Yesterday, with the weather finally cooling off and the leaves falling all over the yard, I could do only one thing:  Bake. 

Well, actually, I did more than one thing because we’re also switching out our summer clothes with winter clothes. Do you know how many loads of laundry that amounts to? Me neither, because I didn’t keep track. And I’m still not done. But hey, I sure am thankful God has provided so many hoodies for my boys. Seriously.

Also, before I could bake, we needed to finish our school work. And lunch had to be made. Right after lunch, Matt and I had a meeting. Then I had a workout with Jen.

Then Malachi had a soccer game, and Justus had two games to referee.

And by the time we got home from the games we were starving (and frozen) so I made a quick dinner.

But not before I switched out the laundry and started yet another load.

And then…I finally had my chance to bake. Ahhhhhhh.  Seriously, baking is a great way for me to unwind at the end of the day. I know. I’m weird. But just try putting some Applesauce Bread into the oven in the evening and tell me that smell of apples and cinnamon won’t relax you. Uh-huh. 

I made some of the Applesauce Bread into mini muffins, then made some Hot Cocoa (because after being home from Malachi’s soccer game for over an hour and a half, I still hadn’t thawed out).

While the rest of the bread and some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins were baking, we all sat down in the living room with our mini muffins and hot cocoa while I started reading the latest book in the Ralph Moody series we’re reading.

We’d planned to stop at one chapter, but who can stop with one chapter? So we continued to read, deciding to stop at two chapters. But at that point Ralph was lost in the mountains, and even though we all knew good and well that he would make it out alive because he had lived to tell about it many years later when he wrote his books, we still couldn’t rest until we had read a third chapter and knew that he was home safe and sound.

I’m telling you, you’ve got to look into the Little Britches series, by Ralph Moody. And you should also do some baking. It’s very relaxing. (So says the crazy lady with sprinkles of flour all over her shoes.)

 This morning, Matt built a fire and we had Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins with milk and sliced pears. I love fall.

If you didn’t get them already, be sure to download your free fall recipe cards here, which include both of these recipes. Of course, you can simply click on the above links for the recipes too.

Did  I mention that I thought I was completely out of cinnamon at one point in the midst of my baking? Yes, there I was with apples and pumpkin – and an empty cinnamon jar. Tragic! Not to worry, I found a hidden jar of cinnamon up on a different shelf. Sheesh. 

What do you love about fall?

 The clock had just struck midnight. Why were Matt and I still awake? I’m not sure, but we were not to be awake for long. We were both right at that blissful point of drifting off to a peaceful sleep.

Suddenly Matt said, “Did you see that?”

Um no, I did not see that. I’m not sure if any of you are aware of this, but my eyesight without contacts or glasses is quite poor. Some might say I’m as blind as a bat, which is oh-so-punny since Matt then sat straight up in bed and said, “I think there’s a bat in our living room!” 

For real? Right now? We were both so tired. But what were we to do when indeed, there was a bat in our living room? Matt got up. Team player that I am, I stayed under the covers. We discussed a strategy for getting the bat to go outside, none of which really sounded effective, but all of which involved a box, a broom, and a bath towel. What? You think you could have come up with a better idea?

By the time Matt got to the living room, the bat was nowhere to be found. He decided to go upstairs and close all the doors so as to contain it, and more importantly, keep it from going into the room where the boys slept. Ahhh – there it was! In the upstairs hallway! He slammed all the doors closed quickly, then attempted to watch the pattern of the bat flying back and forth between the hallways walls – you know – like a video game – so he’d know just when to swoop in with the broom. Or the dust pan. Or the box. Or whatever in the world might be the most effective way to get the bat outside.

In the meantime, I was still under the covers, praying for Matt to get rid of the bat quickly. And – I am ashamed to say this – I also found myself dozing off from time to time. It’s okay though. The good wife in me woke up each time I heard the broom hit the wall upstairs and I’d jolt awake to start praying again. Ain’t no one can call me unsupportive. ;)

Back upstairs, Matt had the broom in readyness for swiping. His intent was to “stun” the bat, scoop it into the box, then take it outside. You’ve got to love a man with a plan.

Ah, there it was – the opportunity! Swipe! Oh wow, and not only did it stun the bat, the bat actually fell directly into the box. How very convenient. Matt breathed a sigh of relief, then bent over to close the box. Oh but wait! The bat had a better idea. Up he flew, right toward Matt’s face! 

Whap! Instinctively, Matt swung the broom again. Success! And the bat was put into the box and taken outside. Ending score:  Bat 0—My Hero 1.

Matt was more than a little bit pumped up with adrenaline at that point, and as you can imagine, had a difficult time going to sleep, even if it was almost one in the morning by then. Me? Once I knew he had the bat outside, I gave my courageous husband a groggy “Great job, Babe”, then promptly rolled over and conked out. I figured that at least one of us needed a decent night’s rest in order to take care of the kids in the morning. 

Told you I was a team player. ;)

This week, our family had the privilege of taking care of our friends’ chickens while they were out of town. Let me clarify. Our friends were out of town, not the chickens. The chickens stayed home and our friends went out of town and we were in charge of the chickens. We got to do “chicken chores”, which, by the way, is a really fun phrase to say.

This was a great arrangement for us as we are actually considering getting ourselves some chickens next spring. We thought this would be great practice for our boys. We were right – it was great for them. We fed, watered, set them “free” each morning, closed them up to roost each night and the most fun part of all – we gathered eggs.

Our younger boys were even delighted to get up early to go do the morning chicken chores. I think they felt manly and “farmish”. In fact, Malachi, our six year old, insisted on putting on his full cowboy gear before we headed over to care for the chickens twice each day. Even early in the morning, he stumbled into his bandanna and boots.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that cowboys mostly take care of cows. Nor did I tell him that he’d really not have use for his rope. Nor did I tell him that he wouldn’t really need his holster and pistol.

I also decided not to tell him that I wouldn’t need a cowboy hat.

He insisted that I wear the thing. It mattered not that my head was too big. It mattered not that I got strange looks as I drove all the way to the chickens and back home again. The plastic pistol I carried in my own pocket got a little bit uncomfortable, but no matter.

Thankfully, the chickens were not unruly and we did not have to lasso a one of them.

But it never hurts to be prepared.

My days are full of “duh” moments. Is it just me? It seems like the older I get, the older my kids get, the more I have on my to-do list…the more “duh” moments I have.

I say “duh” to myself frequently. Like when I walk all the way to our storage room to retrieve something, but by the time I get there, I have absolutely no idea what I had intended to get. Duh. Or when I stir the wrong ingredient into the wrong bowl because I’m trying to make too many recipes at the same time. Duh. Or how about the time I stuck a wooden spoon into a running food processor. We had splinter-filled cookie dough with that smart move.  Duh.

Just last week, I had a very busy day and just so happened to be wearing a cute but long sun-dress that went all the way past my ankles. This information about my apparel is only relevant if you consider that after going out to check on my husband who was busy painting the outside of our house, I tripped on my long sundress while going up my porch-steps. (duh)  Thankfully, my shins didn’t suffer too much for this move, and I’m almost certain none of the neighbors were outside to see my gracefulness.

But that’s not really why I told you about the sun-dress. You just needed to know about how I tripped over the sundress so that you could understand my next and very silly “duh” moment.

You see, a couple of hours after my graceful sundress-tripping-up-the-porch-steps incident, I had to make a stop at the post office. There are a good 10-12 cement steps in front of the post office. Because I’m never (sometimes) one to make the same mistake twice, I was very careful to hold up the bottom of my dress as I decended the post office steps after mailing my package. I was able to avoiding a foot-tangled-up-in-sundress-in-front-of-post-office mishap and managed to make it down the cement steps with both feet on the ground and all was well.

I was focused on rejoicing in my success – so focused that I went to the nearest silver mini-van in front of the post office, opened the door and hopped right in. Aaaa!! (Yes, I believe that was exactly how I said it.)

Wrong mini-van.

Duh.

(It was way too clean to be my mini-van – that should have been my first clue.)

Three parking spaces down was MY silver mini-van, which I am quite sure I made it to in record time (after looking both ways twice to see who had witnessed my “duh” moment.)

The minute I got home, my husband, from his perch on the ladder while painting, said, “We just got a phone call. Malachi was supposed to be at a birthday party 15 mintues ago.”

Oh duh.

Yep, the “duh” moments just never stop around here.

Have any “duh” moments you’d like to share?