Rollin'

So yeah this picture has nothing to do with anything. But it made me smile so... there's that.

I am on a roll today and I just wanted to shout it out! I did a massive clean last Thursday, and it felt great. Everything was put away, dusted, vacuumed etc. So now I am in maintenance mode and so far so good.

After half a bushel of apples was made into sauce yesterday I've got the kitchen pretty clean so we can make it messier tonight with pumpkin guts. I'll go back to applesauce in the next few days though. I've got dinner all figured out and that always feels good too!

I've got some more to do and only a short little bit of nap left to do it in so... back to it I guess. It's just so nice to get in a groove with some music and feel accomplished.

PLUS it is the one year anniversary of our house! Yay!

PLUS it is 100 Days until the Olympics! Yay again!

The Cows and Chickens Are Going to the Dickens

We went to the orchard this weekend. Husband's family owns an apple orchard. They have many different varieties of apples, which is great because I love apples. I love to cook with them, I love to eat them, I just love 'em. Husband, after growing up with apples has kind of a "meh" attitude. But that's okay. I love the apples enough for the 2 of us. Anyway, we brought back apples. Because, why not.

And far from overkill we brought back 90 pounds of apples. A bushel and a half just for me to make applesauce. A bushel and a half. Not even a bushel and a peck. Nay Nay. 90 pounds. 5 different kinds of apples.

My first pot of applesauce is in the works. C had an apple for breakfast. He is in heaven--he's teething anyway so gnawing on an apple is kind of the best deal ever. Especially since they were free dollars and free cents.

Plus we saw that side of the family and we actually had a really good time. It helps we were only there for about 24 hours. But still, it was good. Which is an added bonus as far as I am concerned. Because let's be honest, I went for the free fruit. Hey-o!

Getting Ready for the Holidays

In prepperation for the holiday season, it is time to scope out your plans. Are you traveling? Visiting for the day? Staying put? Hosting? All of those details that need to be sorted out so that you can make the most important decision: what are you going to eat. 

Perhaps you are the anti-holiday family and you celebrate Thanksgiving with Chinese. Or tacos.

Perhaps you are uber traditional. 

Maybe you like some quirky to go with your meal. If that's the case then I've got an idea for you. A Cornucopia of Carbs.

We like a good theme. And carbs. 

Some people use their cornucopia to serve their vegetables and dips (which does look festive I admit) but since we were not planning on serving veggies last year we made it a themed bread basket. It made a great centerpiece for my not exactly Martha table. If you DO put veggies in it I have read that you should put plastic wrap on the cornucopia otherwise it gets soggy. 


So... instructions?

1. Husband made pizza dough. And cut it into strips. You could use refrigerated breadstick dough but we are cheap and Husband makes really delicious dough. (Not that we ate the cornucopia.) Use whatever breadstick/pizza dough you fancy.
2. I took heavy duty tin foil made a cone with a swoop and stuffed it with more tin foil. Then I sprayed the heck out of it with PAM.
3. Then we took strips of dough and wrapped it around the foil making sure the dough overlapped and fused together. 
4. We braided three strips for the opening.
5. We used an egg wash to act as glue to keep things together as well as make it pretty and brown. (We just used a beaten egg ourselves but use whatever kind of egg wash you're comfortable with.)
6. We baked it. We watched it like a hawk and wound up covering it with tin foil in sections so that it wouldn't get too brown. It took tops 15 minutes.
7. Then when it was cool we took the tin foil out with a little wiggle. (The swoop needed the wiggle and you'll be glad you used all that copious PAM) 

And you know what? I think it turned out pretty cool. We're going to make one again this year. 

Linking up with the Thanksgiving Recipe Linkup host by Cari. Stay tuned next for my "secret" cranberry sauce recipe.

Theme Thursday: W

What Will We all post for W?

I don't know. But I am posting about... 

This wascally wabbit.

f/6.3, 1/80, ISO 3200

Her name is Hermanagilda* and she lives in our yard.

I could have posted a picture of our former president.** Or taken a picture of the W on my Minnesota Wild Sweatshirt.** Or the breakfast burrito/wrap** we had for dinner last night. But nope.

You get a picture of my*** wabbit.

f/6.3, 1/80, ISO 3200

I mean it's not a pig named Orange but she's still pretty sweet. She was out hopping all day because she was just as thrilled as any of us that Tuesday's snow was melted mostly. (All of it in the backyard melted, some of my front yard snow is hanging on for dear life.)

Linking up with Cari at Clan Donaldson for this exciting W Theme Thursday.

Next week is SCARY followed by a whole new unknown set  of themes for November/December. Though a while back I decided thanks to Cari's post and Rebekah's comment that the unofficial first week of November's theme is shaming.

Have a great Thursday.

*Hermanagilda was the very best first name I discovered while working in the customer service call center.
**All subjects I considered for this week.
**Hermanagilda is a wild animal who is skittish and besides hopping away really fast has never had any contact with me. In fact, without the macro lens I wouldn't even have these pictures.

WWRW: Allegiant and Pouch

As promised last week, Allegiant, Roth's final piece of the Divergent Trilogy was released on Tuesday. It actually came to my Kindle early, which was good for me. I read it in one fell swoop. (Can we thank Mr. Shakespeare for such a delicious phrase? I know he had a lot but that is a pretty good one.) So my final thoughts with absolutely NO SPOILERS.

I can't decide if it was the most brilliant way to end it or if I am really sad about it. 

Obviously, I will need to read it again and perhaps discuss it with people. Sometimes it is really hard reading quickly. I was this way after every Harry Potter release too. I'd go to the party, get my book, get home super quick, read it all that night... and then jump around and wait impatiently for my family to pass it around for the next 2 weeks before I could discuss it. By Deathly Hallows I wised up and bought 2 copies so I could at least reread it before someone else was done. 

In other book news this week... well really the past month and a half. C has been just obsessed with Pouch! by David Ezra Stein. 

Do you have Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in your area? It really is a sweet sweet deal. From birth to age 5 they will send you a book a month. For free. Now I love free stuff. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE free books. And the best part? They have different book lists every year, and they go by birth year. So if you have more than one child you will not get multiple copies of the same book every month. (Unless they're twins.) And the other exception is that every child gets the same first and last book. So when you're enrolled you'll get The Little Engine That Could and when you are about to phase out you will get Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come.

It is possible for other books to perhaps repeat down the line, but it's free and kids are hard on books. If I ever get 2 copies of the same book, I will hide one and keep it nice in case. 

So Pouch! came in May, so even though we've had 5 books since then we are just in love with it. It is simple. It is fun. The illustrations are intricate and simple all in the same breath. I just love reading this book with C and he loves reading it with me. We act it out a little if you will. He "hops" and then comes back to his mama as we read. 

My favorite part is saying "Pouch!" but tomorrow my favorite might be that on every page you can see the other animals Joey meets in the illustrations even though they become abstract and/or tiny. Friday my favorite might be the opportunity to count in a non counting book. I like bonus learning moments. So, if you don't have a 2012 birth year child or you're not enrolled in Dolly Parton's Imagination Library I highly recommend this book. 

Linking up with Jessica and the group for What We're Reading Wednesday! 

What We're Up To

Two early in the week posts that are non-linkups? I know. Where have I been?

Fall is always so busy for me. I don't know why it goes so darn fast? Except I swear C has been 16 months longer than any other month of his life. I am sure Saturday will be here faster than I know it.

In the past few weeks I have been out and about a lot. I had book club, the pumpkin patch, went to a movie/Chipotle/Target with Kathryn, went to visit a friend during the day so C could socialize with a group of boys, had family pictures and now I am battling Captain Screaming Stuffy Nose. Though to be fair, we could omit the screaming part of the title today since he did very very well last night.

I had it as a well oiled machine. First I ran the shower as hot as possible with the door closed. After the bathroom was all warm and steamy I ran his bath and he took a really good one, playing and breathing in all the steam. He got saline nose drops, baby Vicks and a little bit of baby Advil. THEN he had his humidifier with Vicks steam and his crib mattress was propped with a pillow. While in his favorite pajamas and sleep sack. It was like bedtime royalty. And it paid off because he slept GREAT. Oh and a big shout out to the creator of boogie wipes because those are so much better than Kleenex!

Which is good because Husband and I never went back downstairs after bedtime. We stayed upstairs, in our room and crashed. Pretty exciting.

Anyway... there is little to report here. Pretty much same old, same old. C is babbling/talking. He does have actual words but my favorite is when he says "Gullah Gullah Gullah." I haven't figured out what it means. He had not watched Gullah Gullah Island until he started saying that so he is not asking for a television show. When he does want one, he ask's for Peppa. He has perfected the stairs, up and down and pretty much is as active as always. He has favorite books now, which is fun until it isn't.

But yeah, nothing really that interesting to report. Other than the fact it is snowing. In October. It's not sticking but it's still snow. Don't worry I did try to deny it was actually snow for the first 15 minutes but now... it's snow. Glad I bought C's winter coat in a panic last week. I'm pretty sure Husband thought I was crazy. I didn't even know snow was in the forecast either but I was concerned he wouldn't have a coat when it was time. Guardian Angel nudge I guess. Love moments like that.

Bullying

When I was in sixth grade we had D.A.R.E. (All together now, Drug, Abuse, Resistance, Education.) One hour every week.

It was a big deal. Booklets, stickers, worksheets, a coveted lion stuffed animal Daren that went to someone in each class for a week until the next visit from Officer Anderson. There was even a graduation ceremony. All the sixth graders in the district were bused to the high school auditorium. Speakers were chosen. (From my class it was Ashley P. I was jealous.) The D.A.R.E. tee shirts were worn by everyone. And the mayor shook our hands and gave us our diplomas.

There was even a graduation party at Skateville. Where all the proud graduates could skate and play games in a supervised capacity after school hours. I remember that evening vividly. I remember one of the songs during the "Snowball" (the boy/girl partner skate) was K-Ci and JoJo's "All My Life." (I still know all the words.) And that I rocked out/skated out HARD to "MmmBop." And during the hokey pokey I won a free pop. So like I said, it was a big deal.

And you know what? In all my years in this same school district and even well past that up to now, nobody has ever offered me drugs. Not even a cigarette. Which means, I have never, in the 15 years past sixth grade, had the chance to "Say No to Drugs." Okay I know that by not seeking out drugs that I was effectively saying no. But the slogan, and all the practice role playing situations in class never paid off.

I think someone, somewhere is going to start a bullying version of D.A.R.E. because the way the world tells us these days, drugs are not the biggest problem facing the youth of today, it's bullies. There will be the catchy slogans, and guest speakers. Probably a graduation ceremony and party of sorts. And you know what? It will be as effective as D.A.R.E. was for me.

People are awfully quick to judge things as bullying these days. This is not meant to be a "I don't believe bullying doesn't exist." post. I know that there are bullies. And sometimes it is severe. Occasionally however I think kids are just being kids. Middle school/junior high sucks. For everyone. Girls are teased. I was certainly teased and I was definitely not popular. And there were girls who were mean and rude. But, I survived.

In seventh grade there was a very weird scheduling thing that made my gym class the only group of seventh graders in Lunch 4. One gym class of seventh graders in a lunch room full of eighth and ninth graders. Want to know how that turned out? We were four tables, near the edge. Two girl tables, two boy tables, split by how athletic people were. Me and my table of 3 other girls, were certainly not popular. We were left out of jokes. We weren't invited to the parties the other kids were at. By today's standards, we were bullied.

I am still friends with one of the girls at my table. And you know what? One of the girls from the other lunch table was her maid of honor. Because seventh grade sucked but it is not an accurate representation of life. Are there some genuinely mean kids? Yes. Absolutely. But we may all be a little quick to call it an epidemic. Sometimes, it's just kids being kids. Learning who your friends are and aren't is a part of life. It might hurt your feelings as a child but it's real life.

Honestly bullies are bad. Horrible even. But that's the root of the problem. The real problem is suicide and why kids, teens and adults feel like there is no other solution to the bullying. (Or other contributing factor to the suicide.) Yes an authority figure should have stopped the bullying. But also shouldn't the bullied be able to say to someone, anyone "This hurts me so much, I don't feel like living anymore." There are very few people in the world, where no one would miss them if they were gone.

Perhaps our society should have a class on suicide awareness. How to reach out and ask for help. How to reach out and stop someone from making a choice that could very well be their last. How to recognize mental illness and get help. How to cope on the bad days. Perhaps teenagers accounts on social medias, instead of being littered with ads for things they don't need, should consistently see an ad to help them with their complicated, quick to judge emotions.

Saying no to drugs is one thing. Stopping people from bullying is good too. But keeping kids, preteens and teenagers from killing themselves on purpose seems a worthy goal. I know not all bullying leads to suicide but it can lead to mental duress or illness and that also needs to be addressed before it escalates into something more serious. Parents cannot control everything their children do. They can't even really stop their child from bullying. (They sure can try however and they should if there's a problem.) But they can intervene if someone is going to cause harm to themselves. They absolutely can and should.

The fact of the matter is I don't have the solution. Or the answers. But these are my thoughts on the subject. So while a D.A.R.E. like anti-bullying class is great, I think there's more to be done. And it might not be as fun and there may not be a skating party at the end. But what D.A.R.E. and this made up class have in common is they both want kids to stay alive.