Pomegranates

Pomegranate juicing day. At our house it should be a recognized holiday - it really is quite the to-do. Kerry and I agreed, he and the kids do the juicing and I'll do the jelly-making. For some reason, even with gloves, my hands turn the most disgusting shade of purply-gray when I try to juice those buggers. But, I do make a mean jar of jelly so it's an even trade! As the kids have gotten bigger, their help has become much more substantial. Maddie and Bea really can almost handle it on their own...there are just so many pomegranates to cut and squeeze, that small hands get tired and that's when there is danger. Kerry does his best to keep the mess to a minimum - his forte - but even under his watchful eye the kids and most of the surrounding area is covered with juice. It's a good thing we live in a place that in mid-November we can be outside in shorts, and barefeet getting covered with gorgeous, sticky juice!

the cats in the hats

Here are my little kittens, without any mittens - but sporting their favorite hats! My kids love wearing hats and lately when we peak at them before we go to sleep they are wearing hats even in their sleep. Too cute.

fall day

Sometimes I wish we lived somewhere that actually participated in the concept of seasons. Most people would think I'm crazy to not appreciate the perfect weather of San Diego, but sometimes I do wish for some crispness in the air, or maybe even a day that called out for a cute hat & fun gloves. While we were living in London I craved the sun. I mean crave in a deep, desperate, drove me to the fake tanning beds craved. While I didn't do well with the amount of gloom, I did love the chance to wear hats and scarves and a proper coat...ahhhhhh to grab cute gloves & hat on the way out the door. Well, since this is where I am, I guess I need to work on my appreciation of flip-flops. Enjoy the scenes of fall from our little corner of paradise.

crafty moment

Ahhhhhh....it's been way too long since I've had the time or energy to actually create something other than a meal for the hungry hoard that seems to always be two steps behind me! This weekend I found a pattern for the cutest elves to embroider. If I knew how to put in a link I would - but for now you'll have to search for yourself on Wee Wonderfuls under her free downloads. Now I hear many of you saying, "I didn't think you knew HOW to embroider?" Well, I don't. But, I had the best time, & found it almost addicting in its nearly immediate satisfaction of that urge to create that has been deeply surpressed for quite a while now. Homeschooling all the kids, and working at the Foundation, takes up a lot of time & mental energy, but I felt a little bit a battery recharging while a stitched away at this adorable little elf. Three cheers for bells on curled up toes!

peep, peep, peep

They're here! They're here! The mailman finally brought our newest arrivals (yes that is a plural!) The much anticipated additions to Schaeffer Farms have arrived...24 tiny, peeping, little chicks! The only sad moment was opening the box and seeing that two of our sweet little peeps didn't survive the journey. I'm always amazed that any of them survive two days through the USPS, but they are tough little balls of fluff. We'll try to get some better pictures of how cute they really are, but at the moment we're too busy ohhh-ing and ahhhh-ing!

halloween

The kids were so excited for Halloween this year. They spent a lot of time and energy deciding what to be and how to make their costumes. Truman has been sure for weeks that he was going to be a robot and would show anyone who was interested what a robot did (he can do a great robot-dance!). We spent a lot of time digging through the craft box & garage to find all the bits & bobs we needed to transform him into a robot from some distant planet - and it really paid off! He was adorable! Beatrice has had an ongoing love affair with the movie Grease for a while now after she saw it on TV one Saturday afternoon and so she wanted to be a 50's girl. We made her a poodle skirt and she spent many hours practicing swirling in it. She looked so cute...maybe we can make some skirts like that for everyday. Madeline saw a cavegirl costume and thought that would be cool - besides, she would get to wear her beloved Ugg boots (an early birthday present that seem to be coming out an awful lot considering her birthday is an entire month away!). She created an awesome looking "bone" necklace out of foil covered with masking tape. It looked great! Ian couldn't really decide what he wanted to be until he found a website that had very clever ideas. There was "Pink Floyd" - you where all pink & a name tag that says "Floyd"...or you could be an "email" - if you are a boy you can wear an "e" on your chest...ha ha e-male! There were several funny ones, but Ian chose to be a black-eyed-pea...so he had a big P on his chest & we put black makeup around his eye. Most of the neighbors got a good chuckle out of it!