Right Now

 

Right now, I'm...

...finally getting the last of the fancy dishes washed, dried, & stacked away.

...feeling irritated at Amazon, who lost our order of matching wine glasses and forced us to piece-meal our glassware for our Thanksgiving feast (boo-hoo).

...struggling to find new things to do with all 335 green tomatoes that came in over the weekend ahead of our first freeze! So far I've done some blanched whole (small) tomatoes for the freezer, a roasted green tomato salsa, some more roasted green tomatoes for a green enchilada sauce for dinner tonight, and a big pot of green tomato sauce ready for the canner. I still have 75 tomatoes to go.

...loving being in the kitchen with my budding pastry chef during his first attempt at eclairs- 95% made by himself- featuring a real pâte à choux, milk chocolate pastry cream, and Nutella on top. 

...feeling a bit of a leaning towards maybe starting to think about pulling out some Christmas decorations, even though it is the most beautiful, crisp, clear, chilly fall day ever.

Right now we're pulling on sweatshirts, pulling out soup recipes, and probably putting on some Christmas music, because it's almost December and we're ready! Wishing all a beautiful Monday! 

Leaves

 

For us, THIS is the most wonderful time of the year. Suka agrees.

Weekending :: Camping

 

Muggy, humid, quiet, smoky, sticky, peaceful, chilly, late... we cleared, we camped, and we all ended up back in the house by the end of the night, though Audrey and Kyle gave it their best try. It was a good trial run for a real camping trip some day, aaaaaand let's just say we got our fill and are satisfied for the moment.

It was a fun weekend project, though. 

This Moment

 

The kids were off of school for Election Day, so they decided to come up with a project to do together to fill all that free time. They landed on Glitter Glue Slime. They worked really well together and cooperated and shared the steps of mixing it up... and they had a great attitude about it when it didn't work and it all went in the trash. And despite the fact that there is still glittery dried smears of their failed experiment all over the kitchen- even now- I think it was all worth it. I love overhearing them problem solving, encouraging each other, and working together. In my book this moment was a success.

This Weekend's Accident

 So this happened on Sunday:

While playing outside, Audrey attempted to jump over the outdoor furniture covers, tripping over a fold and falling face-first onto the concrete patio. She bruised her elbow, her nose... and broke her front tooth. Today we had it fixed... 

...and now she's feeling much better... 

...thanks to the fact that Henry thought to go outside and find the broken piece of tooth for his poor Sissy. The dentist was able to soak the chip in some kind of a solution over night and bond it back to her tooth today. It will always be a weak spot, but he did a dang good job, and it should last her well into her young adult life and beyond, depending on how she cares for it.

I am so relieved that this is all it took to get her fixed up. I think she is just relieved that she didn't have to have a shot or a root canal!

Remember when this happened the first time?

And then remember when it happened again, but we just let it be?

I hope my girl is just getting all her tooth stuff out of the way early, and we're done now (except for braces, because we all know that's looming)! Thank goodness we found a good dentist!