Goodbye Terrible Twos?

As Rose nears her 3rd birthday, something very unexpected has been happening; Rose is chilling out. Lately, she is quieter, calmer, and less...well, crazy. I have found her sitting quietly in her bed, looking at comic books, listening to music for an hour at a time. She will play quietly with her legos or squinkies for hours. It is all very un-Rosie-like. I'm not sure what to think about it. She's not completely calm - she will still stand at her post on the top of the slide and yell at the dog across the street to "go to sleep, dog!" and scream at passing cars, but other than that, she has really mellowed out. We hear "the scream" less and less (which I am totally OK with). I don't know...I don't want to speak too soon or jinx myself, but I think the twos may possibly be worse than the threes for Rose. Claire was a three-year-old from you-know-where and William was always his sweet little self. Who knows, but it's kind-of weirdin' me out.

The Rose I'm used to...mopping the car.

Monday

As Halloween and a certain birthday inch closer, I've realized that I had better get moving on my plans. Claire's costume is so close to being done, William's is bought, but needs some assembling and I think Rose is ready to go. I just need to finish up and put a little more thought into someone's 3rd birthday! We have been busy as of late - not too much on the calender, but a lot of other "stuff". I think I will be ready for November next week. October is always a little crazy with so much going on. I have found that I like my calm and quiet days, which I don't get too many of. But I love them when I can get them.

The other day, I made these pumpkin scones from this book. It was so, so good. But I had to alter the recipe a bit to make it work. Turns out, that corrections for that recipe have been printed - which I didn't know about.

And our garden yielded A LOT of basil; here is some of it - we canned several jars of pesto and didn't bother harvesting the rest of the basil.

And I want you all to look at the above picture. Do you see that small square of counter space? Well that is all the counter space I have to work with. All cooking, food prep, baking, everything, takes place on that small bit of counter. I'm telling you...a shoebox...but I have plans in the works. Only a few more weeks...

Goodnight Moon

It's been a long day; a good day, but long. As much as I love getting out and doing things, my favorite place to be is home, with the ones I love most.

Have a lovely weekend.

Getting Cold(s)

I am glad that I live in a place that has definite seasons. Fall is my favorite; I don't even mind the wind and cooler weather. It's a nice change from the humidity of the summer. But with the cooler weather, comes colds. Luckily, the kids have been doing pretty well thus far. The start of school always means the kids start bringing home gross viruses. I like the excuse to slow down, sit down and enjoy quieter activities. I also love all of the snuggles I get from tired children. I will miss these when they grow up.

Back in Business

Once again, we are picture-less and until I get a new computer, it might stay that way. I hope you won't leave for lack of pictures.

The past two days, I have not been feeling well. Yesterday was the worst of the two, but I woke up this morning renewed. I'm not back to full energy yet, but it came just in time. Even though my husband did the best he could with the house while I was semi-conscious on the couch, it still amazes me how quickly things can take a turn for the worse. I spent almost the entire day today, just getting the house back in shape. There is still much to be done, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

I'm so thankful Ryan was willing to step in and bathe kids, wash dinner dishes and make lunches. What a good man.

But I think our FedX guy thinks I'm either a drunk or high because when he knocked on the door yesterday, I had to pull myself out of a benadryl-induced stupor to answer the door and my throat was so swollen, I couldn't say anything intelligible. And there was the fact that I must of have looked atrocious and could hardly sign my name with the electronic pen-thing. Let's just say, it was bad. I can just hear him telling his wife..."you wouldn't believe the crazy lady I delivered to today!".

TV schmeevee

More than a month ago, we got rid of cable. There were several motivating factors in this decision: high expense, kids watching too much, parents watching too much, and I wanted to rearrange my living room and the TV cable wouldn't reach where I wanted to put my TV and there was NO WAY I was going to pay someone to move the cable line because of my crazy furniture rearranging whim.

And unfortunately, our digital converter no longer works making our TV useless except for movies. Have we missed it? Maybe here and there. I will tell you, I don't miss hearing all of those obnoxious pre-teen Disney and Nick shows. The kids haven't seemed to notice. They just play with their toys or go outside instead of laying around the living room. In the evenings, I read or put on a favorite movie while I sew.

When we need something new to watch, we get things from the library. I won't even go into the fact that I think most of what's on TV is pretty trashy and some of it is just plain awful. That being said, so far, this has been a good thing and I don't regret our decision...much :)

Another Rose Story

If any of the kids have given me a run for my money, it has been Rose. I can not figure her out, after almost three years, you would think I could predict her, but I'm still amazed at what kind of crap she can pull.

This morning, after the kids left for school on the bus, Rose and I went to a nearby park. I took her mostly because she was feeling sad at being left behind. My local friends will know of which park I speak - the giant wood playground by the pond.

Well, Rose and I were the only ones at the playground (it was 8am) and the only other people at the park were old folks walking the gravel trails. She played while I finished my book. All was well until I accidentally stuck my finger down the back of her diaper while trying to situate her on the tire swing. Well, the diaper was filled with poo and I quickly retreated to the car to get a wipe for my hand and a diaper for Rose. The car was very close and Rose was occupied on the tire swing. I quickly returned to where Rose should have been, but wasn't. I said out loud "Oh no she didn't" She did. She had escaped out the back entrance of the playground (which has a wood fence all around except the main entrance and a small, hidden back entrance), which I didn't know she knew about. She had not only escaped, but was running full speed down the empty park road that runs next to the pond. She saw me chasing her, screamed and ran even faster. I caught her, wrestled her to a park bench where I changed her and then promptly returned to the car. What a pill!! I wonder how long and far she would have run if I had let her.

And as I write this, she has taken off all of her clothes (diaper included) and is rolling around on the wood dining room floor with her blanket.?? I hope we survive the threes.

Oh, come on!!

Once again I am thwarted in my efforts to put on new pictures - my laptop is about done. It's been a good computer; it has lasted me 5 years, which for a laptop, is pretty good. I'm seriously thinking about getting a new one next month.

We had a lovely weekend, but honestly were relieved when it was over. I am excited for some improvements that I'm making to the kitchen/dining room that I will share when it's done (next month). Speaking of the kitchen, we had a house showing last week. I spent much of the day getting the house in spic-and-span order then I had to take my sleeping toddler out in the car for an hour while the showing took place. Well, the next day, we got the results of the showing. The people were not at all interested due to the size of the kitchen. They liked everything else and had positive comments, but the kitchen would not work for their needs at all and so had no interest. Here's my thought - there are 25 freaking pictures online, many of the kitchen and the dimensions are ON THE MLS PAGE!!! If having a big kitchen is that important to you, then get out a measuring tape and measure the size BEFORE you make someone clean their whole house and yard AND leave for an hour so you can be just be "curious" or whatever. I was glad someone was looking at the house, but annoyed with these people. Yes! I know the kitchen is small - it's what I hate most about the house, but for crying out loud, if it's that important to your happiness, do a little research. There are like 100 houses in this area in this price range to choose from...whereas when we were buying our house, there were maybe 5. Oh well. What can I do?

Next time I go house hunting, I will be sure to be considerate in which houses I view - if I'm not serious, I won't look at it and save everyone the trouble.

On a different note, a few weeks back, we had this morning fog roll in, making it look like we live in a rain forest.

And what's with Daylight Savings? Is it normally in November? I'm not loving it being so dark in the morning.