OCTOBER!

Look!  Fall!  YAY!

I think my favorite fall tradition is making pumpkin bread on October 1st.  This year, I waited until after school, and let Daphne help.  I use this recipe from Kev's Fannie Farmer cookbook, but I double the spices and add chocolate chips instead of nuts. Good stuff.

Daphne likes raking leaves.  This is good, because I hate raking leaves.  Actually, I don't mind raking them, I just don't like picking them up and bagging them.  There must be a gadget out there for that.  It would be much more useful than THIS gadget, which I saw on TV the other day.  Good grief:




Yesterday, we went to Rust Nature Sanctuary after school to watch a friend's son tag and release monarch butterflies.  Very very cool. 

Daphne tends to be very pokey and distracted in the mornings, which causes lots of stress and yelling and almost missing the bus.  So, we started a new morning plan.  Every morning, I set the kitchen timer for 12 minutes.  During that time, Daphne has to do her morning jobs (brush teeth, make bed, get dressed).  For every minute she has to spare, she gets a coin to put in this jar:

We call it "Beat the Clock."  This has made mornings SO much nicer.  She is highly motivated to get ready faster, she doesn't have to rush through breakfast, and sometimes, she has time for a chapter of a story, or a little of THIS before the bus:

I am a little worried that she may not be spending enough time on the teeth-brushing part, but we can adjust for that.  It's so nice to start the day relaxed instead of stressed.

I'm proud of her.  She has beaten the clock every day for about 2 weeks now, with no complaining.  And she isn't even keeping the money!  She's giving it to a program which helps economically disadvantaged girls participate in Girl Scouts.

Tonight is my last quilt class.  I doubt I will finish, but I hope to get quite a bit of the "quilt sandwich" done.  The weekend should be good.  Tomorrow is the annual "work festible" at Kev's company complex...free barbecue dinner and rides and a rock-climbing wall etc.  Always fun.  Saturday, we have band practice with Misters Tim and Jeff, and Sunday we bottle our beer.  At last!

And maybe next week, there will be more soup!  Fall is awesome!