll definitely let them rise for longer during the second proofing.The finished product! The honey butter made them nice and golden on top…though, it looks like one side of my oven might be hotter than the other side, haha. Maybe next time, I need to flip the pan around halfway through the baking time. It’s all an experiment, really.Costume number one (not the leggings…she just didn’t want to take them off)! She loves witches and bats and anything shimmery, so this one was a given.She made a “magic potion” that she made me taste…then told me that it turned me into a frog. A little while later, she told me that since she was a nice witch, she would make another potion that would turn me back. 😀Sporting my dad’s old hat. <3She was about to point out that she could still see the moon when I snapped this picture. I just wanted to make sure I documented just how much she loves unicorns right now.Costume number two! She likes that she has brown eyes and brown hair just like Belle.I love multi-use kitchen items. These bowls are meant for batter, but I use them for so many other things: tonight, the little one is the perfect vessel for some fresh guacamole. So…after I tucked away my spiderweb fabric with all the other Halloween stuff, I felt I needed something to break up the two different browns (the table and the charger). A trip to Target yielded the perfect solution: a fabric napkin! I really like how it breaks up the brown without drawing attention away from the focal pieces (my Harp Design Co. candlesticks). All ready for church! She said she was pretending to be a giraffe and that Paul needed to take her picture, so he did. 😂
). He was devastated, so I went and bought a replacement, which meant he ended up with an extra hat, which has always been just that: extra. It’s come in handy a couple times when he’s misplaced the other one, but it really came in handy one day when Abigail was bent on matching him in some way, shape, or form.
