We had almost a week of non-stop rain here in Austin and I loved it.  It’s so nice to have the cooler temperatures and an end to the horrible dry spell that we’ve endured lately.  Unfortunately, our camping trip was cancelled due to the mud and they will not be rescheduling it L  Boo.  To help alleviate some of the disappointment, David set up the tent upstairs. All the boys stayed in it for a short while but eventually only David and Colin remained to stick it out.  Nathan and William ended up crawling into bed with me to watch a movie while David and Colin tossed and turned in the tent all night 😉

We’re getting excited about Thanksgiving coming up!  It’s our first holiday season in our new house and for the first time I am actually excited about celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas!  Yesterday I spent hours putting away the last of the boxes and storing the clothes the boys have outgrown.  Now all we have to do is hang the pictures and decorate and we’ll be all set!  I’ve never been able to decorate before because there was never enough room in our apartments without feeling cluttered so this is a new chapter!  Grandpa is coming to visit for Thanksgiving this year and I’ve been busy planning a menu and getting tabletop décor in order.  Last year was my first year making everything myself and I loved it, although it did require a ton of work!  But to me, that’s what the holidays are about.  Family and cooking!  I hate ordering things and having them catered – it takes away from the spirit of it all.  But I must confess that my attempts at homemade gravy failed miserably last time so we’ll be buying it in advance this year!  I don’t want to kill myself over the stress of cooking either so if I know it will cause me anxiety, I’ll buy it.  After all, I want to be able to enjoy myself too!

I am 23 weeks pregnant this week and have a definite bump now.  People don’t hesitate asking me when I’m due or if I know the sex now.  I have been working out steadily for the past four weeks and my endurance is slowly increasing.  I’ve never been able to exercise during any of my last pregnancies because I suffered from horrible dizziness so this is something new for me.  I have to plan my exercising days carefully though because it exhausts me so much.  But I’ve decided that it’s worth it because I do feel a lot better in general and have more energy on the days I’m not working out.  I’m just trying to enjoy this stage while I can because I am not huge and overburdened, I feel pretty good, and generally have no physical complaints.  Since this is almost certainly my last pregnancy, I am hoping that it remains a good one!

So nothing major to report this week but now that I am a bit older, I’m of the mindset that no news is generally good news.  In my 20’s this lull would have driven me crazy.  Now, I love it.  But let’s face it, with three wild boys and another one on the way, even the dull days are packed with everyday drama!

Have a good week!

Hello!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!  Ours… not so much.  I got excessively angry with Nathan for not saying thank you after he received his candy and after about 15 minutes, he wanted to quit and go home.  He now says he hates Halloween and never wants to go trick-or-treating again. 😦  I feel horrible.  I didn’t mean to ruin the kid’s entire experience this year.  William found the whole ordeal somewhat boring and wanted to go home too.  So after 20 minutes of getting everyone in their costumes and ready to go, we were home 15 minutes later with both Nathan and I mad at each other.  He was still mad most of the day yesterday and Tuesday’s morning routine was a horrendous experience.  Thankfully by nighttime we seemed to have found a common ground and were happy with each other once again.  After a string of really rough mornings and drop-offs, today went exceedingly well and everyone went off to school happy and calm.  Phew!  Sometimes we seem to get on a string of negative days and I am convinced it will never end.  Then they lift as suddenly as they descended and we are all in a good grove again.  I have a habit of assuming that when something is hard, it will be hard forever and nothing but misery is to be expected.  Thankfully, life has proven me wrong time and time again but I still can’t seem to break the habit and keep things in perspective.  Yesterday I was sure all my kids would end up drug dealers and in jail but today I feel like they may actually make it!

This Saturday we are going to a neighborhood camping in the park event.  The boys (including David) are extremely excited about it.  I got us all sleeping bags and we have our tent ready to go.  I have also been on Pinterest a lot researching good picnic foods to take camping.  I have decided on tiny cheeseburgers on skewers, pasta salad, and sliced fruit on skewers in addition to cookies and some other snacks.  Be prepared for lots of pictures!  I’ll let you know how it goes!

This week, in a sudden flurry of determination, I decided to begin lacto-fermenting our own vegetables.  I bought a book and some air-lock lids from Amazon and tomorrow will start with making pickled carrots and sauerkraut.  I really am a bit overly excited about it and am once again wanting to move to Pennsylvania and start a little farm.  This happens to me a several times a year.  I really think I was meant to be Amish.  When my book arrived yesterday, I leapt for joy and jubilantly declared to the boys that we were going to start eating fermented vegetables to which William immediately replied that he hated fermented vegetables.  He’s never had one in his life and while I am sure that there is a possibility we may all, in fact, hate them – I refuse to be deterred and am hoping for the best!

So between lacto-fermenting vegetables and roughing it in the park we’ve got a lot to do for the remainder of the week.  I’ll keep you posted!