Fall

Fall - October is such a great month!
Some pictures of our fall: Once again, blogger won't let me change the order of the pics - so these are not in the order I intended. Picture Below taken at Kykuit - the Rockefeller's Country Estate - this is their view of the Hudson from the back of the Property. It was amazing. Learned some stuff about the Rockefeller's on the tour - seemed like a good family who did good with all that money. Our guide's Father worked on the estate for many years, so she had some personal stories that made them seem a little more real. We went to our favorite farm to get pumpkins - and pet the dogs. Before Chris left we told the girls we would think about getting a dog when he got back. Ashlee has been mentally shopping for one for months. I'm trying to think up a new excuse about why it's a good idea to wait a while longer.

While in the Hudson Valley, we went to "Blaze" on one of the estates - over 4,000 carved pumpkins. Here is Heather with the girls in front of the sunflower fields. They had a few real pumpkins, but the rest were plastic - I wondered before we went how they kept them from rotting. It was pretty cool. Heather came to see us last week - we really enjoyed her visit and hope she wasn't too bored.

Taken at the working farm - Phillipsburg Manor - in Sleepy Hollow, NY. We toured this during the day and went back the next night for "Legends Night" At night, the farm transforms into a story-telling, song singing, headless horseman riding party that is really fun. Except the night we went, it was POURING rain - flash flood warning for the area, so, we might have stayed longer and enjoyed it more had we been dry.

Pickin out the perfect pumpkin at the farm - not in order.

Beehive and bees at the "Blaze"

Taken as we approached Phillipsburg Manor for the "Legends" night.

Last but not least, Paigie loves "belts" - headbands that Ashlee usually wears in lieu of a real belt to keep her pants up. Paigie has adopted that fashion style and I think pulls it off rather nicely! There are 5-6 headbands around her waist in this picture, plus on in her hair.

I guess summer is really over - we've had a string of cold/cooler days, so it's time to pack up the flip flops and get ready for winter. Everyone keeps saying we are going to have a rough winter. I'm waiting for our local weather guy - Glen "Hurricane" Schwarz to make his winter prediction. There is a good chance he already has, I haven't watched the news in weeks. Anyway, here are some random thoughts from me tonight:

Glee - could someone please explain this show's popularity with people my age to me. I know several people who love it, David Bianculli from NPR loves it. . . so I've watched it a couple of times to see what the deal is. I don't get it - the kids are lip-synching (fine for some scenes, but when they are supposed to be performing?) and doing it poorly, many times not even moving their mouths at the right time. Plus, the girl sounds a little bit too much like Britney Spears you know that sound tunnel, electric voice? The camera work (I'm sure it's on purpose) is jerky and bouncy and gives me a headache. I'm pretty sure they are aiming at a younger demographic, but why do adults love it so? I did hear really great music this week from Pomplamoose, new to me, but soo good!

NPR is helping me be a grumpy mother. I hate to say it, but it's true. Their shows are just so good and it makes me feel like I'm informed and can be a little bit educated about current issues. Plus there are just so many stories that you would never hear on regular TV/news. I have their schedule memorized and I'm sad when I miss a favorite show. For instance "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" comes on at 4:00pm on Saturdays, which is a bad time and I miss it more than I hear it and "This American Life" comes on Sundays at 12:00, we don't get in the car after church until 12:20/12:30 so I usually miss most of that. And, I probably shouldn't be listening to it on the Sabbath anyway. Sad - but the really sad thing is that if I am listening to it (when I'm cooking, cleaning, driving etc...) I tune the kids out, want them to be quiet and get mad if I miss something. I'm thinking I'm going to have to give it up a little bit. So, don't ask me about current events, interesting stories etc... because I won't know.

Last one - I took the girls to the park the other night, one that is far from our house, because we are collecting leaves to mail to Chris. It was a beautiful evening, the air was clear, the sky was blue, without its usual haze and the leaves have started to turn. I felt so grateful to be there. After a few minutes a couple of other families arrived - younger than me probably by a few years - and I got a little panicky. What if I am nearing the end of my playground years - not for a while, Paigie is only 2, but what if she is the last one? I wanted to freeze, pause, make time go slower, I mean really what if? We had a great walk through the woods, a happy chatty drive home (no radio!) and just a great rest of the night. But, then tonight, at about 8:00, all I could think was "go to bed, go to bed, go to bed, go to bed...." Part of the reason why motherhood is so difficult, I guess.

And, Heather comes in 2 days!!!!!!!!! We are very excited.

Conversations with My Sister

The picture above doesn't really have anything to do with this post, but she's just really cute. This is a Saturday night, after a bath, playing dress-up with her sisters. Both the earring stickers and dress were worn to church the next day, after she slept in both of them. I did manage to get a shirt on underneath the dress. There is just no time for arguing about clothes on a Sunday morning - whenever she gets dressed we go through every dress in her closet at least once, sometimes three times or more before a choice is made. In fact, that may be our new Sunday strategy - letting her sleep in the dress she is going to wear the next day.

About 2 weeks ago, I was talking to my sister about school etc... for her kids. Her oldest started early morning seminary this year. She gets up and eats breakfast with her every day - sometime in the 5 o'clock hour. So they can have one on one time together. She said "I'll bet I'm one of the only mom's who does this." and not to brag about it, but to say, "Why?" I told her it's because she is a good mom. Below is a picture of the sunrise Maggie took one day last week. She gets up at 6:30 and enjoys some alone time - alone. Because I sleep until about 6:55 and then get up and make her lunch and give her a kiss and send her out the door. And I don't have to go to work all day. I need to change this, because one day I'm going to want a do-over for these years.

Then, on Sunday night, I was on the phone with my sister again. She was cleaning up after Sunday dinner. (We had just eaten also, we are two hours ahead of her. It's our thing - eating dinner as close to bed time as possible) She made cheesy potatoes at the request of her oldest and was throwing the leftovers away. She doesn't keep leftovers. Why? Because she's smart - her kids don't eat them and neither does she. I have day's and day's worth of leftovers in my fridge. I eat them almost every day for lunch, and still they go bad and need to be thrown out. This is one of the reasons I miss C - (I know it's super romantic) he eats the food I make, he likes more than 5 things, and sometimes he helps eat the leftovers. Below is a picture of my fridge - 3 of those containers will pass the 7 day guideline and be thrown out this weekend. I even have left over Macaroni and Cheese - who's going back to that? Certainly not me, and I'm assuming none of the girls since I've offered it as an after-school snack and not had any takers. P.S. The salad in the deli container is the salmon bow-tie salad from Cost-Co - a mistake as most deli salads are.

So, to sum it up, my sister is smarter than me and a better mom. I feel like that about my siblings - I wish I were like them in more ways. I'm glad they still like me anyway.