Friday Favorites

Chickens, off the back deck.

It's definitely Autumn.

My favorite mug.

Dozens of fresh eggs. 5 dozen, to be exact.

Homemade decorations that Madeline and I have been working on.

More about those later.

Comfy chair in the late afternoon light.

A plentiful trip to the library today. Lots of new books.

Crock-pot dinner just waiting for us all to get home.

Doesn't it all look really nice? Snort! What you're not getting to see is the dirty, finger-smeared windows that are letting in the lovely light, the conglomeration of crap (seriously, I know that there's tortillas chips, change, a dollar bill, and lots of paper scraps in there!) that lives in the bottom of the book basket, the chicken poop everywhere in my yard that results from the generous chickens, and the group of kids who will gag when served the contents of the crock-pot.

What's for dinner, you ask? Egyptian veal stew with a side of roasted beet salad. Seriously. Maybe Bill will gag too.

Sometime I miss this:

A new color for Madeline.

Mixing colors

And then I remember that I don't really.

It's a good thing that I have a daughter who loves to change her hair color. It keeps the hairdresser part of me contented.

ETA: I have no idea why everything is underlined. Weird, huh?

There Are No Pictures For This Post

With my, ahem, significant birthday just a few weeks gone by, I've felt the need to prove that I can still run a few miles. On a regular basis. Without dying.

I exercise (can't stand the term "workout" because it reminds me of Jane Fonda circa. 1988) on a regular basis. I walk with the kids nearly every day. I have a huge library of exercise videos (yeah, even some Jane) that are well used. Heck, I can even do 12 boy's push-ups without breaking a sweat. But running any distance? Ummm, not so much since baby #4. I tried for a while when Sarah was a few months old, but exclusively breastfeeding one's 4th child when one is approaching one's 4th decade on this earth is NOT exactly conducive to comfort. Funny to watch, maybe.

So a few weeks back I stumbled across the "Couch to 5K" challenge. Basically, you start by alternating intervals of walking with a few minutes of jogging. Each week you increase the total number of jogging minutes, while decreasing the walking intervals. By week 8, you're supposed to be jogging 3 miles.

I'm happy to say that I can still run and I have not died. In fact, it's really not too bad. I run in the woods behind the house so it's awfully pretty this time of year and there's no one else around. Except a few deer and some wild turkeys that scare the hell out of me.

Will I ever run a marathon? Nope. Am I very fast? Nope. Doesn't really matter though, because I'm kinda having fun.

A Little Perplexed

See this picture?

It's hanging in the kitchen, above the table where we eat. Why is it there, you ask? It's there because that's where we hang an example of the work created by the artist who we are currently studying. You see, every month we study a new artist, and every week we study a different example of his/her work. Make sense?

We are studying the works of Giotto this month. This piece is aptly named, Crucifixion. You can see why.

This is where it gets good:

Today I asked Sarah what she thought this was a painting (it's actually a fresco--don't I wow you with my knowledge?!) of and she says, "It's Penguin Jesus. He lives in a house with the chickens. And I think that the water is very cold there."

?

To the best of my ability, I've decided that the blue background does, indeed, resemble water. And maybe the little cherubim might look a bit like penguins. The chicken house that she speaks of probably means a barn. But Penguin Jesus? I have no idea.

I love that girl.

Yee-Haw Things

That's what Sarah calls the reins on a horse's bridle. This morning she decided that there should be some horseback riding included in our weekend activities. Luckily, our local Tractor Supply was having an Autumn Festival (pronounced fest-ee-vahl if you're Sarah) today that included rides on a real horse. We were so there.

Cowboy "Dan Wilson" at your service. Dan Wilson is Jon's alter ego.

Sarah on her horse.

Holding onto the yee-haws.

Waffle Wednesday

Elderberry syrup, made fresh today, from a HUGE supply of elderberries given to us by a friend named, Herb. We call this concoction "Herb's herbal syrup."

Grandma Klecker's waffle batter, ready to be made into waffles.

This is the waffle maker that Bill and I received as a wedding gift almost 17 years ago. It's still going strong (the waffle maker and the marriage!). This was a gift from Bob and Kay Pendleton. Seriously. I remember all sorts of completely useless facts like this.

I love to plan out my family's meals. Doing so makes it easier to shop for groceries. It's also nice to have an idea what I'm making for dinner more than 15 minutes before I start cooking. I try to keep our menus simple, healthy, and including things that everyone will eat. I also like to have some days with a set menu; like Tuesdays are "Taco Tuesdays" and on Fridays we always eat pizza.

Several months ago while planning out that week's meals, I happened upon Facebook and a status update from my cousin's wife, Maria. She was talking about making waffles for her family on "Waffle Wednesday." Now THAT was a new idea that I could easily incorporate into our meals. Fast, easy, and sort of nutritious. Thanks to Maria's suggestion, we've now adopted "Waffle Wednesday" into the rotation. But more importantly, we've also forged a new family bond.

Funny, I've never met this girl in real life. In fact, I'm sure I haven't even seen my cousin (her husband) in 10 years or more. It's amazing though, that something as simple as waffles can bridge the many miles that separate us and offer a common ground for becoming acquainted. It just sort of makes me smile. And when we're both using the same waffle recipe from our Grandma Klecker on Wednesday nights, I know that she'd be smiling too.

November 1st

And in no particular order:

Jon on the rock. This is the new ladder that Bill and Jack made. It's made of hand-peeled cedar that is joined with hickory pegs. No nails. Now EVERYONE can climb on top of the rock.

See? Even Sarah is able to scale the rock now. Is this dangerous? Heck yeah, it's dangerous. I have visions of scraped chins, broken arms, and cracked heads.

New benches for the fire pit. And look, there's my shadow to the left!

Beautiful trees. Seriously. It is so pretty here right now.