Welcome Fall!

"The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze."-
John Updike, September

"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields,
The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth
And you walk under the red light of fall
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring
Come to us, Lord of Harvest
Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."
Unknown

Update - Double Points

Double Points:

What can I say? Things are not looking good craft-wise. I entered the Ravelympics with the hope of wiping out my UFOs and WIPs as well as starting a Baby Surprise Jacket and spinning up a good chunk of fiber. Life intervened and I actually only ended up finishing 1 project. I did get all of the UFOs/WIPs together with all of their necessary finishing materials and have continued to work on them. It's a start. I need to get in gear and blow through some of those lingering thing so I can start on the winter weather knitting for WeeOne & myself. Sweaters, hats, mittens, etc.
* In other home related things I did manage to can a bunch of jams, jellies, etc. I was given a bunch of crab apples and made jelly & butter. Then I moved on to Ginger Peach Jam. Yum! Most recently I had the opportunity to get my hands on a bunch of Concord Grapes ... a big bunch ... a huge bunch. Whew! Thankfully I made it through the sorting process and canned up some grape jelly and will do 1 batch of Grape Cranberry Preserves when cranberries start appearing at the store. I'd still like to do some pickled green beans, pickled carrots, and corn relish as well as freezing some corn, pumpkin, and apple crisp filling. A very generous friend brought her spare dehydrator down to the house a couple weeks ago so I'll be dehydrating some green peppers, onions, corn, carrots, fall greens, potatoes, celery, herbs, and apples.

Next week I'll be starting The Holiday Grand Plan as well as getting back into A Day in My Life and Independence Days. It's good to be back.

Update - Dogs

Dogs:

Bonnie & Clyde are doing well, as usual. After last week's cooler weather they have both been more social, snugly, and seem to be staking their claim to the warmer areas of the front room. This usually means stuck to one of us or right in the middle of a blanket that's in use. Clyde is trying his best to be a bed-dog and tried to sleep with WeeOne whenever we'll let him. He gets to snuggle and be present during book reading and talking, but once I leave he does too. Poor dog. And, if you're curious, Clyde still wears a 2T. Again, I say, poor dog. heh heh

If you remember, earlier this Spring Clyde went on a groundhog killing spree and wiped out 4. Well, 2 more have been appearing in the yard lately and have grown quite a bit. I don't think it would be a good idea for Clyde to tangle with them at this point. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see this picture clearly, but the local wildlife are pretty much taking total advantage of the fact that Clyde doesn't have a doggie door. Yes, that's a ground hog casually eating an apple with a medium sized bunny hanging out close by.

Update - Diapers

Diapers:

WeeOne has been doing wonderfully. He's growing so much and asks so many questions, including the dreaded "Why?". He got another clean bill of health at his 3 yr appointment and weighed 34 lbs at 38 inches tall. He's still in the 50% percentile in weight but has moved up to between 50-75% in height.

WeeOne recently started the Fall Session of preschool and will attend 3 days/week 3.5 hours/day. He really seems to love where he's going and is learning so many interesting things.

He's still iffy about the potty training and tends to use the potty at school but not at home. It's a step I suppose. I would really like him to be out of diapers by February because of this ...

Yes, I know! Shocking, isn't it? Even though the IVF we did in March didn't work as it should have, it apparently shocked my system into doing something right a couple cycles later. I haven't really felt comfortable sharing the news because of what happened last summer when we got pregnant on our own. At 14wks 2days my doctor feels confident that this will go all the way and has told me to get with the program. LOL (due: Feb26th) I've been referring to the baby as "Jerry" because I hate to use "It". I picked Jerry because of how much the baby's head looks like the Grateful Dead symbol in this picture. (with less lightning bolt, and more brain) The next big news will be early to mid October when it's possible we will find out the gender. whoo hoo! WeeOne thinks it's a girl and would prefer a little sister but as I've explained to him we will love whatever we get. He is skeptical.

Summer is Here

Combine 2 cups of blueberries from the farmer's market and 2 cups of wineberries handpicked from the backyard and what do you get? Berry Crisp! (okay, so there's the ingredients in the yummy topping too, but you get the point)

Clyde takes over the country

Oh Sweet Euroflax ...

I decided to try to wind my new skeins of Euroflax into balls ... and within 5 minutes was cursing Louet and it's evil linen yarn. Thankfully once I got this skein untangled and balled, the others were smooth sailing.