Simple Woman Daybook, September 27th

Outside my window... the morning sun is sparkling on the twinkling aspen leaves, just starting to turn golden on the trees in the north yard.  Noey has dragged a pile of sticks, a set of antlers (there are tons of antlers and skulls and things left here from a former owner), and a sock someone left outside up onto the back porch.  She never chews on these findings, though; she just collects them and leaves them in piles for us.


I am thinking...  "Good Heavens, is my house a mess this morning!"

I am thankful for... the health and well-being of all my children.  Everyone seems to be doing very well right now.  (And I don't take that for granted at all.)

From the kitchen ... I just got a bag full of cute little organic fingerling potatoes from our Menonite friends at the farmers' market in town.  I'm tryijng to decide what to do with them.  It's getting just brisk enough to be thinking about stew...

I am wearing... a long, cocoa- brown, three-tiered skirt; a print tee that says "London" on it, with sparkles and just enough French script legible on it for Theresa to have translated "I am wondering..."

I am creating... plans for the next art class at the children's school.  I'm looking for good autumn projects if anyone has any ideas...

I am going... to the chiropractor this afternoon.  Thankfully.  My back is killing me.

I am reading...  Father Brown  by Chesterton (again).  Quick, easy comfort-food reading for me.  Catherine is reading them, too, in a wonderful children's edition of the short stories, with free study guides we got with our purchase of the book here.

I am hoping... it's a long, drawn-out autumn season.  I love fall!

I am hearing... Cathy and William chattering down the hall.  I don't know what they're doing. But that is the only sound in the house besides my fingers tapping at the keyboard.

Around the house...  We've found one big bin of autumn decorations so far and have started sprinkling them about.  There is a long strand of colorful(faux) fall leaves now atop the kitchen cabinets; the "see-no-evil" pumpkins are perched in the middle of the dining room table; and the autumn village is set up on the little black buffet by the wood stove.  We're still missing a bunch of stuff, though, and Jack the Haystack, the traditional family scarecrow hasn't shown up yet.  Hopefully we'll get out to find the rest of our decorations in the next couple of days...

One of my favorite things ...  Pumpkin spice latte!  And on a warm fall day, pumpkin spice frappucinos are yummy, too.  We've decided, though, that we actually like our home-made version better than Starbux. It's richer -- and cheaper!  IF we could only get our hands on some canned pumpkin, though!  There's none to be found in our neck of the woods!  (Who'd ever have thunk?) And it seems to be beyond my ability to process fresh pumpkin to get the same consistency as canned.  Does anybody know a trick to do this?

Some plans for the week...  Morning class every day, but Wednesday (and Friday this week) with my 9th grade English student (Awesome Autistic Dude, Brian) and chiropractor appointments, as usual, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday...  A trip to the Ute Indian Museum with Cathy and William and a hiking day with Catherine as an early birthday outing on Friday or Saturday.

Some pictures I'd like to share... Just a few odds and ends shots.  Since I haven't been able to download or post photos for so long, I have such a backlog, I don't know how to organize them in a meaningful way to catch up.  So, anyway...  Here are just a few miscellaneous pictures of the last couple of weeks:


Our neighbor and landlord,Cowboy Don, picking up his hay from our front pasture. 
We're leasing to own his house now; when we buy it, this will all be our hay. Part of
my novena to St. Therese this week is that this will come to pass...



Jon and my sister, Nina, came for a visit on my birthday.  It's always a big treat for the
Littles to get to see the Bigs. Here's Jon with Anna debating a chess move.



And here's Jon with Cathy.  I like this picture of the two of them.



SirLoin Jr, having a snack from Mama, Phoebe.  Ida Claire is in the background.
You can see here we haven't quite finished all the barn gate, etc.  And we're still
having issues keeping Ida in the electric fencing outside.  The stinker.  She
willingly suffers the zap to get to the grass on the other side of the electric fence.
So, for now, they're all still hanging out in the barn.



Anna, Gabe, and kitty, Julia, taking a break during an afternoon walk.  Julia's
 quite the cat; I'm gonna have to post about her...



Dominic got to come home for a visit last week.  Here he is at our favorite sports
 and trivia game hangout, playing pool with his little brothers and sisters.  He stayed in
Denver for a week and helped out my brother after his back surgery.  He's back in Omaha
now, though, getting on with the first semester of his last year in high school.

 More coming this week, in the way of catching up!  And I have to add all my favorite blogs back into my favorites bar so I can come a-visiting.  And, then I have some real catching up to do.  I've missed everyone!

See you soon!

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