mid-October

Today has been a chilly day. The kids and I stayed in our pajamas a little later than usual this morning and I had to start another half pot of coffee after our first cup was gone. It's a comfort food day if there ever was one. We had soup and banana muffins for lunch and the wheat speckled dough for the barbeque chicken calzones for dinner tonight is rising on the stove. Our young maple tree is already losing it's tiny red leaves in the backyard. I have no desire to bundle up to face the blustery wind outside to even get the mail down the street~ usually one of my favorite parts of the day. The older kids are napping quietly snug in their beds upstairs and Josh is finding his voice in his bouncy seat.

You may think I'm crazy, but I'm counting the days until Christmas~70 to be exact. You see, I'm slightly homebound these days. It takes quite a while to get out the door when you have to change 2 diapers and see that the clothes the kids are wearing are clean and make sure you remember the sippy cups and then buckle 3 kids in the car and then you yourself want to look presentable... I do go out with the children, but I do love researching things online first so I can maximize the time and money spent outside our home. So, I suppose I am beginning early but planning to get the best prices never hurt anyone. And as I mentioned before, the kids are mostly getting books for Christmas this year so I've been scouring Amazon and half.com and ebay for great deals. (I've actually been finding the best deals on Half.com. When you buy more than one book from one merchant you get a very nice shipping discount.)

I love the whole season~from the first yellow aspen leaf falling in the yard to Autumn's culmination, putting up the tree after Thanksgiving. Autumn makes me want to bake like a mad woman~ spice cakes, gingersnaps, baked apples, strudel, pies, muffins with brown sugar streusel.

I've also been planning out my Pampered Chef Party for November 9th. I'm really looking forward to getting lots of friends together for fellowship. As far as the menu goes, I'll be making a sauteed pork loin and spiced cider and gingersnaps and a few other things I've been itching to get out of my system. I know we'll have a great time. Also, if you can't make it to my house, you can still order things with the link above.

I guess that's all for now. I's kind of a slow day around here.