Feels like fall....

Driving home today with my youngest in the backseat telling me about her day playing outside and painting a "leaf tree" while fall leaves rained over my car from both sides of the street, like a curtain falling...it was really nice. I love fall. I cracked a window to smell the fall air, played in the leaves on my way to the mailbox and made popcorn for the kids to snack on once the boys got off the bus. As they were telling me about their days and eating popcorn, I was looking through papers from school. Reminders about Fall Harvest open house, invitations to Halloween parties and notes about homecoming weekend.

I love how you feel like you're being blanketed by all of the colorful leaves. All warm and snug underneath. But I think what I like most about fall is the sense of accomplishment. Everything is coming successfully to the end of its course. All of the hard work for the year can be lined up and evaluated. Measured and visibly appreciated. I suppose technically I didn't really work hard to produce that big pile of leaves in the yard, but that's just the trees bearing witness that they were hard at work right along side me. Even sending the kids back to school. By now, they're settled in their routines and are ready to start learning the building blocks for the spring growth.

I think I'll go make some ham and squash and homemade bread for supper and relish this beautiful fall day and my kids (who all seem to be in as good a mood as I am)!

What am I teaching her?

My daughter has the most beautiful hair. Women pay bundles to get highlights and color like hers. It's primarily blond - with light auburn layers underneath, strawberry blond over that and topped with bleached blond highlights throughout. It is thick and long and baby fine - like silk. She loves her hair. I've recently tried to convince her to let me cut an inch or two off - to just below the bottom of her shoulder blades - so it would tangle a little less. No dice. Then we took the boys for haircuts and she asked to have hers cut, too. Her bangs were in her eyes, so why not? It would save me a little frustration at home - I can buzz the boys, but I always cut her bangs so blunt. Why not let the professionals? She butchered my baby's hair! She cut at least an inch of her bangs. They went from being in her eyes to a half inch above her eyebrows. But only in spots. Some are still below her brows. And the back! It looks like another kid in daycare got the scissors and went to town.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm a little upset. At times, I feel like crying about it. But then it hit me - what am I teaching her to let her see me like this? It's just hair. It has no real value. Do I want her to find worth in what she looks like or in how she treats other and serves the Lord? Do I want her to be prideful or humble? Rushing her in the next day to insist that they do what they can to fix it wouldn't send the right message, but I want nothing more. Hopefully I handle things better when we get to the really big stuff!

But just so you don't think I'm over-reacting...



Her poor bangs!

Farmer's Markets - I guess you take your chances

So we went to the farmer's market yesterday. All part of the whole trying to eat more locally thing. We went to stock up on peppers for the freezer, squash to store for the winter and maybe a few fresh greens. Sounds easy, right? Well, when I went to buy the peppers, I couldn't believe the variety at one stand. And the back of his truck was loaded with bushels of them! The table was full of quart baskets with each variety. I requested 2 baskets of a few different peppers. The gentleman running the stand insisted that I didn't really want THAT many peppers. Those are all hot, you know. Didn't I want some sweet ones? I had to agree that yes, I would be getting to the sweet ones, and plead a few more times for the hot and left with a grocery bag full of peppers. About 8 of them were poblanos. Mmmm...fresh poblanos. So tonight, I made stuffed poblanos. I looked forward to it all day. I chopped up some hot peppers to mix in with Ben's stuffing so he'd have a little heat. Then we bit into them. They weren't tame, flavorful poblanos. They were flavorful, but HOT. Too hot for me to eat. Hot enough that Ben felt the heat from them more than the cherry bombs I had put in the filling. I was so disappointed. I guess that even with a great market to fall back on, I'll still prefer growing my own stuff so I know what it is.

But they sure did look good, didn't they?

The delicata squash is the same variety we grew, so we should be safe there. The brussel sprouts we got were good, but not as good as the variety we grew ourselves. But it's good to see the kids get so excited about something so good for them!

I hope my garlic turns out better - I had to beg with the couple selling that to buy more than a head at a time, too!