mommy guilt and other things i've been up to.

Hey there!

It just dawned on me that I used to have a blog.

Once upon a time I would take hundreds of pictures a day with my big-girl camera,

and post on my blog near daily

and keep a grand record of our days.

Now I'm doing good if I get the breakfast dishes put away by dinner time

and don't fall asleep on the couch by ten.

The crazy level has amped up quite a bit over here,

but all is well.

This is my first stop every morning.

My in-laws gave us the Keurig they've never used.
It makes me very happy.

Life is crazy now,
but once soccer ends in a few weeks I know our lives will quiet down a little.
But I'm always sad when soccer ends.
Saturdays during soccer season are really my favorite.
Especially games with skies like this.
Isn't that the best soccer weather?



A couple of weeks ago Gary and I had a Saturday when all three kids were at
a birthday party for the day.
Instead of our usual date at Home Depot to do house stuff
we hopped in the car and drove to the beach.



It was just the two of us.
We stopped at several vintage pop-up shops that I'd had my eye on,
grabbed lattes together,
and sat on the beach watching the surfers.



We still like each other.
It was a good Saturday.

Someone has been taking cooking class every Wednesday afternoon after school,
and someone thinks it's pretty much the best thing ever.



I've realized that baths that don't require a hair-washing are my favorite.



One of the realities of going back to work is that
I've been dealing with a fair amount of guilt lately.
I missed Avery's field trip to the pumpkin patch...
I'm not volunteering in the kids' classrooms like I used to...
Riley was home on his birthday but I had to work.
Mommy guilt is an evil thing.



How did this guy turn twelve already?
If the mommy guilt wasn't making me emotional enough,
I looked through his baby pictures yesterday.



Oh, time.
Why must you be so cruel?

But time is good, too.
Because this afternoon, after the busiest week I can remember,
we spent two hours at the park and they played.
They laughed and ran and I sat on the bench and watched
and felt no twinge of mommy guilt.



It was a good day.

from turkey to tea.

Have you come out of your pumpkin pie coma yet?
I'm emerging...gradually.

I really soaked up the goodness of Thanksgiving this year.
It was relaxing and full of family and friends.
Last year's Thanksgiving was peppered with a fair amount of
sadness and worry and grief.
But this year...I was feeling hyper-aware of our blessings.

God is good.



{and...for the record...so are bacon wrapped green beans.}

My mom knocked lunch out of the park.
Again.
I dream of her twice-baked potatoes.



And our Thanksgiving weekend tradition
transitions us into Christmas so perfectly.
Every year we go to a Christmas tea with Avery.



We started going when she was one.
Oh, it pains me a little to look at these pictures from four years ago.
Time is such a big fat jerk.









Santa is always the "surprise" visitor at the end of tea.
That first year she screamed and cried when he came out.

This year she asked for a reindeer.





I always come home from the tea
ready to decorate the tree, crank up the Christmas music,
and make a batch of the best fudge ever.

As of this weekend the tree is up,
the Christmas music is on {whenever gary isn't home}
and the fudge is coming.
Soon.

thanksgiving vacay...day one.

I had to make a confession to Gary last night.



{i've already been listening to christmas music.}



He was a little disgusted.
He's a firm believer that Christmas music is only allowed
between December 1st and 25th.

Poor, misguided soul.

I took the kids' picture for our Christmas card yesterday
at Gary's parents' ranch.
I was so happy we got some good pictures.
But...there were definitely outtakes.





Sometimes it's hard having two brothers.

This afternoon I made chili.
Isn't it weird how dark the sky looks by 3 o'clock this time of year?
I refuse to turn on the kitchen lights so early....
so the kitchen is as moody as the sky outside.



The kids are home all week.
She told me she was bored at 8:15 this morning.



So today commenced Operation Entertain the Children.

I won't lie...there was tv involved.



And despite the looks on their faces,
the kids love Apples to Apples.
We played this tonight the last hour before bedtime.



Tomorrow morning I'm braving the grocery store
to load up on butter and pumpkin and cranberries and rolls
and then it's down to business.

What are you looking forward to eating Thursday?
For me...twice-baked potatoes.  Always.
Mmmmm.

a family day.

Family days have been few and far between for us lately.
Soccer rules our lives a little between August and November.

But now?
Freeeedoommmmmmm.

Saturday after the boys' games ended
we drove the 90 minutes to a place called Apple Hill.
It's in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas,
just shy of Tahoe.



It's a beautiful series of farms and apple orchards.
One of the farms has a trout pond.

And for the price of a small mortgage,
you can rent fishing poles and catch fish.
The kids were in heaven.



The boys became experts in casting out their lines.



The casted out their lines time and time again.
We fished for about an hour with people catching fish all around us.
Then Gary went to ask the gentleman in charge
if he could help us out.



Five minutes later...thanks to his magic bait...Avery was catching a sturgeon.

IN A TROUT POND.
{?}



A sturgeon is an ugly, ugly fish.
But Avery was pretty proud.
{this guy went back to live in his pond.}

The magic bait worked again for Colin.





Trout.
2 pounds.
$9/pound.
Yep.

And then...boom.  It was Riley's turn.





He was really torn.
He was excited to catch that fish...
and then sad that it had to die.
{there's a $100 charge if you throw it back.  yeah...it had to die.}
If my first choice of engineer doesn't work out for him,
he'd also make a great vet.



That's $27 worth of trout, my friends.
{anyone know a recipe?}

After some soap and water,
we were ready for caramel apples.
Homemade caramel on delicious granny smith apples is hard to beat.



It was so nice spending the day together.
It recharged my batteries,
even though I was exhausted by the time we got home.

This week is going to be a good one.
No soccer practice...beautiful weather...it's going to be a good week.
I only wish I had bought some of that homemade caramel to bring home.
Mmmmmm.

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.
:)

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.

it's october. and it's hot. and i'm baking.

October may just be my favorite month.
The weather here in the bay area is nearly perfect in October.
Oh, except for the last few days.
It's 99 right now.
And the kids are all at soccer, sweating their little hearts out.
But by Thursday it's supposed to be back in the 70's.
I'm so ready to wear socks again.

October is also the only month I feel compelled to make pumpkin goodies.
Pumpkin cookies are my favorite.
{here's the recipe}



I made the dough one day {which makes a TON} and have just been baking a dozen at a time.
Freshly-baked cookies every night, for the win.

Do you remember the other day when I told you about that bra company, True & Co?
Well I got my box in the mail.



The bras were so pretty.
I tried them on in the comfort of my own bathroom,
kept one, and returned the rest.  Easy.
I wish the polka dot one had worked.  Isn't it cute?

I'm on a nail polish kick lately.
And I have a confession.
When I'm in Target or CVS or wherever looking at colors
I usually paint one of my nails in the color I think I want.
Is that bad?
Is it kind of like eating a grape at the grocery store before you pay for them?
{i don't do that.  that grosses me out.}



See my copper-colored thumb?
It's a new Essie color...I think it's called Penny Talk?
I like it.  My nails look like shiny new pennies!

This is our dining room.
I finally hung up the plates for my plate wall.
My friend Lori brought me that beautiful green one from Portugal.
I like the wall...but I think maybe a spaced them too evenly apart.
Something is bugging me about this wall, but I can't quite figure it out.
I need to stare at it some more.



And I hate that light.
With a passion.
#firstworldproblems

I've told you before about our bingo group that gets together every month.
This month's theme was "a pick me up".



There was nothing too fancy inside:
an Essie polish, Burt's Bees lip balm, a frappuccino, a candy bar,
and a copy of Mumford & Son's latest.
{which, like everyone else, i am L.O.V.I.N.G.}

The leaf was from my morning run,
and the letter stamps from the Target dollar section.
That was seriously my best dollar bin score to date.

And now that the temperature has just bumped up to 100 degrees I'm off to soccer
and to dream of Thursday when the high is supposed to be 73.
Ahhhhhh.