Thanksgiving

A few pictures from Thanksgiving...

Poor Grandpa.  He is as photogenic in this picture as I am.

To that family who was selling a box of almost 20 brown glasses at a yard sale for $5.00 years ago but tried scaring me away from buying them by telling me I would regret it because they took up too much room: I don't.

In the bottom of the dining room hutch I found a box of fancy silverware that Gram had left here- and a turkey knife and fork!  How perfectly perfect.

A Thanksgiving chalkboard tree takes mere minutes to fill.  My children are very good at counting their blessings.

I cooked a turkey the day before and made broth with the bones and boiled the giblets.  Then the stuffing and the gravy were ready long before the Thanksgiving Day turkey was done.  

Pretty paper plates made it more elegant, not less... 

A Thanksgiving playlist playing softly in the background is a great idea... if you actually remember to turn it on.  ;-)

Toilet paper roll crackers were a highlight.  I filled them with candy treats, a joke, and a little gift. 

Grandpa's false mustache makes me happy.  I knew he'd be a good sport about his gift.  

We need more children to fill up the children's table!

A million leftover rolls make a mighty fine french toast casserole.

Moses fell asleep when we were praying for the food and slept through the whole meal.

(Next year, put the snack table outside of the kitchen- so no one congregates there. Thank you and amen.)

We sang the doxology before we feasted... praise God from whom all blessings flow indeed.

October Things

October is always the start of the (cold) busy season for me.  The warm busy season comes mid-Aprilish- with clothes switching, garden planning, planting and prep work all while in the throws of homeschooling.  The cold busy season has many of the same elements: end of year canning, doing the summer winter clothes' switch, winterizing and throwing home learning back into the schedule after a summer of flying, free as a bird, wherever the winds take us.  This always takes an adjustment.

This busy season, however, has holidays thrown into the mix. 

October flew by.  I expect November and December to do the same.

Here is a slapdash post of October Things... don't expect it to make sense.  It surely won't.

My sister and I take our children to Iron Kettle Farm every year for some pumpkin perusing.  There are animals, there are pumpkin people, there are overpriced pumpkins and playground equipment.  When we first began, all the playground equipment was free.  Nowadays, you have to buy tickets for much of their offerings.  But we find the free stuff and none of my children care a bit.

This year, due to scheduling, it was just the Littles that came and not the whole gang.  Fun for the Littles, I am sure they felt very special doing something all by themselves.  A bit bittersweet for me, though, as I find myself yearning for the days when everyone was available to partake in the whims of the Mama.  

Mothers with little children- having the children with you for EVERYTHING will be something you eventually miss.  Mark my words.

Moses sat behind and said "Look at the deer that I shot, Mama!" 
Looks like he is going the way of his brothers in this too.

Ineke took this picture of Auntie Beth and her Littles

Pictures often don't convey personality well but this one is spot on.  If you want to know who mischievous Moses is, here he is!

Kittens learn to read too.

7

I had a bit of an epiphany this year about flowers.  I have always wanted to make May Day baskets to leave on peoples' doors secretly...but there are rarely flowers, it being so early in the season for where we live.

But I more than make up for it with "Frost Day" flowers.  Rather than regret not being able to make May Day baskets, I am gonna lean into this Frost Day bouquet tradition.  It's a good one.

I always cut all my blooms and make as many bouquets as I can muster and then I pass them along to friends and neighbors.  This year, we were told to anticipate frost three times without it ever freezing, so three times I cleared my flower beds just for them all keep showing off a bit longer.  

Frost Day flower bouquets, coupled with bouquets throughout the summer- I gave probably about 30ish bouquets away to people.  

One of the many reasons I love summer...

We have since had the inevitable hard frost and all the bouquets scattered throughout the house have long since been dumped.  

*sigh*

Until next year then.

                We had our church family over for a hayride and psalm sing and it just so happened to be *almost* peak autumn color here.  The sound of crinkling leaves, the rum of a tractor and singing voices rolling along through the woods is a very nice sound indeed.

Those thugs in back had strategically placed firecrackers along the path and feel pretty good about how that went.  The firecrackers sounded less nice.

Moses with one of his most favorite people.  Susie treats him like the baby that he is even though his head is as big as hers.  Maybe bigger. 

Corynn, with one of her favorite people too.  Two peas in a pod.

Well the garlic harvest was pitiful and the beautiful tomatoes were too often pecked by renegade chickens- but the PEPPERS.  

This was a whopper pepper year.  

This was just ONE (of the three) garden 'clean outs' before frost:  

Due to the unusually mild Autumn we have had, I thought I would take our Christmas pictures earlier this year.  It isn't Christmasy- but we weren't freezing!  And I may get the Christmas cards out in time for Christmas this year!  :-)  

Another reason I chose to do it this early is because our dog Ruby is failing and will likely not make it through the winter.   I felt she needed a place in the Christmas card one last time...

But the whole plan backfired when I looked through the pictures and Ruby looked as if she had already given up the ghost.

I leave you with:

(Which will NOT be our 2022 Christmas picture.)

Halloweening

Sunshine, Thunderstorm, Winterstorm, Tornado, and a Rainbow.  

Not pictured: The weatherman who was still at work during the picture-taking part of the evening and two teenager wanderers, who are too cool to dress up with us anyway.

SUNSHINE!

Upcycled from Judah's Sandman costume and an old gypsy belt, Adele's costume was a breeze.  Just a sheet of glitter foam, a bit of gold netting and some gemstone stickers from the dollar store were all that were required.  We even made super long and dangly earrings from the foam- which you sadly can't see here.  We had leftover gold glitter face makeup that she used too.

Though the lighting is terrible and hides this fact... she REALLY shined!

Total cost: about $3.00

A Tornado:

A very fitting costume for this boy!  Though if you asked Moses, he would say that he was a "tomato".  By far, his favorite part of the costume was the hair gel.  It was the first thing he told everyone he saw. 

I used a metal hoop someone had given me previously, a 'snow' blanket from the craft store, some batting to create shape and a bunch of little toys hotglued on.  

Total cost around: $2.00

A RAINBOW:

The plan was always to make her this dress.  In fact, that dress was the inspiration for the entire theme this year.

And then, the day before Halloween, reality set in.  That's a whole lot of GATHERS.  That is a whole lot of piecing.  

Thankfully, I came to my senses and opted for an easier option.  I am relieved even now.  I was much less stressed.

Ineke made the glitter barrette herself.  We made a pot of gold from gold buttons we already had on hand.  She used a wig from the costume bin.  (After Halloween, I try and make a trek out to see if any wigs are 75% off.  This was one of those clearance wigs.)

The wig was her favorite part... I bet you can tell from the pictures.  ;)

Her costume was totally free- though I will say I regret using cotton balls for the trim instead of buying pompoms.  They were falling apart before we even left the house.

THUNDERSTORM:

Judah's costume was fabulous.  The flashing twinkle lights in the cloud were really awesome!  They were his (and everybody's!) favorite part.

A whole lot of cardboard, a whole lot of batting and a strand of twinkle lights that I already have. (I wove them in the batting in a way that they could be taken out again after Halloween.)

(I keep twinkle lights on hand for when the electricity goes out.  You should too!  They are handy things for stairways and bathrooms...trust me.)

Let this be a lesson to you:  When a neighbor calls and asks if you want a 3 foot box of batting- even if you have no room and have no projects in mind... always, ALWAYS say yes. 

Total cost: FREE!

WINTERSTORM:

A package of dollar store icicles and silver branches.  Some gemstones from Adele's gemstone sticker sheet.  Cotton balls and some stash odds and ends.  Earrings that were a gift years ago but matched perfectly.  

The whole shebang would have been a whopping two dollars except I saw this wig at Walmart and just HAD to have it.  My hair has been falling out so much this past year- there is very little that can be done with it at this point so I caved. 

 (I kinda wanna wear silver/pink/blue hair all the time now.)

The full-price wig made mine the most expensive costume this year with the total cost being:  $14.00

I know it is probably really boring to hear how much these costumes cost and what I used for supplies, but one of my favorite parts of costuming is how it can be done so cheaply.  You do not need to spend $20 (or more) per costume to look great.  

Frankly, it helps me justify the stash of craft/sewing supplies I keep all year long "just in case" I might need them.  ;-)

Speaking of neighbors giving us things, a neighbor said we could each taken a pumpkin from their patch to carve since our pumpkin patch grew not a single pumpkin this year.

(We have wonderful neighbors.)

We advocate for healthy eating...

"Children!  It is very important to eat your vegetables!  Here, have seconds!"