Wonderful days!

I have so much to write about. Which likely means that I will write very little.

This weekend was perfect. The first day of October was the first truly cool day for us. Our windows have been open, the breezes blowing. Saturday we spend several hours outside. B and I moved the compost (with some wee hands helping, of course) and expanded our "food garden" to make room for some fall plants. The Beast has finally accepted shoes and the wearing thereof. He ran laps around our car while the older boys whooped and jumped about - occasionally stopping to help me pull roots from the garden bed. New seedlings were procured: salad greens, cauliflower, and cilantro. My banana peppers are popping up blooms all over the place. It's amazing what a break from the heat will do.

Late last week I adopted B's childhood pocket knife and have been halfheartedly carving magic wands for the boys from sticks in the yard. It's strangely enjoyable, but is rough on my hands. I think a proper set of carving knives would help.

Sunday we spent most of the afternoon at my father's house to celebrate the Imp's birthday. He was utterly thrilled with his gifts and the cookies on the ice cream cake they bought. It took a couple of hours but he eventually warmed up to everyone. It's amazing to see how different he is at home versus at my dad's. He's so much more confident on his turf. I also found out that my father quit smoking back in June. This is a *huge* deal. I never thought he would ever quit. Even after throat cancer he smoked like a chimney. I can't tell you how very proud of him I am for having finally broken the habit.

I've finally finished my gnomes. Today the stars aligned and I managed to find some decent light in the house that wasn't too bright. The kids even mostly cooperated. Of course, the pictures are still on the camera, so I'm mostly just assuming that they turned out decently enough. I'm hopeful, though.

Today also marked the day that I received the package for this year's Dish Rag Tag. It was exciting (which seems a little sad, but I'm okay with that). I finished the dish rag in under three hours (including nursing the Beast to sleep for his nap and eating lunch). It helps that the older boys ran off to the Elf's room to play with legos the whole time. So it was just me, the yarn, and Stargate (I'm rewatching SG1 on Netflix).

Okay, so picture-free posts are kind of boring.