It Gets So Much Better

I have attended so many concerts for my kids.  Elementary school concerts are charming for so many reasons, but the caliber of musical performance is generally not one of them.

This year both Ethan and Libby are in choir at junior high. Grace and Sam started complaining before we even got there.  When the concert was over 45 minutes later, Sam stated, "Is it over already?  I liked listening to them." That is about the highest praise they could earn. Grace commented "That was the shortest concert ever!" with sincere delight written all over her face.  My recording doesn't do it justice, but I want to go on the record and state, "It gets better!"  At least in regard to the music.

Random

Poor Sam!  He announced, "I just sneezed my head off!"  (He has been reading a lot of Calvin and Hobbes lately.)

Ethan working on his mad braiding skills.

Grandma, the littles and I went to the MK Nature Center.  The little kids insisted on not passing up on this photo op.  Grandma was a good sport.

Look at these fall colors!  Grace and Sam are cute, but the color gradients got me right in the feels.  It was necessary to take a picture.

Farmstead

Ethan, Libby, and Isabelle decided that they could do the maze faster than Michael, Grace, Sam and I.  Ethan sent me a text from inside the maze, telling me they were close to finding the way out.  This is the picture we sent him! We waited at the exit but they never came. Grace, Sam and I hitched a ride back to the main area while Michael stayed behind and waited. He eventually went in, found them after they'd given up and started plowing between corn stalks, and escorted them back to the exit.

Never too old for the corn pit.

The children in their proper place.

My Little Garden

I rented a spot from Borah Community Garden this year.  When I started planting I was a little disappointed in the size of my plot.  10' by 20' just doesn't look very big.

From the green water line back to where the grass starts growing is my plot.  This is early in the season.  I was very sad by its slow growth.  Then it went insane.  The cucumber plants made more than thirty quarts of pickles and the two kale plants produced more than we could eat on our own.  The tomatoes were late, but prolific.  I have enough homemade salsa to last for generations.  I even got a few pumpkins before the plants succumbed to a fungus.

Toward the end of the season I was harvesting twice a week and bringing home buckets of food.

Before the first hard frost, I harvested almost everything.  I still have a few parsnips in the ground.  I am anxiously awaiting a hard freeze before I dig them up.   Currently, we are not in danger of running out of tomatoes or carrots.

Next year I am planning on renting two plots.  I'm not sure if ambitious or crazy would be more accurate.

C is for Cookie

The cookies are a lie.  There are no cookies.  Just lots of letters for lots of important words.

We wandered down to Kathryn Alberston Park and the kids wanted their pictures taken with their name letters.

Grace had to settle for her middle name, as there is no G in Albertson.  We are choosing to ignore the spelling difference.

Michael was a good sport and took most of the pictures, even though there was no letter for him.  Sad day.