Happy Halloween

The kids all dressed up, grabbed the buckets, said "trick or treat", and then the rain came. It rained for the first thirty minutes of our Halloween night. But just as we were about to pack it in, the rain slowed to a drizzle and then stopped all together. After that it was a beautiful night with a full moon, a cool breeze, and just the right amount of fog to make it the perfect Halloween atmosphere. We came home a little damp but full of good spirit and lot's of candy.

Jawa from Star Wars (scary eyes!) and the cutest Snow White and Belle you've ever seen

rain, rain go away, we really want to stay out and play!

Juno and Bleaker for a party last night (sometimes you just have to embrace who you are)

And Halloween night wouldn't be complete without It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! and a mug of hot chocolate before crashing into bed and having candy filled dreams.

Happy Halloween to you all!

Pumpkin Carving

We're gearing up for Halloween around here. We spent this morning with friends carving pumpkins. The kids didn't get into the yuck factor of cleaning out the pumpkins this year. They all, including the boy, tried to scoop the strings and seeds out with spoons. That lasted for about 10 minutes before they realized that doing it that way was going to take forever. Then they dug in and found themselves elbow deep in pumpkin guts, an admittedly yucky feeling. Plus they smelled pretty awesome for the rest of the day. (read with sarcasm.) In the end I, I mean we, got some really great carving done. I think these may be our best jack-o-lanterns to date!

finally digging in and very happy about it


the small one is a bat and the big one is hand drawn by Analiese


the boy trying to use a spoon. silly boy.


spider infested glitter pumpkins


The monster one is Christopher's and the other one is hand drawn by Sicily. It has freckles, she's so silly.

Misty Morning

misty Fall morning

subdues my mood,

quiets my heart.

toes dip into cold puddles.

sometimes Joy is right in front of you

packaged perhaps

in the form of a four year old

splashing about in her nightdress.

Pumpkin Patch Trip

Every year we trek out to the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkin. It has become a little tradition that we all love. This year we were afraid that we were going to be rained out, but the rain passed and though it was cool, we were able to spend a lovely afternoon out at the farm. We picked pumpkins, saw some very friendly farm animals (0ne of whom (the turkey below) we were told doesn't have much longer here on this earth, so sad), and played in the various forts and haystacks around the patch. After our horrible failure last year we decided to skip the corn maze and try again in a few years when the kids are older. We left with beautiful pumpkins, red from cold cheeks, and happy faces.

pumpkin picking (and look Steven and I made it into a picture this trip!)

Our wagon full of perfect pumpkins


way to many jokes were being made about this poor turkey's upcoming fate

little miss tough stuff dutifully pulling the wagon of pumpkins home

Blog Empty

I have felt blog empty this week. I feel like I have nothing worthwhile to report. Which gives the illusion of an easy, unremarkable week. Unfortunately that is not the case. I have been too busy to be creative this week. Ugh! Instead I've been nursing kids with the flu, attending to a long (very long ) post inspection repair request from our potential buyers, and getting ready for a yard sale that's suppose to be held tomorrow if the rain holds off. I wouldn't say any of those things are particularly fun, but they have held quiet a bit of my attention. As long as the rain holds off we are headed to the pumpkin patch tomorrow. It will be a nice break for us all. And I'm hoping for a more creative week next week. With Halloween coming I imagine it will be. Happy weekending to you all.

We were Booed!

A few nights ago we were "Boo"ed!

It goes like this:

some one leaves a bag of goodies at your door, rings the doorbell, and runs. Inside of the bag is a little poem:

The air is cool, the season fall,
Soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...
Tricky witches at your door.

The spooks are after things to do,
In fact, a spook brought this "Boo" to you!

The excitement comes when friends like you,
Copy this note and make it two.

We'll all have smiles upon our faces,
No one will know who "Boo"ed whose places!

Just two short days to work your spell
Keep it secret, hide it well.

Please join the fun, the seasons here,
Just spread these "Boos" and Halloween cheer.


We were introduced to this little tradition when we moved here a couple of years ago. Now it's one of the highlights of Halloween for us. The bag also comes with a "BOO" sign that you hang on the door so that you don't get booed twice. By the end of this week every house on our street will have a Boo sign. It's so much fun! Not just getting treats, booing other people is the real fun. The real sneak comes out in our son. He is a master of the ring and run. He sneaks along the shadows to make it back to our house. I don't know if this is a skill we should be encouraging, but it's fun for now. We are almost Halloween ready around here. I still have some sewing to do on the boy's costume and we still need a few night of supplies. Make that a lot of supplies. The last two years I have gone through about 500 pieces of candy! We have a lot of kids in our neighborhood and a lot of others come here to trick or treat. What fun! I'm so glad we have good friends that convinced us to participate several years ago. Are you Halloween ready?

Apple Preserving Day

The apples were starting to overtake my kitchen. And I was having apple dreams. So I decided to make Saturday apple preserving day. I divided apples into ones that would go into the fridge for eating. I froze five bags of apple pie filling. Then I made another round of sauce. Finally I was left with a random assortment of varieties and somewhat bruised apples. Perfect for making apple butter, so I read. I've never actually made apple butter before. I decided to go hard core old school and actually can the apple butter. So I started with a lot of reading.



I like the Ball Blue Book. As I have ventured into more canning and preserving this year this book has become my go to book for recipes and technique, including the recipe I ended up using for this batch of apple butter.

For the butter making, first recruit two eager helpers for the washing and the peeling.



Then prepare to be in the kitchen for the next three hours. One of the distinctions of fruit butters is that they are cooked slowly until they thicken enough to roll up on the spoon. I didn't realize how slowly until I was standing over the same pot for the second hour. I recommend recruiting another helper at this point.



I don't recommend having a boy with the flu calling you from the couch. If you do have a boy with the flu on the couch, I recommend turning on the Arkansas game so that he can be disappointed by them and not by your lack of attention.

Once you've stirred until your arms are about to fall off, you've sterilized all of your jars, you've waited an additional forty five minutes for the processing pot to boil, and your helpers have quit, you are ready to fill the jars. Now your work is done. It's incredibly satisfying. To put that much work into something and know that your family will enjoy it for the rest of the year is well worth it. And enjoy it we will. For my first time I think I did alright. It's a bit sweet but still pretty good. An afternoon well spent.