I'm Calling This Post "Fall-a-Palooza"

Sitting here on Monday, October 29, waiting to lose power.  The Frankenstorm (aka Hurricane Sandy) has begun.  It's rainy and windy, school is closed today and tomorrow, Kev came home from work early, and they have canceled the Halloween parade.  I spent the morning making Guinness Beef Stew and doing laundry, hoping to get all that done before losing our electricity.  So far, we still have power.  So, I thought I'd catch up a little on blogging.  Last week was a crazy exhausting fun fun week.  Lots to talk about, but I'll start with last Saturday.

After a nice lunch with my parents and my grandma at Blue Ridge Grill, they headed back to Manassas, and we decided to go for a hike.  The weather was too good to not go do SOMETHING outside.  So we headed for Bear's Den.  The leaves were peaking, and we weren't disappointed by the view.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by Bluemont Winery on the way home.  The view there was nice as well, the sky was blue with puffy clouds, and there were turkeys.

 Poor turkey.  He has no idea what's in store for him next month. 

I can't remember what we did Sunday other than make a giant pot of jambalaya in anticipation of visitors from Texas the next day.  But more on that in another post.  Time to go stir my Frankenstorm stew.

Big Tex, 2008

This was taken the last time I saw Big Tex.  Today, he went out in a blaze of glory.  Adios, Big Tex. 

A Day in the Life: Tuesday

• Get up
• Make everyone's lunches and breakfasts
• Get Daphne on the bus
• Go to Pilates class with my friends
• Feel taller!
• Listen to Everything but the Girl and get the butter chicken going in the slow cooker
• Go to JoAnn and Target for owl supplies
• Eat lunch and watch part of an old episode of Knitty Gritty on the DVR
• Cut out lots of owl feathers

• Arrange owl feathers and contemplate wings
• Fail to figure out how to make wings

• Eggnog break   (YES!)

•  Get Daphne off the bus
• Go to the library to learn about bats and do a bat craft

•  Come home and supervise homework completion
• Make rice, naan, and broccoli to go with butter chicken
• Eat delicious butter chicken with nice family
• Put Daphne to bed
• Discuss current events with Kev
• Finish the book I should have finished for last Monday's book club
• Sleep
• More or less repeat...

 Cool bat shirt, huh?  Will have to steal this idea...

Lions and Tigers and Camels? Oh My.

Daphne gets to have a lot of fun.  I'm sort of starting to worry that she's going to expect it to stay that way when she grows up, and then be really disappointed and bitter and blame me when it doesn't.  Look at her up there in that picture.  This was Friday, on her first grade field trip to the National Zoo.  She and two of her best friends were running along following elephant prints without a care in the world. (Except "Are we EVER gonna get to eat lunch?").  (It was 10:30 am).

I got to go along on the trip as a chaperone, or as Daphne calls it, a "shepherd."  I was in charge of those three little girls in the picture.  Easiest job ever.  They are all good friends, as I mentioned, and they are all in my Daisy troop.  It was a blast.  Highlights included this wolf:

This curious little seal:

And lots of other cool animals like river otters and pandas and 4 different kinds of owls and flamingos and gorillas and lions and tigers and bears...

The weather was great, the kids were great, and the animals really put on a show.   I have a new appreciation of the National Zoo.  Even riding on the school bus for an hour wasn't too bad (except for the bus driver, who kept telling really dark jokes to his audience of 6-year olds - "If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving may not be the thing for you" - there were lots of questions about that one.)

Saturday was a designated Family Day.  We had to X out a day on the calendar so that we made sure there were no birthday parties or girl scout activities or band practices, and do some things as a family before fall is over.

We decided to go to Temple Hall Farm's fall festival and corn maize.  Temple Hall did not disappoint.  Not only was there a corn maize, but there were piles of hay to climb on, pig races, corn dogs, toilet seat horseshoes, corn hole, tether ball, a bouncy pillow, a sandbox filled with corn (I can't tell you how much corn fell out of Daphne's undies), a magic show, and a CAMEL RIDE! 

When I woke up Saturday morning, I had no idea I'd be riding a camel.  But I'm so glad I did.  How many chances in life do you get to ride a camel with your kid?  Who needs to go all the way to Egypt?  Not me.  They probably don't even have corny dogs  and pig races there.  Virginia is awesome.

After the Corn Maize, we needed to sit down.  So we went to Lost Creek Winery.  Kev and I sat outside and listened to Gary Smallwood covering some light hits of the 70s while Daphne ran around the big yard. 

And we ended family day at Q Company BBQ - a new place around the corner from our house.  It has a gigantic Texas flag on the wall and delicious pulled pork.  It was kind of perfect.  We should have Family Day more often.

Sunday we didn't really slow things down. We went to breakfast and Trader Joe's in the morning, and in the afternoon, I took Daphne on a letter boxing hike with the troop while Kev did some banjo recording and cider bottling with Mister Tim.

And finally, in the evening, Kev and I went to the movies while Daphne did arts and crafts with her favorite teenager.

We are all pretty exhausted today, but it's worth it.  It was such a fun weekend.  I think we've gotten our money's worth out of this fall.  Next weekend, we should probably have Daphne mop some floors and pay some bills and pull some weeds or something.  Just to balance things out.

In the meantime, we have no food or clean clothes, so I better get back to reality too.  Hope you had a good weekend!

Let's Do the Time Warp Again

I have discovered the secret to slowing down time: CAMPING.  It's true.  We went camping over the weekend, and I swear, Saturday lasted about twice as long as a regular Saturday.  In a good way, not in a "Good Lord is this day EVER going to end" way.

We woke up early to this peaceful view (above) from our cabin porch at Westmoreland State Park. There was french toast and sausage and coffee in the french press for breakfast  (Hey, I never said we were roughing it).

Then we rounded up our friends (we went with the "band families") and took a hike from the visitor center through the woods and down to Fossil Beach.  The kids climbed and dug and waded and found treasures.  And we saw Bald Eagles diving for fish.

Back at the cabins, the kids built a tree fort (with a little help), and played in the woods...

...while the adults attempted to make exciting camp fire desserts:

Kevin has decided this should be called Apple Mess.  It wasn't pretty.  We nearly burned it on the coals, but it was rescued and turned into something delicious.

S'mores were made, Jiffy Pop was popped, guitars and banjos were played, songs were sung, Born in the USA was hummed (long story, but one I want to remember when I read this later), and a good time was had by all.  And as I said, it was like the weekend lasted a week.  I loved it.

Home again now, and THIS is happening on the street below my office window:

Ugh.  It's really loud and non-stop, and I wish I was still in the park, listening to crickets and frogs and eagles and music and happy little kids, where everything smelled like camp fire.  Back to reality, though.  And lots more good things to come this month. 

No school today, thanks to Mister Columbus.  It's cloudy and cold out, and I got to wear my Toast arm warmers.  It sort of feels like Thanksgiving.  I took Daphne down to Manassas for a while, and now we're back home, waiting for Kev.  I think maybe I'll turn on the fireplace and make some hot chocolate.  Hope you had a nice long weekend.  See you soon with more October.

Progress

Bitter Norah Jones and I have been cleaning kitchen cabinets today.  I won't even show you the "Before" pictures.

I threw away things (food items!) from last century.  I'm not even kidding.  Things that moved from Kevin's bachelor apartment to our first house in Texas to Virginia without ever being used.  I didn't know corn meal could go bad. (It can).  Yuck.

You may notice that there are some grits in the cabinet.  They aren't old, they were just hidden.  Now that I found 'em, I'm gonna eat 'em!  Progress is good.

A Good Start

October is off to a good start.  Mums and a pumpkin are on the  porch.  Daphne saw them from the bus window and gave me two thumbs up as she passed.

I don't usually make impulse purchases at Wegman's, but yesterday I saw this CD in the checkout lane:

So, I bought it, and spent a nice afternoon with Norah Jones, baking pumpkin bread and doing a tidy up.  Norah has gone a little dark and bitter!  But it's a GREAT cd.  Highly recommended.

Here is the pumpkin bread.  Daphne and I had an after school sample - that's why there is a missing piece:

Pumpkin bread makes homework time better.  Pumpkin bread makes ANYTHING better.

Daphne brought home her first homework packet yesterday.  They gave the kids a month to ease into school, and now it's business time.  It isn't much, and it's pretty easy.  Good idea to start getting them ready for years of homework to come.  The best part of the homework packet is the reading log.  They have to read for 20 minutes every single day.  I love this.  And I have decided that I am going to join Daphne during that 20 minutes and do a little reading myself.  I wish they would require 20 minutes of knitting each day too.  And a mandatory nap.

It's raining today and besides running out for a couple of errands, I don't have anywhere I have to be.  A good day to get some things crossed off my list.

Some October goals:

• Clean out Daphne's closet (again)
• Clean out the kitchen cabinets
• Sew something
• Try a new soup recipe
• Get some pants
• Start thinking about Christmas
• Get a haircut
• Get a pedicure
• Read for 20 minutes every single day

First thing's first, though.  Breakfast time!  I think there might be pumpkin bread downstairs...

OCTOBER!

Happy October.  I love October.  It is my favorite month of the year.  Today, I bought this pumpkin for my front porch, and two pots of mums.  And this afternoon, I'm making my annual "It's Finally October 1st!" loaf of pumpkin bread.  October is always good, but this year I expect it to be extra good.  We're going camping with the band.  My grandma is coming to visit.  We're taking the Daisies on a letter boxing hike.  Some of my most favorite people are coming to visit from Texas (and there will be knitting and pie).  I get to see my friend Ken and see the Old 97s play at the 9:30 Club (I have never been to the 9:30 Club).  There will be lots of soups and stews.  And we have designated 2 different Saturdays this month as Family Days, upon which we will make no plans nor accept invitations so that we can do some fall family activities before it gets cold.

Yesterday, we enjoyed the last day of September with a bike ride.  We went to South Street for breakfast first, then rode up the trail to a local playground.

This was a big deal, because we were able to get Daphne back on her bike after a brief but frustrating period of deciding that riding her bike was too dangerous and scary.  Someday, maybe we'll even get the training wheels off.  Baby steps.

The rest of the weekend involved a lot of birthday parties and errands.  It was fun but exhausting.  Chuck E Cheese can really suck the life right out of a person.  Daphne had a blast though, and I got to see friends I really like, so it's all good.  And Kev got some recording and yard work done.

One of the nicest things about the weekend was going to a new local frozen yogurt place called Luv'n Berry (I'm not luv'n the name, but the yogurt is GREAT).  They held a fundraiser on Saturday for a local family with a 10-year old who has cancer, and they need some help with the medical bills that are piling up.  It was so nice to see people in the community come together to help one of their own.  That's how it should be, really.  Anyway, I highly recommend this yogurt...it's better and way cheaper than Pinkberry, and it's locally owned by good nice people.

Well, there is pumpkin bread to bake, laundry to fold, and some general tidying up to do, so I better get going.  Happy October!