Ambling into October

Reece and a neighbor at our block party - the city sends a fire truck or police car or both if you register the block party with them (they also provide blockers for the ends of the street), and the kids love it every year

I haven't posted lately because there just really hasn't been much to say. I find the minutia of our lives to be pretty all-consuming of my time and energy, but I'm pretty sure it would be incredibly boring to anyone outside our household. We've settled into a routine that, while varying from day to day, repeats itself week to week like we're stuck in some kind of time loop.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the kids and I get up and going and head to our respective schools. The slight variation occurs on Wednesdays when Greyson has to pack a lunch and carry his French horn to the bus stop because he has band practice during lunch. Then the babysitter comes after school to be with the kids until Dan relieves her around 6pm and I arrive home shortly thereafter and immediately make dinner for the starving crowd. Thursdays I usually work from home, and Reece has ice skating lessons after school, plus Dan works late so the kids and I often have creative meals for dinner. Fridays I leave early and Dan gets the kids out the door, then I get home in time to meet Reece's bus. Saturdays we sometimes have an activity, I try to get to the farmer's market, and we do a lot of chores around the house and try to veg out. Sundays are Sunday school and sometimes church, then Dan is consumed by the Browns game from 12:45 until 4:30 while the boys and I occupy ourselves in various (usually pretty unproductive) ways. I did get Wii Carnival Games through a swap (via swap.com), so we've been playing that a lot on rainy days. And then Monday starts all over again.

I did get pretty productive last weekend, making duvet covers for both boys' beds out of jersey material sheets, and I reorganized (for probably the 10th time) my clothes closet (which also serves as our medicine/linen closet for the master bath).

 Reece's duvet. He won the "green war" this time.

 Greyson's duvet. Dan calls it the blood-red bed. Pretty cool for Halloween at least.

 Half of my closet. I first repurposed some Itso items I had in the basement and then realized I needed more, so what was supposed to be a cost-free endeavor did not end that way. As usual.

It felt great to get those tasks done, and the boys actually seem to be sleeping better with their new bed covers. An explanation: Neither boy has been using his top sheet on his bed unless it happens to be made of the jersey material, and even in that case it was ending up in a squooshed pile by their toes and I was having to wash their blankets every week or two. So I decided this was a better solution, and I couldn't find any ready-made jersey material duvets through online searches. I found some jersey sheet sets on sale at Target, got the kids to pick their colors, and sewed two flat sheets together to make the covers. The bonus is that now we have two fitted sheets for each bed in the same color and material as well as some pillowcases, and I think it all cost me way less than any regular duvet cover plus sheets would have. In fact, their beds are so cozy now that Dan and I have been threatening to sleep there instead of them!

And finally, on the farming front, we've pretty much let the garden go back to nature. The squirrels demolished the sunflowers, and the disappointment in not getting the seeds for ourselves was made up for by watching the sheer determination and creativity of the squirrels' adventures in trying to reach the seeds. Wish I had gotten video.

However, we are still harvesting a few items before they rot or animals get them. Here's today's take:

These are each actually only about 3 inches in length, and odds are good that the eggplants will end up going directly into the garbage in a few days. Might have the tomato for lunch, though.