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Fall

We love this tree! We thought we lost it to a late hard freeze a few years ago. It has struggled, but has finally made a comeback. There are just a few straggling bare branches that we need to clip off if we can ever find a pole trimmer long enough to do the job.

In Laws Visit

Fred's mom and grandfather came up for 5 days in early October. We picked apples at Skytop Orchard, made applesauce, visited waterfalls, the trout farm, Biltmore, Carl Sandburg, watched a Gator game on TV and nearly completed a 1000 piece puzzle. The puzzle if Fred's grandpa's signature item. Wherever he visits, he starts a 1000 piece puzzle to leave behind for the hosts to finish after he leaves. I'm guessing we still have about 100 pieces to go. Hopefully, he didn't slide a piece in his pocket before he left, which he's been known to do! It's a real blessing that the girls can spend some quality time with a great grandparent who acts surprisingly young for his age. :-)

Flu :-(

A friend called yesterday and said she was missing my blogs.

Half of our family has been down with the flu over the past few weeks and with all the extra stair running and laundry and hand washing added to my normal mom/wife duties, I haven't had a minute to spare.

This week school is out (except for math) for a "teacher needs a break" week. Sarah has two days of make up work to do this week due to being sick last week and still isn't feeling great although today she is FINALLY fever free. I didn't want to pile her up too much - what's the point? We'll get the rest done eventually. It's really nice to be able to work around life's setbacks. Rebecca is doing a happy dance because she feels great and only has to finish math every day.

Farm City Day

Whoa! I haven't been around in awhile. I need to catch up. Let's see. October 3 we spent a lovely day at the local Farm City Day Festival. It's like a small town fall festival. They have vendors, a scarecrow contest, music, hayrides, ect. The 4H clubs have a big tent and each club provides an educational display and a craft.

Our group has been searching for something interesting that we could do year after year to minimize the planning and prep for this event. This year I think we've found it! One of our families has started "raising" bees. What would a farm be without a bee? Bare. That's what. No fruits or veggies without those little pollinators. So, they did a display about bees and their grandfather built us a small glass hive which was a huge hit with everyone. Who doesn't like looking at bees up close without the fear of getting stung?

Our craft was an easy pipe cleaner bee pencil topper.

Looks like next year the Hawks will be teaching about bees again. :-)

Our First Egg!

Our chickens will be 5 months old tomorrow. We hoped they would start laying eggs soon. This morning we found a prize!

Little Boy Grows Up

My cousin leaves for Iraq today.





I'll admit, I haven't seen him in person for at least 10 years. Then, he was a typical teen boy closed up in his room with a set of headphones totally avoiding the crazy cousin who just wanted to hug on him. Plus, there's no doubt the infant and toddler I had with me caused him to turn up the volume and crawl farther into the teen boy cave.

But despite that, this kid has a special place in my heart. I'm sure I'm turning into a sappy old woman, and if he ever sees this he'll probably be mad, but this is how I remember him...

See, he really did love me!

Funny thing is, even though I have hundreds of memories of him, mostly little everyday things, he probably doesn't remember much about me since most of the time we spent together he was between 2 and 6 years old.

While I was in college in Florida, I spent my summers living in Wisconsin with his family, working at his dad's business, and playing nanny for him and his younger sister alot. I spent most holidays with his family too, so it was almost like me coming home when we were together.

I was proud of the fact that even though I was "not a real mom" I could dress and feed two kids, pack a diaper bag, strap them in the car seats, and take the mini-van down to the grocery store or even to the mall for a whole day without blinking an eye; not to mention caring for them for up to a week at a time if my aunt and uncle needed to travel. Granted they were good kids and I was the cool cousin (not the mom) which made it fun. If they had been alot of trouble, I probably would have been scarred for life and never had kids of my own.

I feel like I really watched him grow up, even though I've mostly missed the last 17 years of his life. So, please keep him and all our troops in your prayers today and every day.