Back Into the Swing of Things

Two days into this week and I'm finally get back into the routine of work, making school lunches, getting kids ready for school, planning and cooking supper, and working on the house.

Vacation was great. Really, really great. I loved having that time off with the kids. We slept in and woke up with the sun. We went to bed when we were tired. We ate what we wanted. We played when we wanted. We did nothing when we wanted.

I'm already looking forward to our next school break in February!

There's a freeze warning for tonight -- the first of this fall. I suppose I should bring in my plants that are growing on the porch. Tonight's family walk was quite chilly -- poor Violet's hands were little ice cubes when we returned. She refuses to keep on her mittens and her stocking cap. Bo refuses to keep on his coat. It could be a long winter.

While on the walk, we left squash and potatoes roasting in the oven to go with the pork roast that cooked in the crockpot all day. It was so nice to return from the walk all cold and hungry and have those delicious aromas greet us at the door.

I think we'll make Indian in the crockpot tomorrow -- I love me some crockpot cooking!

I've been working steadily on the house -- did I tell you how AWESOME the porch, hallway, stairs and kids' bedroom look after Uncle Doug painted them!! Oh my gosh, you can't believe what a difference it makes. I need to take some photos to show you. He painted the porch floor and the stairs gray, and they look so great with the eggshell white on the walls.

On Sunday, Bo and I went shopping for curtains for the porch. Man, curtains are so expensive!! We went to two places, they had cheap ones but not enough of the same pattern. We need seven for the porch... I'm thinking I may just have to make some really simple ones. I want to use turquoise, orange and yellow to really brighten up the porch. I saw some gray-floored porches on Houzz that used those color accents and I loved them.

I've also caught up on our laundry, just two loads to go, and as I've been folding and putting it away, I took out all the kids' summer clothes and packed them away. It freed up enough space in the boys' dressers that I was able to steal a few drawers to use for Violet's clothes! With her stuff out of our closet, I was able to completely clean it out and get rid of tons of old clothes for Goodwill. Now all the closets in the house are cleared out!

We also had the Halloween party at the farm on Saturday. As usual, it was a blast! I definitely have to make time to download photos this week and show you all the fun stuff I've been talking about this month.

And finally, our 13th anniversary is just around the corner! We're hoping to celebrate it this weekend -- maybe Saturday night. Our anniversary is next Monday, not a very fun day to celebrate.

Well, a washing machine and dishwasher are calling me. "Keesia! Keesia! Come empty us!" Keep warm and enjoy this fun time of year!