And so it goes...

In honor of Halloween being tomorrow, I give you sleeping cat in a fall basket. I don't care for Halloween, so this is the best I have to offer. I won that basket in a raffle earlier in the spring, and it is sitting on top of a heater in my kitchen. The cat, who loves to sleep there sans basket, decided that if the basket was going to be in her way, made the best of the situation and has taken to sleeping inside. Whatever works right?

A little re-cap of how the weekend went. I feel you deserve this after I posted what I planned to get done this weekend. In retrospect, I realize that my goals were a little lofty, and I forget to take into consideration how TIRED I was on Friday when I posted this. Being tired affected my baking. I did get applesauce made, and some of it's in jars in the freezer to gift away during the holidays. I also managed chilli in the crockpot today, and the boy made bread. Not quick bread, a nice honey wheat to go with dinner. I think I'll take a few nights this week and do the baking I had planned. We'll see how it goes. Yah, and the cleaning? I must've inhaled a few too many fumes Friday.

5 things I will be doing this weekend

1. Freezing. Our last soccer game is tomorrow. This is a make-up game for a game that has been rained out twice. It was supposed to be playoff weekend. Let's not think about soccer next week in the cold days of November. It's just not right. And we are supposed to get snow tonight. Yehaw. Remind me again how it's fun to play soccer in the freezing cold?

2. Raking. See prior post about why I NEED to rake this weekend. In fact, I'm starting as soon as I'm done typing. Too many leaves. Must rake.

3. Errands. We do errands every weekend. OK, so *I* do errands every weekend. But yesterday Micheal's opened up a new store down in the city. Guess where I'm going Sunday? Can you spell Grand Opening Sale? Oh, and did I mention it's a payday? I'm sure I need something.

In which we find rambles

1.The weather has been awfully weird around here this month. We started out the month with summer like temps, then we had some flooding and major rains, and yesterday we woke up to snow on the ground. Actually, when I went to bed on Tuesday night it was snowing. Not that snow in October is unusual around here, but I haven't even raked my leaves yet. (waiting for those last hold outs to fall off) I decided last year that multiple raking sessions were out, as I don't have time anymore, and the boy recommended raking all at once once there were no leaves left to fall. He even helped and I figured, hey, why reinvent the wheel right? As much as it conflicts with my OCD tendencies to have a messy leafy yard, the help is worth the wait. We plan to head out this weekend and clean it all up.

What is your lover style?

Maybe being home is a bad thing

Click here to take the lover quiz

Here's my results: (wonder what the boy would get?)

The Devoted Lover

86% partner focus, 28% aggressiveness, 45% adventurousness

Based on the results of this test, it is highly likely that:

You prefer your romance and love to be traditional rather than daring or out-of-the-ordinary, you would rather be pursued than do the pursuing and, when it comes to physical love, your satisfaction comes more from providing a wonderful time to your partner than simply seeking your own.

This places you in the Lover Style of: The Devoted Lover.

The Devoted Lover is a wonderful Lover Style, and is perhaps the best Lover Style when it comes to developing a long-term, caring and rewarding relationship. The Devoted Lover is a treasure to find, though it is sometimes difficult to time establishing a relationship with one just right; usually, this is the last romantic relationship you'll need to find, so sow any wild oats first.

In terms of physical love, the Devoted Lover can be shy at first but gradually warms and eventually can be a thrilling partner who knows every need of his/her partner. Given a strong and loving relationship, and the right lover, the Devoted Lover can be a delight in bed.

Best Compatibility can probably be found with: The Suave Lover (most of all) or the Classic Lover, or the Carnal Lover.

Just another manic Monday

It was a busy weekend. I skipped the Friday post to go play with pumpkins and this photo is a view from the boy's camera. It was a little on the cold side, but we ran into some old friends and had a good time in spite of that.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of soccer and errands and cleaning and other such busy-ness..and in the hustle and bustle of it all my little gal was fighting a cold she's had since last week. I tried to convince her Saturday that playing in cold icky weather wasn't in her best interests, and yes in fact her soccer team would survive without her, but alas she is a trooper and played anyhow.

Ye Olde Fort

Every few years, I find myself on a field trip to the Fort at No.4 in Charlestown NH. It's a rather fascinating place, and while you'd think going to the same place every few years would get old, I see and learn new stuff each time we go.

It was a little cold at the fort today. The sun was out, mostly. But the wind blew hard and as you are mostly outdoors, or in old wooden houses that are poorly fit for winter...alongside a river, you can imagine for yourself. I'm glad to be home and in the warmth of my house.

Wake me up...when the school year ends

I find myself stuck in the middle of an impossible situation at school this year. It grows increasingly more difficult the further into the year we get, and the level of my stress continues to rise until some days I think I'd be better off running away. Somewhere tropical and warm would fit the bill, along with a personal massage therapist to work the tension out of my neck, along with some of those great tropical drinks with little umbrellas. Lots of little umbrellas.

I service two special ed programs this year. One for kids with learning disabilities and such, and the other is for kids with autism. That is a district program that is housed in our school, and one that is short staffed this year. They went through some major staffing changes last year, and I got sucked in to work in the program half time. Which leaves my other program with me half time. This causes all kinds of issues, because the autism program trumps the special ed program. If someone is out, I get pulled for a full day, as they have to meet a certain amount of staff by law. However, when I get pulled out, it affects a far larger number of students in the regular special ed program. So you can get the gist of the problem here. Green Day's song has become my theme, and I just change the month and hum it when I'm having a particularly horrible day.

The light at the end of the playground

At the far end of the blacktop, at the top of a hill overlooking a field, with a lone mountain as a backdrop, sits a wooden structure that has stood the test of time. It has withstood rain, snow, wind, children, teenagers and starstruck lovers. It is a testament to parents and teachers who raised funds and then put their love and sweat into erecting a new playground for their children and future children to play on.

It has nooks and crannies, benches, tires, a bridge a fire pole, a slide and several climbing area. It also has broken boards, rough edges, dry rotted tires that contain hornet nests and railings that give splinters daily. The kids love it, but it needs a bit of work. A little TLC, some elbow grease, a sander and some new paint and it will be as good as new. Or at least a bit better.

Bella Luna

Sometimes, just when you feel like you can't take it for one millisecond longer, the god's smile down on you and suddenly it's not so bad.

Sometimes, after you've sunken into a low, morose slump, feeling like it will always be gloomy and grey, the storm breaks and a light shines softly in the distance.. drawing you back from your dark solitude.

Just before dinner tonight it stopped raining.

5 things I'm currently pondering

1. 9 days of rain. It has been raining, non-stop (either regular rain, pouring, or a drizzle) for 9 days now. That is 9 days with no sunshine. 9 days of damp, cold air. 9 days of everything being wet. 9 days of high water and overflowing rivers and flood-watches. We don't need more rain. In fact, I think we've hit our water capacity for the year. I better not hear the words "drought, or fire danger" for a long long time. My weather girl currently shows it to be mostly cloudy and a tad sunny with no rain. She lies like a rug. If it were currently such, I can tell you I wouldn't be logged onto the Internets.

In which we find Wednesday

Hard to believe it's Wednesday already. Having a Monday off sure throws your week into a tailspin. So in the randomness of the week, we have some random things to post on.

* Today is the day we turned the heat on. I feel like we should hold some sort of ceremony, marking the latest day we've EVER turned the heat on in the almost 9 years we've been turning our own heat on. I feel this is quite an accomplishment. If it wasn't so damned damp and rainy, we might've made it a bit longer, but the damp was just sinking into my bones. It's amazing what a little heat will do for your attitude.

Hey Brother Noah.....

Friday afternoon, before we all headed out for a much needed long weekend, a few of us were standing around talking about our what we planned to do with our time off. Some people had a wedding to attend to, some of us had soccer and in-laws, and drinking was discussed readily.

We also talked about how the coming rain showers were probably going to ruin a lot of our plans. Some of us (we won't mention any names, *cough*) hoped it might pour so we could skip soccer and make our hellish day a bit easier. Someone else asked when the rain was supposed to stop, and I mentioned that I had seen the 5 day forecast and they were calling for rain every day. Someone else, who shall not be mentioned, piped up that when we got rain for that many days they started thinking of Noah and the ark.

5 things I won't miss about this week

Huzzah! (that's an English phrase, didja know that?) It's Friday. I love Friday. Not as much as I love Saturday and Sunday, but I love it just the same. We've discussed my not cooking dinner, and the beer, and the joy that comes at the end of the work week.. so we don't need to revisit that. Some weeks I love Friday more than others. This was one of those weeks.

If I had to rate this week, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best rating, and 1 being the worst... I'd give it a -3. If we can teach five and six year olds about negative numbers now, I can use them to rate my week. Hate you new math. And whoever heard of adding left to right? Anyhoo, that's a post for another day. This one is all about things I won't miss from my week. Here we go.

Oh, Johnny Appleseed... plant your seeds and watch them grow

There is something very primitive about gathering your own food, and then creating dishes to feed and nurture your family.
Every fall we go apple picking. It is one of my most favorite fall activities. We always go to the same orchard, and we have the same routine. Wagon ride to the orchard (we don't always do this, if it's crowded we just walk), pick apples, pay, get homemade donuts and fresh apple cider. The donuts alone are worth the trip.

Each year we harvest about 40 lbs. of apples. Depending on the type of apples we pick, this is either a lot of apples, or a LOT of apples. This year we picked only Cortland's, which are a smallish type of apple, therefore we have a LOT of apples. I take my afghan out of my apple basket, line it with one of the bags the apples are in, and then put the rest in with it. The apples fill this basket, and I believe it's a bushel size if I'm not mistaken. The apples stay in this basket in the kitchen until they've met their fate.

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

Well, yes, I missed Friday. Again. I didn't miss it entirely. I did wear jeans to school (along with a tee-shirt and a heavy sweater.. brrr) and we did have family movie night.. I just didn't blog. I was too tired. Ya'll understand right? So I figured I'd muse a bit about some things I've seen lately, haven't seen or don't want to see to make amends.

1. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I loved the books.. I couldn't wait to see the movie, but I was slightly worried. How were they going to pull this off? Was it going to suck? Would it be better than the first movie, or a sad disappointment? Well.. after waiting and waiting (I didn't want to buy it until I saw it, just in case) we were finally able to rent it last night. It'll be on my dvd shelf next weekend. I LOVED IT. I laughed and laughed and laughed. So obviously it's a movie, and not as good as the book. But it was still good, and I think even the kids will like it. Marvin is my favorite. I love that a droid can be depressed.