Loving Life

I spent the day at my parents house for Thanksgiving and my mother reminded me that it had been awhile since my last update.  I agreed.  Rather than overwhelm you with the various tidbits of my life since I last blogged, I'll try to keep it short.  I have included two pictures of various writings that occurred this past week.  The first is from Abby.  She has inherited my small mouth (as did Ana), and had to have two teeth pulled this past week to make room for her two grown up teeth that were trying to squeeze in.  There was considerable anxiety about the whole procedure going in to it.  That evening, she dictated a note to Ana to write to the tooth fairy. It reads: (and I'll use the correct spelling - as Ana still spells pretty phonetically) "Dear Tooth Fairy (which ever one you are), Can you please give me a little extra money because I was scared at the dentist office?  Abby."  Those are her two teeth laying there on the note, in case you were wondering what thos

If you think of it, I'd appreciate a prayer or two on behalf of Ana tomorrow (Monday) as she is having a minor little surgery done in the late morning.  This will hopefully help with her recurrent UTIs and help her get past getting so sick when she gets them.  She's pretty frightened by the whole surgery aspect, but it's just a day thing and we'll be home by late afternoon, should everything go as planned.  We're bringing along all sorts of comfort things from home to help ease the anxiety.  So any and all prayers for her are greatly appreciated!  Thanks!

The kids LOVE raking up the leaves into a huge pile every year.  Our biggest tree is a beautiful red maple that looses its leaves a little later than other trees.  So it is often freezing cold by the time they have dropped and it's time to mulch them up.  I spent Monday afternoon cleaning up the yard and getting it ready for winter since the weather was gorgeous (and on November 1!).  There are still leaves to fall yet, but at least I got most of them up.  Here are the kids in their pile. I use these to cover my garden during the winter and then till them into the ground in spring.  Extras go on the compost pile and around the flower gardens.  It's nice to have most of that big chore done for the year.  We'll see how big of a pile the remainder makes (or how many blow into our yard from next door).  I may have to mow them up again, and hopefully when it's not too cold.  Mowing while wearing a hat and mittens just feels wrong. Question for you:  Are you a cold weather

This year I planted some fall lettuce again.  It took awhile for it to grow because I forgot to water it and we had a very dry end of the summer.  But it eventually rained a few times and my lettuce grew!  I love having fresh lettuce from the garden.  Unfortunately, I didn't plant enough of it.  I am sad about that.  I may get one more cutting from it, but it is mostly done for the year. I am happy to report that my tomatoes are done.  I probably could have gotten a few more, but I have a small pile to still work with and have canned all I am able to can.  I don't know where my final count is for what I canned with tomato products this year.  I wish I could find it.  Perhaps if I clean off my desk I will.  All I know is that I reached my goal of having enough tomatoes.  I haven't had enough in the past few years since my tomato plants all died after the first round of production.  Not this year.  Plus I planted about three times as many tomato plants as usual to make sure

The kids and I enjoyed going out trick or treating last night.  Aaron was busy at work, so he wasn't able to join us.  This year, Ana decided she wanted to be a zebra.  This zebra shirt is in our dress up box of clothes that we scored when Aaron's step-grandma passed away 6 years ago.  She was a very flamboyant dresser and we have gotten some great mileage from some of her more wild clothing.  I painted Ana's face to match her shirt and we put her hair back for a mane and sprayed it black.  Ana made these cute little ears and a tail to go with her outfit.  It was quite adorable. She was very nervous about going out like that because she looked so different than she was used to seeing.  I tried to assure her that she looked great and that she would more than likely get many compliments on her outfit.  After about three compliments directed only to her and not her siblings, she let me know that I was right and people did like it.  After that, she was one very happy and confi