I made a fabulous pancake the other day. Do you remember the cheese sandwich sold on ebay a few years ago because it had an image of Mary in it (even though there was a bite taken out of the sandwich)? Well, my pancake had an image, too. Can you tell what it is? (And yes, we ate the pancake, so no selling it for us now!)

Well, we are almost ready for our trip....sort of. We've been going over our clothes, lists of things to do, and how to say a few things in Greek. Just so you know our priorities are in order, yes, my travel knitting project is now ready to be packed. I'll be working on a lace scarf, and spent a few days knitting up the tricky end piece from the chart. We also bought two Redwall paperbacks to read on the plane and at the house, so I think we are set for that.

Yesterday, Albin did some work with Karl on his chemistry set. He had to get some chemicals ready to sit overnight before he could do his experiments. Today, then, we can blow up the dining room. Well, maybe we don't have time to completely blow it up, because we need to make yummy snacks to share at a New Year's Party with friends tonight. We will eat supper together and play games, then the kids will spend the night there. Karl and I will make a quick appearance at our friend's coffeeshop New Year's party, then head home to go to sleep. I don't feel inspired to stay awake until midnight this year.

There's a great show on Wisconsin Public Radio right now about the usefulness of college, and how/why it's become the norm in our society lately...and maybe it's not the right thing for everyone. Hmmmm. I may have to get that one on the podcast. It's Kathleen Dunn's 10:00 hour, if you are interested.

We just got the hot water heater fixed. The element had burned out. Whew! We want to replace it sometime, but would rather wait until after we refinance, and are home again, too. Maybe it'll last long enough that we can save up for the replacement--that'd be nice!

We had a fun weekend. My parents were visiting for a few days, and brought the sausage maker! Yay! I had been hoarding the only sausage from last year, so we could have the traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Now we have six fresh ones in the freezer--yumm!

We also made cookies last week from Grandpa Albin's homemade cookie cutters, and Grandma Rosella's little chick cookie cutter. We used Tasha Tudor's Christmas Cookie Receipt, and that is a fabulous cookie...used lots of butter, though.

Thursday afternoon was Elise's scene study performance. She was fabulous, as all the kids were! It was really a great show. Elise did have curly hair for the performance, and it was fun rolling her hair in rags the night before. Thursday night and Friday morning we got almost a foot of snow, but managed to get the driveway clear in time to get Albin to the doctor (ear infection), and out to Stoughton again to see Riders in the Sky. That, too, was a great show. I'm so glad Mom and Dad were able to come visit and see it with us. My kids would like to go again, but they aren't coming back to Stoughton next year. They will be in WI again in April and September, so we'll have to see about that...

Elise has her scene study dress rehearsal this afternoon. The performance is next week, then she is all done with her acting class for the year. She had a hard time at first, but she really knows her scene now. I wonder if she'll want to do it again next year...

Albin has been invited to go with friends to the homeschool sledding outing. He'd rather do that than sit in Stoughton with me, so I'm going to make muffins to send along with him. There will be horde of children in that van, mostly teenage boys, and I imagine they will get hungry from sledding for a few hours.

The PeeWee party is Friday, and I still haven't come up with a costume. I'll have to look on Youtube and see what Annette Funicello is wearing in the show. Karl is going as Jambi, and if Albin does dress up, he'll be the kite. Albin has a Magic Club at the library all Friday afternoon, so we'll have to finish getting ready tonight or tomorrow morning.

We did some of our shopping yesterday for the kids at the local Resource Center. There is no place in town to buy pajamas, I'll have to get those at Target while Elise is in gymnastics tonight, but we did find some of the other things. We picked up a football, Barbie, hair clips, and the most gaudy set of play make-up I have ever seen. It's made by the company that I boycott at all other times, and the colors in it are amazingly...bright. The 5 year-old girl who had it on her list will love it. (Elise received a similar set when she was about that age, and had a fabulous time with it. I would not have bought her one, so goes to show what I know! Playing with sparkly eye shadow at age five does not seem to have affected her self-confidence at age nine.)

...Later that same day...

I did some more thrift store shopping while Elise was at scene study this afternoon. I found the perfect skirt for the Pee Wee party It was a size 24 red circle skirt, pure wool, and it just needed elastic to gather it into a 5os style and fit me better. (I also found a new winter coat for $15. Yay, I can finally zip up a coat again! I forget how many years the other one didn't work properly.) Erika is lending us a few things for Albin's costume, so he's almost set, too. We just don't know what Karl is planning to do. His chosen character is a bit elaborate, and he hasn't done any work on it yet. We'll see what he comes up with in the end--he's pretty amazing that way!

We are snowed in today, yay! Albin has sniffles that developed a sore throat last night, so I was going to keep him home from chemistry anyway. I will trudge over to the store for popsicles, but don't imagine we'll be driving anywhere today. Elise's Suzuki lesson may even be canceled tonight, and we won't have our date night, either, with Albin under the weather. Karl was extra tired last night, which is usually his symptom of getting sick, and I feel a little funny this morning. Maybe we'll all catch it. As long as we're better by the weekend--we don't want to miss the PeeWee Herman Christmas special party!

Friends were over yesterday afternoon, and we had a lovely discussion about sensitive children and people. I've been reading up on it, as it fits my profile very well, and I bet Albin's too. I've been reading some books on it by Elaine Aron, and we all took the basic quiz for ourselves and our children--that was interesting. Karl and I did the same last night. There are 22 questions for the adult to check for levels of sensitivity, and he got six true questions, while I got sixteen (thirteen is the threshold for a highly sensitive person). Now I know why I fell apart in Boson at the crowded market when I was really hungry : )!

I'm also reading Natural Learning Rhythms, about children's developmental stages. Wish I'd read it earlier! It's very helpful to understand what stages of growth children go through, and ways to support that growth, especially as they change from one stage to another. Well, we've got a few years left, so maybe all is not lost. After we get back from Karl's sabbatical, I'm going to look into attending a seminar or family camp at the EnCompass Institute. Perhaps we can do that sometime next year.

I think the rest of today will be spent in reading a lot of Redwall, drinking tea and soup, and trying not to get too sick. We'll probably throw in some math games as well. (We also had a good conversation yesterday about math, how it is so much more than arithmetic. There are many people who think that because they are not good at arithmetic they are bad at math, even if they can do logic, patterns, statistics, etc. That's true for a few people in my family, as well as some friends of ours. So I think we'll do a little more hands-on math today, maybe play a game of Set while drinking our tea...)

We had another lovely and quiet day at home yesterday. I think we spent much of our time up in Albin's room. He made several more Magic decks, we finished reading Nicholas, and Elise read other things, too. At 4:45, we walked over to the Senior Center for the tree-lighting and chili supper. If we'd known how cold that wind was, Elise would've worn snow pants! She and I watched from the tv inside the Senior Center, and Karl and Albin braved the cold. The chili supper was pretty good, especially the lemon bars for dessert. Elise made several new crafts, and had her polaraid picture taken with Santa Claus.

After that, Elise and I went off to log-rolling, where we found out that she had missed Science Sisters that afternoon. Oh well! I'd better update the calendar for December. We stopped at Erika's store afterward, as she was having a local artists' gallery night. I thought we could find something for Brenda's birthday, but I couldn't bring myself to buy her more stuff to fit in her house that she doesn't really need, even if it was locally made. Oh well, again!

The kids stayed up until almost 1:00 am last night. Elise was working hard to finish her Christmas list for the elves, and Albin was doing math stuff on the laptop. She got it done in time, though, and the elves must've come sometime after that, because there was candy in place of the list today.

I'm bringing my spinning wheel, drop spindle, and various fleece and roving to the library this afternoon. They are having some sort of knitting/yarn/sewing demonstrations for older kids. I'm supposed to be there with my things from 12:30 to 1:30 (I assume others will be there, too), and at 1:30, someone from the Home Ec department at UW will be talking about the Apparel Design degree they offer. That should be interesting! I don't know what else we'll do today. There are a gazillion craft shows in the area this weekend, but again, I don't know what we'd buy or why! Elise has a concert tomorrow afternoon with Suzuki, so tomorrow will be a busier day. (She was practicing at midnight last night. She played her violin for a long time for her hamster!)

Yay, Karl arrived home safe and sound! Both the children were determined to wait up for his midnight arrival, which was more than I could do. I was drooping over while reading our Nicholas book to them at 9:30. Elise and I managed to finish watching The Apple Dumpling Gang (gotta love Tim Conway and Don Knotts!), and then the kids sat in bed with me to watch Nova on Netflix while I snoozed. Elise fell asleep, too, but Albin was still awake when Karl came home!

Tonight is going to be busy. It's our hometown's Holiday weekend, and we've gone every year since we moved. There's a tree-lighting ceremony at 5:30 (sometimes broadcast on the the local news), quickly followed by a chili supper at the Senior Center. There are crafts to do, too, and a visit with Santa, if you want. Then Erika's store has a local art gallery night, Elise has log-rolling, and the Sow's Ear has late night knit. Whew! Good thing we can hang around at home today, reading and maybe making more cookies.

Our church helps our a local resource center buy gifts for kids, and we've participated with our kids for several years. Albin helps pick out gifts for a boy, and Elise shops for a girl. We just got their ages and gift requests last night, so we can do that soon, too. Albin's boy asked for Poster Hot Wheels, and we're not sure what that is. Is it a poster of the toys, or a version of the play car itself? Elise's girl wants Barbies and play makeup. Not sure what we'll do about that--she's only five! Maybe we'll find some pretty hair things and lip gloss... Elise is ready to give her Barbies away, so we'll pass on some of her dolls, and buy a few new accessories to go with it. They also asked for pajamas, and I think there are some really cute footies out this year. This is one of the joys of the season, being Santa for someone who cannot do it themselves this year.

Oh, one more thing about tonight--it's the eve of St. Nicholas Day! Right before bedtime, the kids leave their Santa wish lists in their boots by the door. Sometime in the night, the elves come to take the lists to Santa and leave candy in the boot. Elise is so excited. She's been working hard on her list all week. (If any of the relatives want to know what's on those lists, send me an email, and I'll take a peek before the elves make away with them : )..).

We had a lovely Thanksgiving visit with Karl's family. (I hope Brenda, Russ and Haley are feeling better by now! It's never fun to travel when you're not up to snuff.) We had a nice, quiet weekend in, though. The kids played games with everyone--chess, checkers, airplane flying, etc.(Albin wiped me out in chess, even though I had better pieces than he did). Haley opened her Christmas present from us, and had fun serving tea around. Our family and Elizabeth went to Hanns' Christmas Tree Farm and bought our greenery to make a wreath. We had popcorn and cider, walked through the ornament shop, and played in the tunnels set up for kids. It was a good weekend!

Karl left for Omaha Monday afternoon. He gets back around midnight tonight. While he was gone, we finished decorating the living room walls with ornaments. We also finished reading Loamhedge. What a good book! We went to the library and picked up the first Redwall book, and I found a new Nicholas book, too. Treasure! Albin and I cleared the driveway yesterday, as it snowed much of the morning, he started on his algebra, and we also watched lots of Mythbusters. I finished sewing fifteen bags for our church Advent worship series (they are making fun kits for the littler ones, like your church has, Mom). Six of them need handles, then I'll be done. Elizabeth's sewing machine works pretty well, thank goodness! The bags are needed this Sunday, and I was almost worried I wouldn't finish in time.

Elise did another shift of bellringing yesterday at our local grocery store. Being the day before Thanksgiving, it was busy during her whole shift and not just the lunch hour. She brought her violin again and played for much of the time. She also sang and jumped around to Jingle Bells--just a bundle of energy! One woman told us that she'd heard about us on the radio, a little girl playing the violin for the Red Kettles while her mostm sat next to her and knit. That was fun to hear! She is scheduled for one more shift in December, on a Saturday. I think she and Karl should go together and do a few violin duets.

Well, the house is half clean. I don't know whether my standards are lower or it's not as messy as it used to be, but it doesn't seem to take a two-day spree to get the cleanliness level up to visitor status. Maybe it's because the children are old enough to help out more... I spent some time toddler-proofing the living room, which mostly consisted of removing the ceramic pitcher of knitting needles sitting on the floor. We left out the nature table, a basket of yarn balls, some of my handmade dolls, and brought up the blocks and a big puzzle. Haley is allowed to explore everything she can reach now. Yay, toddlers!

Speaking of a cleaning spree, we should probably muck out the basement one of these days. Elise is giving away her American girl dolls this year, and we can only find one of Felicity's shoes. We searched her room and the four boxes of junk she had already hauled to the basement, but haven't found it yet. That basement is a fright, and most of it is my fault. I have basketry supplies strewn over a good portion, and an overflowing table of fabric, baskets of yarn, etc. I think we need more shelving down there...and I need to work from my stash.

Here are Karl and Albin finishing a game of Lunar Rails. It didn't take even take a week! And yes, Elise does spend some time at the computer, too.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I just plied what has got to be the world's ugliest yarn; however, it was the first time I did Navajo plying, and it actually sort of worked, so a small pat on the back for that. (Navajo plying is a way of taking one strand of yarn and turning it into three-stranded yarn--a very cool process). I was doing something wrong, as it was very hard to keep the wheel going in the right direction, and a piece of the flyer flung off the wheel four times. The third time, Karl was sitting behind me on the couch and it flew all the way over to the dining room. He said, "That can't be good!" (Who knew I'd need my safety glasses?) BUT, I got that bit of yarn off the bobbin, where it had been for over a year, and maybe I can felt it into a cell phone holder, or something.

Karl is in the process of fixing our pictures so we can download them from either computer. I took a few pictures of Elise and a friend making their first snowman of the year which I planned to post yesterday, but couldn't figure out how to move them over to Lappy, as Karl had already downloaded them into the other computer. Ask Albin how frustrated I was about that! So keep an eye out for those in a few days.

Elise is ringing bells at Miller's again this afternoon, then we'd better clean the house a bit. We also have a game of Yahtzee planned for the afternoon...

Karl went to the hardware store yesterday to buy a firepit cover (we can't fit both the firepit and the car in the garage this winter) and a snow shovel...and it's snowing this morning!! The kids are going to be so excited. We are supposed to visit with friends this afternoon. Assuming I can make it there on our newly slick highways, they will probably spend all their time outside. Yay!

I believe the Universe has spoken to me. I stayed home from church to work on the Christmas goodies last night. (It would be nice to get the sewing machine out of the living room before Karl's family comes this weekend.) It was possible to finish the sewing in the three or so hours that I had home alone, but it didn't happen. My fabulous little workhorse of a sewing machine (a vintage Montgomery Ward), broke down in: not one, not two, but three different ways. I gave up after the third incident, which was sounding really bad and broke my needle to boot. I was so mad!

However, my invitation to join Ravelry had arrived a few days earlier, and I hadn't gotten around to...actually joining. Ooooooh! Now I understand why my knitter friends like it so much. I have found my third set of people (homeschoolers and church being my other peeps). I still have a lot to learn about the site, but I have joined four or so swap groups (including coffee and chocolate, and lace knitting), and the discussion groups based on interests in the Victorian era, old time radio, and Tasha Tudor. Aaaah. In fact, I can't think of much more to say here, and I really should take a closer look at the Tasha shawl I saw a pattern for last night...

Elise is getting to be a better logroller. She stayed on for fourteen seconds during Friday's class; that's her personal best!

We borrowed our neighbor's rodent ball to see if Fluffy, Elise's hamster, likes to be in it. She rolls all around the first floor, bumping into chairs, doors, etc., but keeps on going. She had escaped awhile ago, and it took us a few days to notice (we thought she was still sleeping in her peat moss), and a few more to find and catch her. The treats-in-a-bucket trap actually worked. She had made it all the way to the basement without being eaten by our hunter cats. All that to say, we know she likes a bit of freedom, but this ball, I'm sure, is hampering her style. ...Still it's pretty funny to watch her.

Our needle felted creche is coming right along. Albin is almost done with the last king, Karl added a head and legs to the cow, while Elise finished the shepherd (including a crookstaff) and helped me with a few sheep. She also made another angel. It's really turning out.

I picked up my fabulous yarn that I bought from the Sow's Ear Pampered Knitter's show. The artist is Lisa at http://www.carpool.etsy.com/, and she has very nice stuff! I had to buy a ball of roving, too, and told Karl to put it away until my birthday. The yarn was 1200 yards, which I wound on the spot, and then started another Syrian lace shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I have enough to make a large shawl, and then I'll graduate to a trickier scarf with the remainder. I actually got out my spinning wheel the other day, too--the first time I've spun in months.

We also watchedthe Muppet show before bed last night, with Rita Moreno. That is a particularly fine episode. It had the Swedish chef, Martin Scuggs, and good skits with Rita, too. We recommend this one!

We finally have a picture of Albin doing something else besides using the computer! We stopped at the bakery in Stoughton for a drink before going to the library. He was so tired all afternoon. It reminded me of when he was small and we'd carry him around like a sack of potatoes. Of course, he's now bigger than me, so that doesn't work as well. (I tell him: you may be taller than me, but I still weigh more!)

Elise was at one of her last scene study classes. She'll have one more class in two weeks, then the performance. She's really come a long way since the fall. She would come home all worn out and almost cry about practicing her scene. Now she knows it inside and out...has for awhile, actually. We'll see if she'll want to do it again next year (she has such a good acting teacher!) but if she wants a break for a year or two, that would be fine, too.

Elise does gymnastics on Thursday afternoons. We just have time to get home from scene study, change into leotard and grab a snack, and we will be on time for class. I really think we may need to change gyms, though. She is having a lovely time and learning a lot, but I decided last night that the general environment of this gym is best described as toxic. The waiting room is a zoo of people, children yelling at intervals, moms berating their children about homework, etc., that if I didn't have my knitting and Albin's ipod, I wouldn't have lasted three weeks. I can survive with those devices; however, I find the invasive commercialism of the gym offensive. All the kids come out every week with a piece of paper advertising some open gym, drop-off weekend program, etc., for the kids to attend (at additional cost). There is an LED sign above the window of the gym floor, and after her class was over, I read a bit while waiting for her to stand in line for her paper and come out. All I caught was "...sleepover parties. Your kid will love you for it!" I hope my kids love me for the support, encouragement, respect and pure joy in their being that I (and Karl!) have for them, not because I let them go to sleepovers with friends! I understand that the gym has large operating costs, and needs to have as many kids in it as possible, but it still rankles.

We did have good family evening, though, the first we've been together with nothing else going on for a week. Albin was on the couch playing Lego Star Wars, Elise and I needle felted more creche figures, and Karl read more Loamhedge to us. It was lovely!

We had a wonderful day yesterday--at least I did! We went nowhere and had no obligations to fulfill. It was balm to my soul to spend a day at home doing whatever we wanted. We played a rummy tournament (Albin won this time), read some more Loamhedge, and had a leftovers lunch. The children finished their work pretty quickly and had computer time. I blocked the orange shawl I finished last week and started two more knitting projects. I went to the Sow's Ear three times in two hours, a record for me, I think. I bought some beautiful roving from Peace Fleece for the creche we want to make, and Elise and I started that project right away. And all day long, apart from the reading aloud portion, we listened to Christmas music from our old record/radio cabinet. I hope the next six weeks have many more relaxed, enjoyable days like this one!

Elise was able to spend the night at a friend's house, and Albin and Karl went to a planetarium show after dropping her off. Thus, I had time alone the second day in a row to work on the family's Christmas goodies.

Speaking of Christmas, I've been thinking a lot lately on how to have a frugal, simple Christmas, and not rely on material goods for the joy of the season. I read Bill McKibben's article, Hundred Dollar Holiday, a few years ago. Since then, that has always been the goal for which I strive...and fail. Historically, we don't buy presents for the kids, we go to a show together. (This year it will be Riders in The Sky at the Historic Stoughton Opera House.) Our tickets generally cost around $150-$250. The Christmas tree is usually $40 or more, grocery bills are always up for the extra baking and fancier ingredients (gingerbread houses take a lot of candy in our house!). We are different/lucky in that we don't exchange presents with extended family on either side, using that money to set aside time to get together over the summer. We will buy something for my Grandma, but because she is queen of frugality itself, it will be something useful like a grocery or gas card. I may still send her a basket of fun stuff... Anyway, my point being that I don't see how to cut back to $100 without grinching the fun stuff. I like to pretend we are frugal and careful, but I'm not sure that we are. Our family is so wealthy (from a global perspective), that if we want to hop in our nice car and drive out to the Christmas tree farm and pick out a nice $50 tree to put in our living room, we're going to do it and not think twice. I'm making a family present this year for the first time, and even though all the materials were 50% off (the pattern only a dollar), I still spent almost $60. Maybe that's one of the reasons I enjoyed yesterday so much. Apart from buying the fleece (ahem!), we were just at home, together, enjoying each other's company and the music of the season.

We had a snow squall on Monday! The snow was so thick at times, it looked like pea soup fog. The children had friends over, and they were all excited. The girls squealed mightily and went out to play, while the boys admired it from the porch.

Karl and I had a date last night. (We are now exchanging children with friends, so the parents have a night out to themselves once a month.) We picked up chicken with cashews from Dragon City (mmmmm, Dragon City!!!), had a slice of pumpkin cheesecake that I made Monday, and watched Casino Royale on Netflix...the old Casino Royale with Peter Sellers, David Niven and Woody Allen. It was very strange, very 60s. We had to pick up the children before the movie was over, so we finished it later. I really liked the theme, by Herb Alpert, and found many copies of it on Youtube. (Youtube has always had the music for which I seek, like Mary's Boy Child by Boney M or Jim Reeves...)

I had time to myself yesterday afternoon, while Karl and Elise were at violin, and Albin had been dropped off at a friend's. I had time to get a good head start on the family's Christmas goodies. Even Karl doesn't know what I'm making, so it can only be dragged out when the family is gone. That doesn't happen very often, anymore! I'll have another chance tonight, though, when Elise is doing math with a friend. Karl and Albin will drop her off and go to Wednesday Nite at the Lab, free science lectures at the UW.

Whew--that was a lot of cooking! We now have lovely gingersnap cookie dough, fabulous butternut squash soup, and...some other things. It's nice to be done! Afterward, Albin went to bed early and the rest of us headed over to Tuvalu to hear some acoustic guitar music. Unfortunately, it was too crowded for me, so I went right back home and listened to Fibber McGee and Molly on Old Time Radio while knitting. Karl and Elise stayed, had hot chocolate, played chess, and heard some lovely music.

It's finally snowing out. There are even some big flakes "staying on the ground!!" says Elise. She is so excited for snow.

On Friday, we were at the library early and were able to see a traveling Abraham Lincoln exhibit. It was very neat, especially the video of the civil war in four minutes. It was just a map of the U.S., but the date, borders and casualty total were constantly changing in fluid motion. Everyone stood spellbound until it was over. We watched it twice.

This morning we had a rousing game of Authors and Rummy. Now Albin is on the Lappy, Karl and Elise are ice skating, and I have a few hours to knit or work on Christmas goodies. Maybe I'll put a pan of brownies in the oven first. We've got vegetable soup on the stove for church potluck, and will also bring pasta and peanut sauce. What a good afternoon to be tucked inside!


Butternut squash coconut curry soup -- 4
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1 Tablespoon Oil
1/2 Each Onion, chopped
2 Clove Garlic, clove
3 1/2 Cup Vegetable Stock
1 Each Squash, butternut, peeled
1 Each Pepper, Jalapeno
2 Cup Coconut Milk
1/2 Cup Lemon Grass, chopped (or not)
2 Each Lime Leaves
1/2 Cup Fish Sauce (we left this out)
1 Tablespoon Sugar to taste
3 Tablespoon Lime Juice


Instructions
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Heat oil in saucepan; add onion and garlic. Saute until lightly browned. Add stock, squash, and jalapeno; simmer until squash is just cooked through, 10-15 min. Add coconut milk, lemongrass, lime leaves, fish sauce, and sugar. Simmer (do not boil) 10-12 min. Puree and strain through fine mesh strainer. Add lime juice and adjust to taste with sugar and lime juice. Four servings.

Little Al in his mobeius cat basket

Welcome! I never said so out loud, but I told myself that if we ever got a laptop, I might start a blog so the loved ones in our life can have a better idea of what we are doing now and again. After all, you know how often we write letters! (I don't plan to put pen and paper aside forever, though, because of new technology...)

So here we are. I'll spend some time this morning figuring out how to load and post pictures. Elise is racing through her chores/learning things so she gets first crack at the laptop this afternoon. Albin is still asleep. We were all up late last night, as usual, and he is the not the early bird today. That would be Karl. Karl is always the early bird.

Cooking group meets here tomorrow, so we have a bit more shopping and preparations to do. I need to buy thirteen 16 oz. containers of cottage cheese, ten pounds of peanut butter, and cook half of our twelve pounds of black beans. Karl cooked fifteen butternut squash last night. We have spinach pie, peanut sauce, butternut squash soup, and a boatload of cookies on the menu. Mmmmmm--butternut soup!!

We have been reading Loamhedge by Brian Jacques together. It's one of those books that when I finish a chapter, the children cry, "More! More! More! More!" I'm glad this is a long series--reading aloud together is one of my favorite things we do.

Elise is ready for help with her scene study, so off we go. Let's see if I can get a picture of the cat bed I knit for Al on here later...