My Disappearing Act

I know, I know. I went and disappeared again. What is it about the fall that I always find it so overwhelming? I had coffee with a friend last week, and I think she finally helped me hit the nail on the head. It's something my mom and I have been saying for years, but now I'm beginning to think it's perfectly legitimate. It's not only that everything extra-curricular starts up again in September, or that there is still all the outdoor work to do -- never mind the disaster created by having the children home every day for ten weeks, and added in to that harvesting the garden before the first killer frost, it's that the season is changing. The days are already shorter. Despite all the work that needs to be done outside, less time is spent outside and more time inside because of autumn-y type things that need to be done. It's a type of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Let me clarify. I don't have SAD, I just do strongly feel the change of season from summer into fall for the multitude of reasons I listed above.

The Engineer and/or I are out six evenings a week with kids for kid things. Too much? Maybe, but there are still six children at home (so one night per kid ;oP), and we/they are involved in not only church things, but community things. I'm back at coaching volleyball at the younger girls' school, which I love, but to my great relief, another mom has stepped up to coach one of the teams while I coach the other. So now I am not running to the school at noon every. single. day. (Have I ever mentioned that the school is barely a five minute drive from home? Very thankful for that!)

Somewhere in there homework is completed, reviewed (sometimes), children are helped with homework, and instruments are practised.

During the day, I seem to get nothing done. It only seems like that because my house is a disaster. No really. It's a dirty mess! The continual running of so many of us creates constant messes as things are dropped where they are to move on to the next thing. I try every morning to do a run through and get things picked up, but I don't seem to accomplish ever getting the house clean. I am also really beginning to dislike having two dogs in the house. Although we love them both, they are a pain in the butt! The number of times I get interrupted in a day to have to let them in or out is in itself enough to put me over the edge sometimes. To top it off, Maverick is bad! He's healthy again, but he is a food thief. His whole doggy world revolves around finding and eating food be it surfed for on the counters,  ripped apart as in the garbage, and yes, *gasp!!* even eating his own or his fur brother's latest "log" in the backyard.

Then there is the vegetable garden. Although it didn't do as well as I hoped, partly due to weather, partly to its new location, and partly because some big black animal and his little fur buddy keep helping themselves to the beans and tomatoes, I still had lots to put up for the winter months, but only because I took advantage of roadside stands and great sales this summer/fall at the grocery stores. Although sorely lacking fruit of any kind, we're pretty much set for vegetables. I still have some squashes and pumpkins to freeze, as well as celery that is in the garden, but I think the end just might be in sight for the vegetable season. We just won't talk about the flower beds though. Every time I think I'm going to get at them, time is so short I only get a few perennials cut back, or it starts to rain. The forecast looks great for the next few days though, so hopefully I will find some time to get in them uninterrupted for a few hours.

Those shorter days are what's getting me! I'm pretty sure that when autumn hits, the days no longer have 24 hours in them. Okay, maybe it's because it's now still  dark at 7 am and I have a very hard time getting up in the dark. By 8:00 pm it's dark again and with the disappearance of the light, there goes all my energy.

The Engineer was out and about in the United States this past week, which also meant I was single momming it again. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I have a bad habit of going to bed way too late when he travels because I enjoy the peacefulness that occurs when everyone else is in bed. It's marvellous! I tend to work on projects more when he is gone. So last week, I got caught up on all the sessions for our clients. Now I just need to finish some of our own stuff. I did also finally get one room nice and clean and (re)decorated. It feels so good to have one room that you know is clean!

Photo taken on the way to string lessons one afternoon.

So yes, we are all well here. I'm just enjoying autumn as much as I can, and ever so slowly working on things on my mental list of things to do. Oh and I've been knitting. I knit when I have to sit and wait for children.

The Handsome Fur Brothers and Their New Bow Ties

I left my craft room in a relatively tidy state upon leaving last week and it was no worse for wear when we arrived home late Friday night. Because my mom loves to clean (Thank you, Mom!) I only really had to conquer Mt. Laundry yesterday. It was so nice! I gave in to the urge to create something. I had the fabric for awhile and knew when I bought it what I was going to make with it. After looking at a few tutorials on line, I found this one at, a lemon squeezy home and adapted it for the fur brothers.

Instead of felt, I used quilt batting for the lining. It worked beautifully. These went together in no time. If you look closely you can tell I still have a little thread trimming to do. (I have to find my little scissors first. Remember I said the craft room was relatively tidy?)

I wanted the dogs in the leaves before the trees are completely naked and the leaves are all blown away, so we trotted out at lunchtime today to get some pics. Food is always an easy bribe for these two.

And getting them to sit nice individually is easy.

Getting them to sit nicely and close together is an entirely different story altogether!

I think they're quite diggin' their bowties though! I'm looking forward to making them some Christmas ones next!

What are you making these days?

 

A New Family Member

You might recall we had a houseguest of the four footed kind late last winter. It was at that time I declared that our house was full enough. Then we saw this little fella. We decided we still had room for one more.

Meet Leo. He's a rescue dog. He's also Beans dream dog. She has always wanted a pug. Although Leo is a pug mix, she was determined he would be hers. We met him last night. She brought her money with. He came home with us last night. Slept in his crate without a peep and has been a mostly well mannered little guy since. He's only 11 months, so he has a few things to learn yet, but we've discovered he's a quick learner.

How does Maverick feel? He likes Leo. Leo is more energetic than he is, but that's okay because they balance each other out quite nicely. So far he's a perfect fit for our big and busy family.

Maverick and Otis

Before you think we've become dual dog owners, let me just say that Otis belongs to our neighbours -- or did anyways. We haven't seen him now for weeks, so something must have happened to him. He's adorable and oh-so-sweet. He loves Maverick and the kids, so one really nasty weekend weather-wise, when he stopped by to say hello and wouldn't stay home, we let him have a sleepover. We tried to take him back three times, but each time he ran back to our place and was waiting for us by the time we got back. He's a little stinker, that guy!

Time for some rough housing. As long as they keep it outside, I don't mind.

Please, can I come in too?

Maverick insists he still fits in the office chair.

See! I still fit!!

 Otis claimed the animal print pillow.

How does he sleep like that?!?

We actually had the opportunity to make him our own, but we just couldn't fathom two rather large dogs in the house along with seven children, so we said no. Now that we haven't seen him for weeks, I'm wishing we had said yes. I hope he's simply gone to a new and good home.

Photography Days 9-16

I'm getting behind in the posting so I thought I'd better do a batch post, or I'm only going to get worse.

Day 9: Something From a Distance

This is the "pond" that we skate on in the winter. It's actually just a large low lying area that does not drain very well. On Sunday, the pond was entirely dried up. We've had so much rain starting on Monday that were it to freeze again (please no!), we could do some more skating. I'm surprised no ducks or geese have showed up yet. See that orange thing in just to the left of the middle tree? That's the drain. Bub was hoping it would rain enough to cover it, but at the puddle's deepest, there was still about four inches showing.

Day 10: Whatever You Want

Our first spring flowers! I think I am going to order more of these for next spring. I'm not sure any more if these two are volunteers or whether they've just slowly been dying off from a purchase some years ago. I seem to recall that at one time there were yellow ones too, so I think I did plant them.

Day 11: Black and White

Can anyone guess what these are? We bought them years ago at an auction. Funny thing is we don't really ever drink (there's your hint), so I don't know why we bought them. They do make a fun statement on our porch though. I should peruse Pinterest and see if there is anything different that I can do with them... The snail, was placed there by Bright Eyes. She loves snail shells. In fact she had a whole handful of them a while back. I wonder what happened to them....

Day 12: Same Shot Different Light

My favorite spot to sit. Just a week ago, on the one evening that we actually had sunshine, the sun was falling on the chair and the fig tree then too. It was so lovely! It has already quit shining on this area in the evening as the sun continues to move toward the centre of the sky again, but on sunny mornings, it is THE place I love to sit!

Day 13: Photo Edit You Like

Last summer Squirt consistently and insistently wore her hair in a pony tail. It caused a lot of breakage because she spends so much time in the water and sunshine. It's now grown out to the point that with the humid weather (aka as lots of rain), it now forms a halo of curls around her head. I did some "dodging" in this photo to accentuate her halo of curls.

Day 14: Focusing on the Eyes

I did both Bella and Squirt for this one. I love how black Bella's eyes are. Now that they're often hidden by a pair of glasses (post coming soon), I wanted to be sure to capture them without glasses on her face. Squirt is still spectacle free, but she has the biggest brownest peepers. When I was fourteen, I babysat a family of brown-eyed blondes and always hoped that I would have one. We in fact, have two! I'm thrilled! :o) Having black-eyed children however, has been beyond my wildest dreams!

Day 15: Whatever You Want

I cheated on this one. This is from a puppy shoot I did on the eleventh. Seven golden retrievers. Super sweetness! Totally makes me want a friend for Maverick, but we experienced a two dog household a month or so back and somehow it just isn't for me.

Day 16: Experimenting with Light

Evening sunshine on the spruces and cedars. It's not as dramatic as I had hoped. I'll have to try again tonight if the sunshine decides to hang around.

Tonight is supposed to be a streetlight shot. Hmmm, I guess I'm going to have to go for a drive.

Photography Challenge Day 6 From a Low Angle

I thought I'd use my faithful model again for today's challenge, but he wasn't much up to cooperating with me today. In this photo he is being bad and sitting on the couch. He knows that's not allowed, but sometimes he likes to sneak a nap on it when he thinks he won't get caught. For this photo though I let him sit there because I want to catch him looking all regal, surveying his world.

I think he's looking pretty pleased with himself!

 

Photography Challenge Day 4 From a High Angle: Maverick

This guy loves food, so of course he'll look waaaaay up if he thinks a treat is involved.

"Pleeeese!!"

I stood on the dining room table to get him to look up at me like this. What a beggar!

 

Saturday at the Farm

Even though I was developing a big time cold/infection, we headed north on Saturday to spend time on the farm with Grandma and Grandpa. It was actually a mild spring day and the children and I all spent part of it outside enjoying the horses that board there and trying to find the rest of the kitties.

Wouldn't you love to have natural hair colour like her!? :o)

 This mare is expecting a foal sometime in the summer I think, as she's not looking very round yet.

 The only kitty we found! I can't remember if this is Tom or Betsy. He/she was enjoying the sunshine pouring in the barn window.

Later he/she came outside to check out what we were doing. He/she had absolutely no plans on coming around for a pat though.

Upon heading home, we made one quick pit stop. You may recall that in our last geocaching adventure that we found a travel bug. We were able to drop it off in a cache mere minutes away from the farm.

Now we get to watch where it travels to next.

I trust you all had a good weekend celebrating that Christ has indeed RISEN!!