Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday, with good food and grateful hearts.

Today I'm sharing with you a floral arrangement I made from a flower bunch I bought at Costco and a thrift-store (Valentine's day patterned) glass bowl.

I was really intimidated to make it when I started! I wanted it in a low bowl, but cutting the flowers down that much made me nervous. I find the most likely mistake I make when arranging flowers is leaving the stems too long for the container - when the stems are not cut down enough, you end up with something that looks like a flower bunch, stuck in a vase, rather than like a finished arrangement. But once you cut them you can't get them any longer, so I always feel that I'm overdoing it and messing it up! In the end the stems are almost always slightly too long (or a lot too long), if anything.

In this case I had to cut them down by half, and even then the tallest pieces ended up taller than I had planned. But, it looked good enough that I wasn't anxious to start over. I wrapped the decorative wrap from the original bunch around the bowl to make it match the arrangement and tied it with some rafia.

This is for my mother-in-law's birthday, and hopefully can double as decoration for her Thanksgiving table. We'll be spending our holiday there, for which we are very grateful! Have a lovely day, everyone.

Roasted "Baby Cabbages!" or Brussel Sprouts

I have been looking forward to roasting these Brussels sprouts for days and we've just been too busy to do it - which is silly because it was really fast!  I cut each sprout in half, tossed them with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them in a 450 degree oven until they were crispy and caramelized. 

I told the boys they were "baby cabbages" and they thought they were adorable.  Maybe they will grow up associating Brussels sprouts with YUM instead of yuck. 

One word of caution: you can see that I sliced my garlic - bad idea.  It got too done - not burned but over-browned.  I had to pull it out halfway through cooking and toss it (head in the oven, frying off my eyelashes...).  I should have done what I usually do, which is to crush each clove with the flat of a knife and toss them in whole. 

Give it a try, and Happy Roasting!

Swashbuckling

I realized that I showed Sammy's costume but not Zack's. Wouldn't want to be unfair, right?

I didn't do very well with my Halloween pictures this year. I don't have any of Zack that I love. But, I'll still post a little pirate action.

We really picked this costume because it took no effort.  We had some pirate stuff from Zack's party and the rest came out of his closet.  I was relieved not to be Halloween crafting this year.  But, at the last minute I did do one little thing.  It was mighty easy.  See that earring - I had a silver (fake silver) hoop with a purple stone in it that I'd lost the mate to. I got out my little pliers and removed the stone, then inked and embossed it gold. Who knew scrapbooking supplies would come in handy for so many things! It gave a cool hammered-metal look. It was on a fishhook style post so we just hooked it through his bandanna. Voila! Pirate jewelry.

New Routines

Ok, I think Fall is coming- fo' reals this time. I know this for two reasons. First, last night a cool front blew in and I was actually chilly at the park in my shorts and t-shirt! The weather was crisp this morning and even though it's going to get up into the 80's today, it was still in the 60's when I fed Sammy his early lunch. Very exciting stuff. And second, I seem to have lost September.

The new routines of starting Kindergarten for Zack and starting Preschool for Sammy are quite an adjustment. There isn't anything in particular that is a hard adjustment (well, ok, getting up early is a hard adjustment for me. But not as hard as I thought it was going to be), but it's enough that it seems to be consuming a significant amount of my processing power. I would think I'd have the ability to do some other things while adjusting but it turns out, not so much.

I was thinking today about all the things I haven't been doing this month. I haven't been taking near as many pictures as I like to. I haven't been blogging. I haven't been cooking anything new or different. I haven't been scrapbooking. I haven't been watching many shows. I haven't been reading any fiction. I haven't been running (or swimming, or biking).

But then it's only fair to think of the things I have been doing. I have been making lunches. I have been devouring materials for a new class at church on Esther that has been fascinating and exciting. I have been visiting with my parents and Granny who came to see us for a fabulous week. I have been making lunches. I have been preparing for and attending the biennial* quilt show for our local quilt guild. I have been volunteering in Zack's classroom. I have been throwing a Treasure Island birthday party. I have been getting a new microwave. I have been making lunches.

So, I guess I see what my processing power has been going towards, and it's good stuff. This weekend I pulled back out the scrapbooking materials and am feeling so excited to continue working on Sammy's book. I have a brief lull in my class at church and I know that even with just a few days off I am going to be refreshed and excited to get back to it. Hm. Maybe I should put some of my good attitude toward making those lunches, eh?

*Since when do both biannual and semiannual mean twice a year? I thought at least one of them meant every two years.  But I had to look it up to remember which one, and the dictionary says it's ambiguous so just use biennial if you mean every two years.  Isn't it a little sad if even the dictionary can't seem to stand for proper word usage?  Isn't that what a dictionary is for? Ok, rant over. 

Fall is in the Air!

Today when I went to pick up Zack, a breath of cool blew over the schoolyard.

I made chili for dinner (although possibly that was jumping the gun).

We took the boys to a high school football game.

We were not hot outside for the first time in many months.

I guess fall is going to come after all!