In the last 4 months..

Seriously, Worst. Blogger. Ever.

It has been four months since I last updated here. Four Months!! Wowzy. I have been busy. Probably, not so busy that I couldn't have thrown out a post here and there but busy.

We finished getting our house ready to go on the market and listed it on April 6. A crazy thing happened in our neighborhood, one house sold for an extraordinary amount and it caused everything to go insane. Everyone who was selling listed their houses for unthinkabley high numbers and our agent had us do the same and then all of the houses sat on the market. And sat. And so all of those prices started coming down, down, down until we finally hit the magic number and got a good offer. All is going smoothly with that we should be moving out in early July.

That, of course, meant, house shopping! Fun and awful at the same time. We knew our budget didn't allow perfection but it was challenging deciding what to sacrifice. My husband was pretty much willing to sacrifice the whole house for a great yard, while I had much more unwavering needs for my house. In the end we ended up with a good house with a good yard. The house needs some cosmetic improvements but the house itself is large and well laid out and the backyard and outdoor spaces are very nice. I'm really looking forward to making in our own. I don't want to wait 5 weeks to move in, even though I obviously need the time to move out of the old place.

So, exciting things. What else?

My daughter finished her first year of preschool and it really bummed about summer vacation.

My son is finishing up 4 months of eye patching and we will visit the opthalmologist in a few weeks to see if his bad eye got stronger.

Dance recitals, lacrosse tournaments, playdates, weekend trips to visit favorite family members, visits from other favorite family members

.

It's a busy, stressful, crazy time but very, very exciting.

That chill in the air

Image from Naper Design

Like practically everybody else in America and some parts of Canada, I love Fall. I love the cooler weather, the colorful leaves. I love football and pumpkin everything and holidays. But my favorite thing about the end of summer is the end of that feeling that you should be outside doing something. Outside enjoying the weather. Ignore the fact that 95 degrees and humid is not at all enjoyable, you should be at the pool. You should be at the beach.

No, in the fall and winter it is perfectly acceptable to spend the entire day at home, inside, reading a book; making the aforementioned pumpkin treats, napping. The reality is that with two small kids, I can't spend an entire day reading or napping but at least I don't feel so bad about not having them at the playground the whole time or worse, the pool.

We are prepping for Halloween around here. My daughter, 3.5, wants to be Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony and preparing her costume was no small feat. A purchased costume would not work because in

addition to be ugly the colors aren't right and worse, the cutie mark is wrong. Caroline would not stand for that. So I had to make one from the ground up.  I made blue leggings and a blue long sleeve shirt, and ears, and wings, and a cutie mark. My mom is making a rainbow mane and tail. I'll post pictures when she has it all on, she is really so excited.

I was uninspired on a costume for my little guy so he is going as a Raven's football player. He will be tackling those bowls of candy, for sure.

We are also trying to get our house ready to go on the market. It is a lot of work because it needs a lot of updates, carpets, lights, paint and I don't know how people do this when they have small children and a husband who watches football all day on Sunday's (part of our pre-marriage agreement. Don't worry, there is plenty of give and take in our marriage and he is happy to give me my time). To say nothing, of trying to keep the house clean when tornadoes live there.

What else?

Reading: We Are Water by Wally Lamb. I am a huge fan of his books and I just started this one, it will take me forever to get through but will no doubt be worth it.

Listening: A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy. I have ever read any of her stuff but the library had slim pickin's. It's OK so far.

Watching: Hot in Cleveland. Really, I'm just killing time until Downton Abbey is back. Must resist reading spoilers from England. Why in this age of Twitter, etc do they torture us by showing it in England first?

Sewing: A lovely wool skirt to be worn with tights and boots. I love you, Fall.

Eating: Zingerman's Chicken. Perfect for Fall. The bread. My God, the bread.

Working: 32 hours a week instead of 40 (sigh of relief). Back to work from a 2.5 week furlough during the government shutdown which was, I confess, glorious. (before you hate me, know that as a contractor, I did not get back pay for the time I wasn't working)

So that's life around here right now. We are loving fall and I am one of those people who actually really does love the holidays. Even more so this year since my parents moved to town.

I hope you are enjoying Autumn. Stay inside. Read a book.