Our first week in many that had a bit more of a sane schedule still moved along really fast.  We still had somewhere to go each day, but that was OK.  My laundry pile continues to be evidence that I am not caught up.  That’s a concept I’m realizing may not happen ’till I’m 73.

I have an odd assortment of photos to share from this week.  We began by making a couple loaves of banana bread.

A stapled-together, green chef’s hat that makes your ears stick out with an apron that isn’t cinched up high enough are essential when baking.  Essential!  In Bible this week, we were reading about Jesus being the Bread of Life.  Banana bread isn’t the best example of a bread staple, but it was still a good tie-in to our subject.

One of our science experiments involved mixing warm water, yeast and sugar in a jar and fitting a balloon on top to see what happened.

We also tried it with warm water, yeast and salt.  Of course, that didn’t work.  We learned the yeast needs the sugar to make the carbon dioxide.

We welcomed a new item to our school table this week.  A real pencil sharpener!

I don’t know why it took me so long to get one, but after the shavings from my little hand-held one were accidentally spread all over the table, I decided it was time for something more practical.  This is the old fashioned kind, but instead of attaching to the wall, it has one of those super-strong-suction thingies that attaches to smooth surfaces.  I had a granite tile laying around, so…voila!  It makes ridiculously sharp pencils.

Yesterday, we visited a pumpkin patch farm, and among other things, Ethan got to feed a calf!

Today, we made butter!

As an activity to go along with our look at colonial life, we put some whipping cream into a jar with a lid and proceeded to shake it for 10-15 minutes.  Ethan and I took turns shaking, and very soon we had butter.  Ethan was thrilled and amazed at our accomplishment!    We had to try some on toast right away.

For a long time while I grew up, we always made our own butter.  We bought milk from friends down the road who milked a cow or two, so we had cream to make butter and other goodies.  I remember the kids at school thinking that was really odd.  Today, I was reminded of what a simple process it really is, once the cream has been acquired, that is! 

I’m not really into Halloween, but a pumpkin carving can be fun!  Can you figure out what our carving is?

Hint:  it’s related to Star Wars.

Crossing Lightsabers!

Well, I’ve gone and done it.  I’ve begun another photo-a-day project.  This one is called part 37 as it will be chronicling my 37th year.  That’s right, right?  I just turned 36 so now I’m into my 37th year?  Yeah.  That’s what I thought.

Anyway, as relieved as I was about 6 months ago to complete two years of shooting something every day, I realized I’ve been missing it lately.  I miss being able to look back on the details of daily life that is flying by.  I miss challenging myself in this way and learning and growing in the process.  And so, as crazy busy as life has been of late, I’m determined to give it another go.  But I’m not going to be too hard on myself for missing one now and then.  The whole point is just to capture more of our daily life than I have been and actually shoot for me, for us, for fun.  I’ve been missing that.

And sometimes I’ll share what I get here, too.  Like this one…

On Fridays at swim team practice, the kids get to spend their swim bucks at a little mini-mall.  They earn bucks by attending practices and winning little competitions they have.  (Ethan won one water game two Fridays in a row.)  To be honest, the mini-mall isn’t my favorite thing.  Cheap little toys and trinkets that can break after one use are not this mom’s idea of FUN.  But yesterday, Ethan proudly presented me with this necklace…and I had to smile.  He told me that he thought red would be nice because it was “heart-y.”  How cute is that?!  So cute that I’m wearing it right now, over my jammie shirt that I haven’t changed out of yet on this Saturday afternoon.

So, Tuesday, we were driving to baseball practice, and I was preparing to get into the left turn lane on a road near our house, when I suddenly saw a van up ahead of me turn right.  Onto a road that has been closed for about a year due to a bridge replacement.  This road is THE road we take to go so many places, so for the past many, many months, we’ve had to turn left here, instead of right, and go out of our way to get to our destinations.  In reality, it doesn’t add a huge amount of time, but it does add just enough to be annoying.  Well, here it was, my birthday and all, and they finally opened up the road!  Ethan and I were singing the Hallelujah chorus all the way to practice, especially because we were out the door a bit later than I wanted to be, and now we had our “short cut” back!  Yippee!

Wednesday afternoon, we hopped on our bikes and went to check out the bridge up close.  I only had my 50mm lens on, so I couldn’t go wide enough to capture the whole thing,  but I was just happy to be shooting something for fun, so I’m sharing this one anyway.  Along with bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides, it has two pillars like this one on each side.  There is a different motif (grapes and strawberries) on each side of the pillars.  It’s a stylin’ bridge!

At one end of the bridge is a remodeled path that goes down into our favorite neighborhood park, so we rode down there and enjoyed all the fall color.

I have been missing just shooting daily life lately, so I was happy to grab a couple shots today while exploring my birthday present…a re-opened road and a lovely bridge! 

PS – According to reports, this bridge has the longest precast/prestressed non-segmental bridge beams in Oregon and possibly the Northwest.  There are eight, 96-ton beams, and they are 184 feet long, 7 1/2 feet tall, 5 feet across at the top of the T and 2 1/2 feet across at the base.

I’m thankful…

1. for my healthy family
2. for my husband and son who love me despite my flaws
3. that my husband encourages me
4. that my husband makes me laugh
5. that eleven of the last twelve weeks have contained exercise, specifically running and walking (1 week off for sickness)
6. that my right knee has not been bothered by the exercise
7. that I’ve lost over 10 pounds and a dress size
8. for my running buddy
9. that homeschooling is going better than it ever has for us
10. that Ethan is starting to enjoy reading
11. for Lightroom
12. for patient family and friends
13. for technology that allows far-away people to feel a bit closer
14. for God’s Word that never grows tired (even when I do)
15. for new experiences and new friendships
16. for old friendships
17. for refreshing Fall weather
18. for our leaf blower
19. for good books
20. for music
21. for my camera
22. for people who share their wisdom, life experiences and skills
23. for opportunities to learn and grow and serve
24. for comfortable shoes
25. for sweet potato pancakes made by my husband
26. that my husband has a job
27. for our home
28. for a patient, kind counselor
29. for beauty in nature and in people
30. for times of rest
31. for humor and laughter
32. for forgiveness
33. for redemption
34. for video cameras, so I can still see and hear my son as just a little guy
35. that I was born in the 20th century (36 years ago, today)
36. for new glasses

And here I thought September was a slow blogging month for me…good grief!  I could use another month tucked in between October and November, I think.  A month to catch up.  Catchupter.

This week will be the third (and final!) week about which my calendar has been hyperventilating.  October has had three weeks of seemingly non-stop activity, but after this week, fall baseball will be over and I hope we have a little more breathing room. (Just in time for the holidays.  What am I thinking?)  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that in the midst of the last three weeks, all three of us have been sick.  Seth was hit first, and I was so thankful we seemed to escape what he had.  It was unpleasant enough to just witness.  But the next week, I was hit with something different, and as soon as I felt a bit better, Ethan got it.  So, we missed some of our obligations and instead were put to work with the job of recovering.  I admit, some of the forced rest was good, but it didn’t really amount to much getting done, and it took longer than I expected.

This last week, we finally were moving back towards “normal” on Wednesday.  And on Thursday we even tackled a school craft project!  We’ve been reading about Native Americans, so a wigwam was in order.

Cute, eh?

We also looked into our solar system and were wowed with this video:

We are so small.  God is so GREAT!

Ethan quote:  I wonder if the moon is actually the sun, but it’s getting reeeaallly sleepy and turns cold. 

It’s been a beautiful fall day.

Canon 40D

100mm macro lens

f/5

1/400

ISO 400

edited in Lightroom 2.5