Casting Shadows

Here are some of the shadows that were cast around my house yesterday late afternoon and this morning.

Stupid Stuff

Last week was an "off" week for me. (at least that is what I am telling myself!) I did a number of stupid things. Here are my top two:
The first was taking my camera to the alpaca farm. I was snapping a bunch of cute pictures of the family and the alpacas. I must have taken about twenty five or so. I didn't bother to look at them in the little screen on the camera. I would have had to remove my polarized sunglasses in the bright sunlight to see an image. Even then, it would have been hard to see the picture without zooming in or putting on my reading glasses. I snap a bunch of images as I don't want to miss some cute expression! Eventually I took a cute picture of one of the babies and I wanted to see it. No Cf card was what it said. Stupid me, I had left my Cf card at home. Yep, I missed a bunch of cute expressions! (I borrowed Megan's camera at the last minute to get the pictures I do have.)
The second was when I made bread on Friday. I was in the mood for baking. The dough was on the stove rising. I had blueberry muffins ready to go into the oven at about the same time when the bread had reached the end of the rising time. I peeked in the bowl only to find that it was the same height as when I first placed it in the bowl. Stupid me, I had forgotten the yeast. (We tried to use the unleavened dough for pizza. I wouldn't recommend it. We needed a chain saw to cut the pizza.)
Do you ever do stupid stuff and wonder where your brain was?

Sweater Weather

Sweater Weather is finally here! Which means to me: changing leaves, pumpkins, soups, hot tea, baking, Apple Hill, and eventually fire in the stove and the first rain. I love fall with all of that orange and red.

Sailing

Cold Season Cures

The babies were sick last weekend and so it goes without saying that we are in the midst of colds. After all who can resist kisses from those babies? At our house I always have hot spiced tea for colds, sore throats, sinus issues and just because it tastes good. The original recipe came to me by my home economics teacher in high school. I have tweaked the recipe to give it a little more oomph, as I do with almost any recipe.

 Hot Spiced Tea:
2 c. Tang
2 c. Lemonade Mix
3/4 c. Instant Tea (unsweetened)
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
Mix together and store in a tightly covered container. ( It kind of reminds me of sand art!)

Add 3 t. to a coffee mug of boiling water.

Now if you have a nasty cough that goes with your cold, add a splash of Spiced Rum or Hot Damn Liqueur to your hot spiced tea. Or just add it for fun! My favorite is the Hot Damn.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch

I have my own little pumpkin patch in my house, with pumpkins in all sorts of shapes, sizes and materials.

Mommy and Me

Sometimes Mommies need to be reminded that the chaos and the craziness that little people bring to your life is what makes life more abundant. They are the best thing you have ever done. And you are doing a good job at being Mommies.

 Elizabeth with Eleanor and Audrey.

 Megan and Vivian

My Three Babies

 Miss Vivian, life of the party. She doesn't think she requires a nap. At 9 months, she is taking her first steps unassisted. She is not crazy about dogs. She can point and has a whole lot to say.

 Miss Audrey is 4 months old. She is the serious one. Loves her Papa and calms right down when he holds her. She still loves to be swaddled. She likes to watch the big girls at play. She is also working on rolling over.

Miss Eleanor at 22 months is a little sponge. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. She can jump with both feet. She still loves being outdoors. She loves reading, cars and coming to Nana and Papa's house.

Alpacas

The kids came home this last weekend. While they are home, we try to find something fun to do. Our little town holds a lot of festivals every weekend it seems. This  weekend there was  an Alpaca Farm Festival. We decided it might be fun for the little people and interesting enough for the big people. We learned quite a bit about alpacas.

What sweet little faces they have.

Danny, Brad, Lil, Audrey, Meg and Vivian.

I swear this one looks like a former employee of mine!

Ellie was more interested in climbing the fences.

Miss Viv was hot and tired (no nap).

Just part of the herd, the one in the middle has dread locks.