Our weeks ~ October 21, October 28, & November 4

Our weeks have been full of many things...

Beautiful autumn colors (this is in our backyard)

 Abigail's second round of Botox on her left leg (see her faithful nurse?)

 Adorable cats who entertain us by playing in catnip, jumping windows in pursuit of insects, watching the printer in fascination, and (best of all!) snuggling

 A working weekend retreat in the lovely north Georgia mountains

 The magic of the first frost of the season

 The slow-paced fun of our latest science experiment (aka snail terrarium)

as we study animal classification

 Tree climbing (David is in the tree on the left)

 Schoolwork, schoolwork, and more schoolwork

 A 'mission of mercy' trip to cheer up my parents since my dad is down for the count with a foot infection and my mom is busy being his nurse:

With Grandpa during his daily IV treatment

 David and Grandpa hanging out at the pool

My first batch of 'real' soap (lye based soap with goat's milk & orange scent)

 The kids making pretty glycerin soaps with Grandma

 A fun picture from their yard, just because I like it!

Cousin/nephew/niece-love (and uncles and aunts, too)

 Back in Georgia again, to our chilly (but pretty!) fall weather...

from about October through March, if I am wearing pants,

you can be pretty sure that these are hiding underneath. :)

Football!  David wore his Broncos hat to cheer for Peyton Manning.

 The conclusion of our fall soccer season

Even a little bit of sewing & embroidery got squeezed into the schedule

 That's those three weeks in a nutshell! :)

Our week ~ October 14

Hmmm...lots of weeks have passed since the last week we recorded...but we'll just jump right back in and overlook that.

We are trucking away at school and have completed well over 1/4 of our school year!  We are currently working on fractions and decimals, parts of speech, ancient Egyptian history, spelling words that have the Latin roots "mit" and "medi", and cell theory (our current favorite), just to name a few.  This week in school, Felix learned how to tell time...or at least, he discovered that the noisy clock has a little black thing that moves every second and is great entertainment for a prowling kitten.

Both of the kittens are getting so big!  They enjoy sitting in their window seat next to the school table, where they nap, take baths, and watch birds and falling leaves.

The kids played soccer in the rain this week...but I forgot to take my camera. :(  They were soaked by the end and happy to get into dry, warm clothes, although they had lots of fun trying slip-and-slide soccer!  This orb spider's web was stunning on that rainy day; with all of the tiny raindrops clinging to it, it looked like something from a fairy-world.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but if you zoom in, it gives a little glimpse, anyway.

David has been busy creating a fleet of vehicles with his Legos.  Here is one of his (many, many) vehicles.

Last night we took our annual trip to Burt's Farm.  The weather was just right for an autumn outing; we enjoyed our hayride, seeing all of the pretty pumpkins, and a cup of fresh apple cider.  Best of all was just being together!

And just for the record, when the kids were toddler/preschool age, I used to imagine how easy it would be to get their pictures when they were older.  Wrong!  It was much easier when they were little enough that a silly face from their dad produced giant smiles every time!  Here are our outtakes...which, in truth, might be a better representation of the real 'us' anyway! :)

Battling the basement

I am on a seemingly never-ending quest to conquer the basement...and keep it that way!  It seems like every time I spend several days getting it all organized, the basement-sprites spend the next year turning it back into chaos again.  This time I am determined to conquer it once and for all.  To help with that, Bruce was willing to building some shelves for me (and for only half of the cost of ready-made shelves).  He built me these this past weekend and I am so excited!

Mindy was the self-appointed supervisor, keeper of the screws, and inspector throughout the entire project.  Notice that she shows up in every picture!

 

Clutter be gone!!! (...please!)

Bits and pieces

Here are a few bits of pieces of our life over the last week or two, in no particular order...

We enjoyed time with one of our friends' baby while they went to a meeting...people insist that it's an imposition, but little do they know just how much we enjoy loving on a baby in this household!

 I had to take this picture of Abigail on Sunday...she just looked so tall and young lady-ish...

 I have been busy this week putting together stuff to sell at a kids' consignment sale.  It was a big project...but at least it's done now, and our household has 173 items fewer than it did previously!

The kids have been playing "MacGyver" lately and have been very creative in their props.  Notice that David's bazooka is actually his pogo stick. :)

Grandma Minota got into the fun and sent the kids a camouflage/bad-guy-trapping net.  The kids love it...

 ...and so does Mindy, of course!