a lazy insta friday...

...on Saturday.



1. some soccer games are prettier than others.
2. birthday boy.
3. sunday lunch. yesss.
4. shin splints are lame.
5. hot mess of a dog after a long walk.
6. christmas crafting.
7. pinterest tip for the win.
8. we shade out drugs.
9. weird.
10. two yellows. the worst.
11. poms are the bomb.
12. ten times the crazy.
13. bedtime.
14. boots weather. finally.
15. homemade yum.
16. the giants bring out the stress eating.

That's it for me.
This Saturday has worn me out.
{one.more.week.of.soccer.  hallelujah.}
'night.

wednesday this and that.

I like having pretty things on my kitchen windowsill.



Avery planted these seeds in Sunday school a month or so ago,
and when they got too big for their plastic cup I transferred them to a pretty pot.
I love how they are craning their little plant necks to find the sun.

And I'd like to think if there's an award for having the dirtiest window screen,
I'd win.  Yay me!

On Monday I spent three hours and a half hours at Costco,
waiting for new tires.
Do you know how much damage can be done in Costco
when you have hours and hours to roam around?
Ouch.

Soccer has been cancelled all week thanks to the rain we're having.
Every day when I got that email saying that practice had been cancelled,
I said a little thank you prayer.
Being home in the evenings is such a lovely novelty.
Last week I was up and down one of the main roads in our town nine times between 3 and 8pm.
NINE TIMES.  Lamey lame-lame lame.

AND...with soccer being cancelled
we've been able to watch the Giants k-i-l-l it on the baseball field.
It's a good month to be a Giants fan.
It's not a good month to be Lucy.
She's scared to come into the living room because of all of the yelling.



Sorry, Luce.

Tomorrow will be a:
costume-making,
etsy-shop stocking,
laundry-doing,
post kindergarten playdate-hosting,
giants-rooting
kind of Thursday.

Enjoy it.

another coffee, please.

This was one of those weekends
that makes me wish every weekend was a three-day.
Wouldn't one more day off be nice?
That second cup of coffee didn't put a dent in my sleepiness this morning.

Riley's 11th birthday sleepover was last night,

which meant waking up to a house full of kids this morning.
Sooooo tireddddddd.

They are a lovely group of boys,

and really good kids.

But sleepovers are kind of exhausting.
Boys are loud!
And they eat a lot!
But I'm sure you knew that.

The birthday boy had a blast...

and that's what matters.

I love seeing all of these kids together.
They are good friends.
There are a lot of laughs floating up from those ice cream bowls.
They watched Napoleon Dynamite at bedtime.



So. much. laughing.

Avery hung in there with them till 10:30,
and was pretty much a mess all day today to show for it,
You wouldn't know it from this picture from this morning, though.



You can barely see the top of her head there,
bent over her piece of paper.
She is all about markers and crayons and scissors and paper these days.
Drawing and writing and spelling, constantly.
It makes me so, so happy.

The forecast this week calls for gray and clouds and rain.



Ahhhh....boots and chili weather.  So nice.
Also?
Good nap weather.
:)

eleven.

This was Riley, eleven years ago.
Eleven.



How many times did I kiss that wrinkly little forehead?
How many times did I wash that soft set of blue footed jammies?
How many hours did I spend in the rocking chair with that perfect little person,
at three in the morning, wondering what he would be like as a big kid?

Now, eleven years later, I know him as a big(ger) kid.

I know he's wicked smart.  Like, really.
I know he would rather die than get in trouble in school.
I know that he's hungry from the moment he walks in the door from school
until the moment he's heading upstairs to bed.
I know he loves to laugh and make others laugh.
I know he loves Jesus.
I know he would be an amazing engineer when he grows up.  And I'd totally be okay with that.
I know he has one of the most tender hearts I've ever known.



I know he will choose In-n-Out for his birthday dinner, every time.
Oh how I love him for that.

He wanted one thing for his birthday this year.
He really really really REALLY wanted an ipod.
In his birthday card was the first clue for a scavenger hunt to find his gift.
They ran all over the house finding clues.



The other two kids were just as excited to find the clues.

And when he finally found his gift?



Oh, the happiness.
There was one thrilled eleven year old in the house.

I sure do miss that soft, wrinkly-headed baby.
I miss jammies that smell like Dreft.
I miss fuzzy baby heads and babies that lock eyes with you while you feed them.
But I also love this long-legged eleven year old
that can eat a double double from In-n-Out in 5 minutes.
And, as proof that I love him,
I'm hosting yet another sleepover for 11 kids this weekend.

THAT is love.

shiny happy pumpkins.

Okay, first things first:
do you watch Homeland?
It is SO GOOD.
It's in the second season right now,
but the first season is on Netflix.
Watch it...but beware of the f word.
Lots and lots of f words.
I guess when you're hunting terrorists and dealing with matters of national security
you need to drop an f bomb or 27.

********************

Second: my crazy Costco story:
the other day I was pushing my cart through Costco,
minding my own business.
I had veggies...fruit...milk...and a bunch of flannel sheets in my cart.
A random girl came up to me and said,
"i notice you have a lot of organic items in your cart.
but you should know...that milk that your'e buying is PUMPED FULL of antibiotics.
it's really bad."
And she raised her eyebrows as if to say..."what do you think about THAT?"

Hmmm.
Well...
a few things come to mind.
I know organic is better.
I've read In Defense of Food
and seen Food, Inc. and Forks Over Knives and feel pretty educated about food issues.
I do my best to buy and make "real food" for my family instead of processed stuff.
BUT.
We do have a food budget.
And while I do buy organic milk some of the time...
sometimes I don't.
It's hard to pay $5.79 for one gallon of milk,
when one gallon of milk goes pretty quickly with three kids.

While I'm sure her intention was good,
I'll say that I wouldn't ever dream of telling someone what they should be buying.
The closest I've come here is suggesting you shred your own cheese instead of buying it pre-shredded.
And if that was bossy...I'm sorry.
People need to make their own choices that are best for their family and their budget.
And if her budget dictates organic milk 100% of the time,
well then that's great.
But if, when her one baby gets older and is joined by two more,
then I hope she'll be okay with the fact that there may be times she'll buy non-organic milk.
{which does say on the box that it's not from cows treated with the hormone RBST, but whatever.}
And then perhaps she'll be too busy to stop random strangers at Costco
to give them recommendations as to what they should be buying.

********************

Okay!  Rant over.
On to fun things.

I recently saw on Pinterest
Meg's pretty pumpkins she painted last year.
I wanted happy pumpkins on my porch, too.
I used 40% off coupons at Michaels to pick up the styrofoam pumpkins
so I can keep them year after year.



The acryllic craft paint from Michaels or Joann's or wherever works fine on them.

Avery painted her own pumpkin.
She chooses rainbow colors these days, every time.





I love them.
The front of the house looks so cheery.







I smile when I see them.
And...it's a little cathartic painting pumpkins, I have to say.
You should try it.

tgif. for reals.

So, so happy it's Friday.

Ha.  True, right?

I'm ready for a weekend of soccer and soccer and soccer and not cooking dinner tomorrow night.
No cooking on Fridays.  It's my rule.

The last couple of weeks have been:


waking up like this almost every morning


making pumpkin snickerdoodles


happy field trippers


heading to the pumpkin patch wearing my best freddy kruger colors


pumpkin patch tunnelling


fun projects ahead


mustache wearing


waiting in the longest line in history at joanns.
everyone is buying halloween costume tulle.


drinking diet coke after a weird lecture at costco by a random lady
{long story}


and the pretty aftermath of avery's afternoon painting.

Happy Friday.

ten on october ten.

ten peeks into the tenth:


working on #41milesinoctober


making bread


i lost


post-kindergarten cuddling


pretty pumpkin + homework


the cutest sweater in the world


growing


cutting tulle is not my fave


he rocked that state capital test


real, messy life

Happy tenth.
Linking up here.

new every morning.

I'm so thankful that nine times out of ten,
a crummy day that has me in a super bad mood
will be followed by a great day.
Yesterday was a great day.
God is so good like that.

I didn't go anywhere all morning,
except here:



Our washer wasn't working for a few days last week,
and I was so behind on laundry.
I stood in here and washed and dryed and folded and watched Sleepless in Seattle
for almost two hours.
And it made me happy.
I know...weird.  But it did.

And once the laundry was nearly done
I went upstairs and worked in my craft room until Avery came home from school.
I'm participating in Hannah's Handmade Holiday Market in a couple of weeks
so I've been working on getting a few more things in my shop.



Cute stocking stuffers, right?

And that's about all I've got to say.
Yesterday was a good day.
And so is today.

a crabby monday.

It's Monday...and what a bummer that I spent most of it in a pretty crabby mood.

It started out nicely enough:
Lucy and I went on a five mile jog / walk.
{more walk than jog.}
We walked through quiet neighborhoods in town.
The leaves are all changing colors and the air has that crisp feel.
I was rocking out to Mumford & Sons and feeling good.
And then...I walked through our old neighborhood and got all nostalgic and kind of sad.
I thought about all of the times the kids and I walked to our old park...
I walked by our old house and remembered a thousand things...
and it hit me how big my kids are getting
and how quickly they have moved from babies and toddlers to big kids.
And I know I should have felt thankful for having three healthy kids,
and thankful for how they are growing and how wonderful they are,
but instead I was kind of instantly in a crappy mood.

And I think that set the tone for the remainder of the day.
Lucy and I came home and then the migraine came.
I had errands to run and I was still in a crappy mood.
I went to Joann's and everyone annoyed me.
Waiting 20 minutes at the cutting table annoyed me.
The ginormous line at the check out annoyed me.
It ALL annoyed me.
I hate feeling annoyed...it makes me feel guilty.
I don't want to feel annoyed.

After Joann's I went to Trader Joe's and saw these sunflowers
first thing when I walked into the store.
I needed their sunniness in my kitchen.
So worth the $4.99.



They made me feel a little better.
And then at 2pm I put beef stew in the crockpot.
And when dinner is done at 2pm that feels good.
Things were looking up.



But honestly...I was still feeling badly up until my husband came home.
Monday's piano and soccer schedule is very go-go-go and stretches my enthusiasm for those things.
Now I'm feeling like a really big whiner.
And I will own my whininess today.
Sorry if you were in a really great mood
and then you came over to my blog and here I am being Debbie Downer.
Shoot...I'm sorry.
But the redeeming part of the story is that once my husband came home,
I was better.
I usually am, once he gets home.
And I'm fine now... a little chocolate and wine and RHONJ helps, too.

Tomorrow will be less crabby.
I plan on sewing something and painting something.
Tuesday will not be crabby.
:)
See?  There's a happy face.

another cookie post: thanks pinterest.

Sorry.
I'm talking about cookies again.
And...not some healthy, whole wheat, quinoa- and bean-filled cookies.
These are white flour, white sugar, butter, the whole unhealthy deal.
{so...of course...they're delicious.}

For Jess' Pintertest Kitchen this month I knew what I had to do.
I had been eyeing these pumpkin snickerdoodles for awhile.
Pumpkin + snickerdoodles...my two loves.



Don't they look delish?

I started making them this afternoon.
The kindergarten contingency was in full effect.



They're very easy.
Cream the butter and sugar...
add the pumpkin...
add the eggs and vanilla...
add the flour/salt/baking powder/cinnamon/nutmeg combo...
chill.
The kindergarten contingency was very unhappy
about the whole "dough has to chill for an hour before baking" thing.
Good thing I still had other cookies to offer them.

After the cookies had chilled
and the big kids were home from school,
we rolled the cookies in cinnamon and sugar.
The recipe calls for ginger and allspice too, but I didn't think my kids would like that as much.



There's never any shortage of people volunteering
to roll the cookies in the sugar in this house.

So...the cookie verdict.



The kids and I LOVED them.
Gary doesn't like snickerdoodles so he didn't have any.
{he clearly needs counseling of some sort.}



If you're a fan of snickerdoodles and pumpkin at all,
make these.
White flour and sugar, for the win.

This was definitely a Pinterest success story.
The original recipe is here.



Linking up with Jess.
The Pintertest Kitchen is turning one!
Go check her out.
You'll like her.