Happy Friday!

[image via We Love to Illustrate]

I know that it's not fall yet, but it's close enough, right? Right!

I don't know if I've ever linked to We Love to Illustrate before, but if not, I should have. I love it. Give 'em a visit--they have lots of free (and adorable) printables by children's illustrators. You're welcome.

Turn, turn, turn.

The leaves here are starting to turn. I'm not amused.

And that leaf? It really was as ginormous as it looks. He's holding it right up against his face. I thought about keeping it, but it wouldn't fit in our tiny car.

In Which The Boy Doesn't Go to Kindergarten

Good news: I'm fi-nal-ly done with that infernal awesome Humanities class.

In theory, that means I'll have more time for blogging.

I'm not going to try to catch up on everything I haven't blogged about for these last six months. That would be silly of me. I figure the important stuff will come up in my normal blogging, anyway.

So here's what I want to blog about today: today would have been The Boy's first day of kindergarten, if we weren't homeschooling him (and by "we," I mean "hardly ever Isaac"). Isaac and I made this decision after a lot of prayer and a lot of research...but mostly prayer. We're very sure that this is what we need to be doing. But that doesn't make it easy.

Here's where my conflicted feelings come in. On the one hand, The Boy loves homeschooling, and I'm having a lot of fun teaching. He's already halfway through his kindergarten work. It's good to know that we're doing what's right for us. And homeschooling has a lot of benefits that we're already seeing. But on the other hand, I could have saved a lot of money, time, and sanity by sending him to a traditional kindergarten. I'm happy that I don't have to deal with adjusting to a new schedule, but I'm sad that he doesn't get to experience a first day of school--new teacher, new classmates, new pencils. (I'm a nerd; I loved the first day of school. Shut up.)

I'll probably be over it by tomorrow. Maybe. Until next year's "first day of school" rolls around. And then I'll just re-post that last paragraph, and nobody will notice. Haha!

Recipe Link: Pumpkin Pasta Sauce

I'm in lo-o-o-ove with this pumpkin pasta sauce recipe. I've made it twice in the last three weeks, which is a big deal for me. It's from Cooking During Stolen Moments, and I highly recommend that you click through and visit her--she has a lot of excellent recipes.

I tweaked the recipe in a few places. Here's the original recipe, with my "tweaks" in bold. If you just want the original, without my chicken scratches all over it, click through the link above.

1/4 c. butter

1 medium-sized shallot, minced (I used about 1/2 teaspoon onion powder instead--I don't like actual onions, so I don't keep them on hand.)

3 cloves garlic, minced (The first time, I used 3/4 garlic powder instead. Use the fresh garlic if you like a stronger garlic flavor.)

1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree

1/2 c. chicken stock

3/4 c. milk (I use whole milk--here are three articles on why: 1, 2, 3. I didn't have any milk on hand tonight, so I used extra chicken stock, and it turned out fine.)

1 1/4 t. salt, more or less to taste (If you used extra chicken stock instead of milk, use less salt! You can always add more.)

1/2 t. black pepper, more or less to taste

1/8 t. nutmeg (DO NOT LEAVE THIS OUT. Just trust me on this one.)

1/4 c. diced parsley (I used about 1 - 2 teaspoons dried parsley.)

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic; cook for 2-3 minutes, until shallots are tender. (If you use onion powder and garlic powder, sprinkle them into the melted butter and let it cook for just under a minute. Don't let the powders burn.)
2. Reduce heat to low and stir in the pumpkin puree. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock, milk (or more stock), salt, pepper and nutmeg (Don't forget the nutmeg!). Stir to combine and simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes (I wanted the sauce to be a little more runny, so I added a little extra chicken stock at this point.). Taste and adjust the salt and pepper, if needed. Stir in the parsley. Serve over pasta. (Cheese ravioli is awesome. I used rainbow rotini the second time, and it was still pretty good.)

Wal-Mart Pajamas

[The look on his face cracks me up.]

Wal-Mart sells kid's pajamas that I call "pajamas in a box." They're only $5, but they come in a cardboard box, so I can never tell if they're actually going to fit Little Boy.

I buy them anyway.

A couple weeks ago, I picked up a SpongeBob "pajamas in a box." I don't like to buy licensed characters, but I couldn't get over how excited I thought Little Boy would be to wear them. (He loves Spongebob.)

Turns out, he wasn't excited to wear them.

Isaac kindly took the pajamas (in a box) back to Wal-Mart and exchanged them. He called us from the pj aisle so Little Boy could pick one that sounded good to him. He almost picked a rhino playing football. But when Isaac said, "Oh, and there's one over here with a fox and an owl on it," Little Boy said, "YEAH!"

Oooookay then. Whatever you say, Little Boy.

And you know what? He loves them. He kept saying, "Mommy, I like these jams. I REALLY like them!" These are the first pajamas he pulls out of the dryer after I've done the laundry. He'd wear them every night if I'd let him.

(Which I don't. Gross.)

These are probably the pajamas I would've picked in the first place, if I'd been going off of the cuteness of the pj shirt. D'oh.

Ya Gotta Do What Ya Gotta Do

It's getting chilly here.

Yes, he has plenty of long-sleeved shirts. But a couple weeks ago, when this was taken, he was still insisting that he'd be fine in short sleeves.

And apparently draping a blanket over himself is way better than changing his clothes.

I Love Fall. Just Not Right Now.

I love fall.


{not my photo}

I do. One year, I was so excited about fall that I put up my fall decorations on the first day of September. I was pretty sick of them by the time Christmas rolled around.

This year, though, our summer's been really short. I'm a little reluctant to give it up. Give me a couple of weeks, and I'm sure I'll be all over the pumpkins and scarecrows and stews and whatnot.

I do love fall.

More of the Warmer Days

I'm still pining for the warmer, sunnier days we had this fall.

 





This picture turned out so weird--first, because the leaf looks HUGE (it's a big leaf, but he's holding it really close to the camera); and second, because we were in the shade and I can't get his skin to look anything but gray. Oh well...I swear, my kid isn't a vampire.

And this will for sure (probably, maybe) be my last whiny post about how I wish it were not winter. I think.

Easy Thanksgiving Recipe: Cranberry Sauce

[I know this is last-minute, but I was cooking up some of this stuff just now and I thought...I really should share this recipe.]

 

 Is that what your family's cranberry sauce is going to look like tomorrow? Really?

I have to admit, I kinda like the canned stuff. But did you know that making cranberry sauce [y'know, with real cranberries] is simple? In fact, I first found this recipe in Real Simple magazine. See what I did there? Haha.

Anyway, I made this cranberry sauce last year for Thanksgiving, and I'm probably going to make it every Thanksgiving for the rest of my life. It tastes that much better. (Unless you really don't like cranberries at all. In that case, I can't help ya.) You can check out the original cranberry sauce recipe if you want. I've changed it just a little bit, so here's the really simple cranberry sauce I'm making this year:

Homemade Cranberry Sauce
(heavily based on a recipe from Real Simple) 
1 package cranberries (I think the standard-size package is 12 oz or so.) 
1 cup apple juice 
1/3 cup sugar 
1/4 cup (heaping) brown sugar 


Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Simmer, stirring frequently, until almost all of the cranberries have burst, and the sauce has thickened. (I usually make the sauce quite a bit thicker than what's pictured with the original recipe.) 


Taste and add more sugar if needed--some cranberries are kickier than others. Also, keep an eye on how vigorously those berries are simmering--if it gets to a full-out boil, you'll be wiping up cranberry splatters.

 Really and truly--all you have to do is measure, dump, and stir. That's it. Oh, and eat. And then do a little happy dance because you've freed your family from canned cranberry sauce forever. {sauce photo credit}

Pretending It's Sunny Outside...

It's been really, reeeeeally cold here lately. Really. No, really. Temps are in the single digits, and wind is gusting up to--well, you don't want to know.

So here are some pictures from a few weeks ago. It was sunny, we were at the beach...it was cool enough to wear jackets, but there was no ice anywhere. And that's good enough for me.

 
Somehow, this hat drifted further and further down toward his eyes as the day went on...and it didn't occur to him to fix it.


Beach. Sun. Yes.


*Sigh*....

A Little Halloween Fun

The Flowers!

So, remember when I made Little Boy look at all the pretty flowers while we waited for his friends? Well, these are some of the flowers. [They're dahlias.]

 
[This is the part where I wish for more blog space and awesome photography skillz.]












This one's my favorite. When we went back to the farm a couple weeks later for their pumpkin-picking day, we were allowed to pick one flower--and Little Boy picked this kind.

Pickin' Punkins

Guess what--these pictures are from yesterday. I know! Usually I'm blogging pictures from at least two weeks ago.

Anyway, Little Boy got to pick out a pumpkin from his grandma's garden yesterday. (Yesterday! Yes!) He had three choices:

 
[But before we pick, we have to stop for a little cheeeeese.]

 
Eenie, meenie, miney...

 
...moe! We have a winner!

 
He picked the one with the cool scars on it. Awesome. This pumpkin will be one scary jack-o-lantern.

Photo Tuesday Extravaganza: Apples, Pumpkins, Pirates, and Clowns

Last week was a busy week. Here we go....

My mom took us apple picking at a local farm. I had never picked an apple before. Lame, I know. But in my defense, I have picked other fruits. Just not apples. Anyway, it was fun.
Little Boy was a little uncertain at first. It was his idea to get in the cart, though.


See? Farm. I don't know how big the farm is, but it looked...big.


All done. We only picked the one bucket-ful. Little Boy was so cute---my mom, my sister, and I would pick the apples; then we would hand them to Little Boy and he would run down and drop them in the bucket. He loved it.

On the day before Halloween, we went to my mom's house to carve pumpkins. Actually, my sister carved a pumpkin and Little Boy colored a pumpkin.
 
Here he is, Sharpie in hand. I was smart enough to put an apron on him, but not smart enough to notice his exposed sleeves. D'oh! Anyway, he colored all over that thing. It was awesome.


Isaac helped get the other pumpkin started.


These are the finished products. Nice, huh?

And then...there was Halloween. I posted earlier about not trick-or-treating, but we did dress up. For fun, I guess. Little Boy dressed up as a clown this year, just like last year, but in a different clown costume. Look:


This is last year. He wore Isaac's (and Isaac's brothers') old clown costume from when they were little tykes.


Arrrrrrrrrrrr. This year, Little Boy wore the clown costume that my siblings and I wore when we were little. How's that for family traditions? And from both sides of the family! But Little Boy did not just dress up as any old clown....


...he dressed up as a clown...that golfs. A golfing clown.

That wasn't really part of the costume, but he carries that putter around with him all the time. He wants to be just like his daddy, who is also a clown that golfs.

Spookables and Terribibbles

I've been trying to create an age-appropriate Halloween for Little Boy. For the last week or two, I've checked out Halloween stories and videos from the library. He probably won't remember this Halloween next year, but at least he'll have a vague idea of what's going on right now. His newest words are "buttin" (pumpkin) and "doast" (ghost). He loves that doasts say, "ooooooOOOOoooo". And he loves to point out buttins wherever he sees them.

Last night we watched Frankenpooh and Spookable Pooh (from the library, of course). Little Boy doesn't usually get to watch an hour's worth of cartoons, so it was quite an event to him. Lucky kid.