Not lost!

 Sorry guys, I'm kindergarten tired, haha. It's back to school! I'm thrilled to say that I'm also back at school, both subbing and for the month of September at least, being an aide. I'm having a ball in the wing that holds our youngest students, but I also do not have the same energy allotment as the 5 year olds. Attention span, maybe, but definitely not the energy! 

Unfair that kids who fight naps get to have them and adults who need them don't. 

Suck it up, buttercup, I guess.

Anyhoo, our high school home team has lost all three of their football games thus far. The band sure is having a good time, and our kid in particular, who is mainlining Pixie Sticks and sour Skittles and God alone knows what else. Dada and I watched in fascination as he dumped sugar into his mouth, washed it down with Coke, played a snatch of a song, and repeated the cycle with more Pixie Sticks. I'm still amazed the entire bleacher section wasn't vibrating from the vast amount of sugar coursing through just him, but then seeing more Pixie Sticks being launched through the air from one section to another and I can't even imagine how they ever sleep. I bet dentists everywhere rejoice; job security fo' sho'.

My Mommeeee came out for a visit and the weather cooperated so we got to run some errands with blue skies and puffy clouds. September is a favorite of hers. I always wish they could stay longer, but she had good traveling weather and made it back home safe. Thanks for all our treats and Wendy's and your company!

Dada and I putzed our way through the Black Swamp Arts Fest (which we call Dark Arts) both on Saturday and Sunday, perusing all the wares, meeting up with friends, making some fun purchases. Tons of fair food, fun live music, and a Main Street full of vendors, we give it two thumbs up! PLUS, there was a book sale at the library so guess who got more books even though she's already at least 6 books behind her reading goal for 2025... yay! New friends!

Labor Day weekend brought yard work, much to the chagrin of the boys, including chopping off tree limbs and burning them, pulling many weeds and yanking out small honeysuckle bushes. Also got as many small saplings of our zillions of trees out as I could, and gingerly removed dead black raspberry canes. Miraculously, I stayed out of the poison ivy! Soon enough we will be raking leaves or mulching them into the grass, I suppose, but for now we are enjoying the cool mornings and warm afternoons. Especially at recess! Any chance to play outside is a chance I'll take!

My PET scan showed nothing, which is a good thing! My EKG also must have been normal because I didn't hear otherwise. Next month I'll have another oncology check up, and later this week is my 8 week post-op visit from my hysterectomy. I'm fairly certain she will sign me off. 

My two new meds seem to be doing their thing and only causing dried out eyes and nasal membranes. I hope the week off each month from one of them (planned, so that my lowered blood cell counts can recover. You know, important things like platelets) will bring some relief- I'm a little nervous going into the cold season with all the drying effects of furnaces on top of the side effects. I don't want to have to switch meds. One of these I'll be on for forever and the other is a 3 year gig. I'm almost 2/36ths done! Woohoo! I'll let you math nerds reduce that. 

Already had my first back-to-school germs, so I can check that off my list. I had a head cold before the kids even started back. Definitely must be allergic to school. Hehe!

Enjoy the beautiful autumn weather even if it hasn't officially started yet. I refuse to break out my cold weather clothes until the calendar declares it, so I'll be over here in my sundresses with sweaters and leggings. 

Halloween Shenaniganery

Thing Three was a sumo wrestler with some added gloves and his red crocs. 

Thing One headed off to scoop ice cream in costume. Yes, Link. Again.

Thing Two, celebrating his 18th birthday in style,  was the Black Knight from Monty Python. He even tied for second place in the costume party competition. 

And I'm not sure where the Tuscan Raider (Star Wars canon) came from, but you can bet there are snow pants on under the brown pants and a Carhartt under the outer layer. It snowed right before trick or treat and was a fabulously frosty 33 degrees. Grandmama informed me it was 23F with windchill. Very different from last year's balmy warm sprinkles!

Dada was a lumberjack and we visited thing one before taking the boys to their party and trick or treating. We had a great night. pray for teachers everywhere who are dealing with excessive amounts of sugar today!

 

Sugarplums... or something.

 There's been a lot of crinkling and rummaging around in the kitchen lately, and not by me. Also not by rodents, just to clarify, lest that be where anyone's frets went. My beloved husband was unsupervised in a grocery store and came home with bags of sugary cereal, so there have been delighted children chomping on Cocoa Pebbles and peanut butter Cap'n Crunch (formerly known around here as "pea-doh bud-doh Kix"). 

On the trip where I was unsupervised at a grocery store I picked up some chips (as well as an entire cartful of other things whilst a beloved husband did some specialty liquor shopping and it took much longer than both of us anticipated and I hadn't had breakfast), so those have been heard being crinkled in various locations by a certain twelve year old. Sometimes whilst under a blanket.

Last night I was on my way upstairs when I heard more intentional rummaging and spotted him prying open a canister. I assumed it was this one:

It holds what's left of the Muddy Buddies or Puppy Chow or whatever you call the sugared Chex mix. It also has a scoop inside, as you can see.

I reminded him to use the scoop and not just reach in. I told him to get a small bowl to put it in. I then went upstairs to do whatever I was doing.

I didn't discover until much later in the evening that he had, in fact, been digging into the actual sugar canister (that is on the stove awaiting its turn to make almond crescents) which also has a scoop inside. 

So Merry Christmas to everyone from my kid who eats sugar straight out of the canister and doesn't bat an eye. I guess, when compared to the sugary cereal, may as well cut out the middle man and go straight to the source!

Twelve years of the Damonater

Another school year on the books; last day of sixth grade for the Damonater. Dada and I had to perform the traditional we-must-embarrass-you-at-the-bus-stop ritual which included sign and pirouettes from Dada. He threatened to wear a pink tutu while he did them... methinks I should find elastic and pink tulle and call his bluff. Watch out, Damon- Dada might actually have a tutu for the last day of seventh grade next year!

So then this kid went and had a birthday. Yes, for those of you keeping track, I didn't forget the firstborn's (again), but these pictures were easier to access and therefore get to go first. Since this kid loves A) anything water related and B) sugar, he got a fair amount of gifts relating to one or the other. 

Yes, that is indeed the Christmas tree still up in the sunroom. Don't judge. Let's talk about that: Honey is terrified of not just storms but also precipitation. We have a metal roof. It is incompatible with her terror of water coming down from the sky. Especially if there is lightning or thunder involved. Therefore, if we leave the tree on like a big nightlight, she is a little bit less affected by the variations of darkness versus darkness with lightning. We also play music through multiple rooms if we know it's going to rain. And we leave the basement door open. Any mixture of those actions may or may not invoke a night of sleep for the rest of us, or she may still decide to bull her way through the baby gate into the kitchen with an almighty racket which then leads to sleep deprived family members staggering downstairs into the light and music to reinstall said gate and grumble. I actually spent a night in our playhouse out back this week so that I could sleep through a rainy night and not have to deal with her. So yes, tree is still up. 

Or the short version, we're supposed to keep the Christmas spirit in our hearts all year long.

Or the shortest version, we like it lit up.

Yes, that's an 8 on the cake along with four red candles. Dada was in charge of the math and he declared that two red candles plus the 8 equaled 10 and then two more red candles makes twelve. 

How can our baby be twelve?

He was laughing about the difference in our skin tone and I told him I've been sitting at his baseball games and working in the garden and he'd been in a shirt in school, so it wasn't a fair comparison. He'll get there. While we protected his arms and neck and ears his first day at the pool this summer, his nose burned and then his mask rubbing made it blister which he then peeled off, hence the scab(s) on his nose.

I was tremendously pleased with his cake. I figure it's Grandma Barb worthy, and that's high praise. It's all gone now, so I must have done something right!

 

C is for cookie

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Cookie time! I put my elves to work on their famous sugar cookies:

We also made chocolate chip cookies with the green and red chips, and chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips, and cinnamon rolls and a Baby Jesus cake... let's just say there are no shortage of Christmas sweets at our house.

Damon selected two for Santa, then Liam did, and then Carrie did. Then Carrie, or Dee-vious, as she's known around here, left three clues for Santa to find the cookie plate she'd hidden. I warned her that he might figure, "no cookies? No presents!" but it didn't come to that. Santa found them and the carrot sticks and the glass for him to help himself to whatever he wanted to drink, all right. 

Here's Damon working on his note to Santa.

Shivers and Shenanigans

 

Virgil Eugene, our garden Gnome, used to have a red and black striped hat. It's gone missing. We have our suspicions as to the identity of the culprit. We live in a college town now, and are pretty sure it's highly unlikely that his HAT would go missing while HE stayed behind if college students were involved. At any rate, his new hat:

 

 

This week has brought a school cancellation and two 2 hour delay days so far. This morning it was foggy and damp when we woke up to find someone had dredged every tree and bush through powdered sugar:

 

Poor freezy Cheeky Beaky needed a scarf. Thanks, Kate, for the homemade one. If it grows legs like Virgil Eugene's hat, I shall be most put out.

 

Lalaith Havens, our new home, in the grip of January. Lalaith means "laughter" in Elvish, according to Tolkien, and we thought that would fit perfectly. We have already laughed a lot here, and are looking forward to many more years of laughing in our haven from the rest of the world.

 

 

No wonder birds fly south!

 

Did I mention that today it is 6 degrees out?

 

Damon had 3 other students with him in class yesterday. That's it. His teacher said she hasn't seen her morning class for a month. I guess there IS something to be said for afternoon preschool! I haven't had a full kid-free day since December 18. Crazy!

 

We're having some new friends over for dinner tonight. The Decadent Chocolate Bundt Cake is already baked and cooling, but I have a lot more prep work to do, so I'm off.

 

Stay warm!

 

Nights before Christmas

It's been a little cold here. Someone warm and fuzzy doesn't even want to go outside.

We made sugar cookies for Santa, again. When we make sugar cookies, we make SUGAR cookies. They WERE better this year than they have been in the past, as in they were edible and not a diabetic's worst, worst nightmare. Carrie especially is a sugar fiend when it comes to decorating.
 

 

 

 

Yes, that's right. Santa got dinosaur cookies along with his traditional bells, trees, and gingerbread people. Carrie gave the above T-Rex a pink mani/pedi and earmuffs. When scrolling down, you'll see Liam's with fangs and claws.