The reason for girls' nights...

The following are some conversations here that happened over the past 24 hours.

Conversation #1 "Who's on First?"

Finn: walks into kitchen announcing "Grandma is your MOMMY!"

Me: "EXACTLY!" (yay, he finally gets it!)

Finn: "But I thought you said she was my grandma"

Me: "she is, and she is my mommy, too"

Finn: "so whose kid is Grandpa's?"

Me: (sigh) this is getting old

Loch: yells from the other room "we are all a family, it doesn't matter whose kids is whose!" (me thinking wha? are we in West Virginia now?)

Finn: "If you are grandma's kid, why don't you live there?"

Me: "CUZ SHE KICKED US ALL OUT, NOW STOP TALKING!"

Conversation #2 "Why Ask Why?"

Me: (it's 10 am and they are playing Legos still in their jammies) "you boys go get dressed and brush your teeth now"

Finn: "WHY?"

Me: "Because I said so."

Loch: "Are we going somewhere?"

Me: "No."

Loch: "then howcome?"

Me: "because it's 10 am and you look lazy like that, now get dressed and ready"

Finn: "what are we getting ready for?"

Me: "ready for ANYTHING, now just go do it!"

Loch: "well, what might happen if we weren't ready?"

Me: "what if your uncle called and said 'hey, I'm in town come and get me' and we couldn't do it just because you weren't dressed yet?"

Loch: "I don't think so, isn't he over doing a war or something?"

Me: "YOU NEVER KNOW! THAT"S MY POINT!!!"

aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

So there ya go, this was only a 24 hour snippet! That's why we need more girls' nights! And lots more wine, one bottle is clearly not enough when dealing with these children LOL! Last night was very appreciated, even if we didn't get too much knitting done. I got about 10 rows done and watched L cast on and knit the same row about 10 times, but whatever, it was nice!

Other funny (to me) observations last night: we got home about 10 pm, which is a late night for the kids so I told them to go straight to their rooms and put warm jammies on because I'm NOT turning on the heat yet. I go in there to check on them and see Finn like this:

Is he putting jammies on or getting ready for the Iditarod?!

To put things in perspective, it's only getting down to the 50's at night and still mid-upper 60's during the day and the house temp is 66º, this is my one month so shut down that heatpump and save some $$!

Left one of my knitting needles at L's house, ooops! That was just insurance that we have to go back soon and do it again. No gardening today, the wind is gusting about 45 mph out there so I am tackling the sewing machine today and the kids' Halloween costumes. Of course here I am procrastinating by blogging:)

Back into the garden!

I did it! Like Brett Favre, I finally got motivated to get back out there for another season! I'm not going to sugarcoat things, it had gotten pretty bad... (again like Favre? LOL)

So who knows what this is that has infiltrated my border beds?

A closer look?

You got it - those damn COSMOS! I HATE THEM! I planted them once, 3 years ago, ugh....thank goodness for my stirrup "ho"! They are even all over the lawn.

I have a lot to do out there, but I think I got most of the past due things accomplished before the rain started yet again today. The storm last week knocked over my 12 ft tall Maximillian Sunflowers before they even started to bloom, so I tied them back up. They were uprooted too but I think the rain will smush them back into the ground tonight, I give them a good stomp tomorrow when it's still wet out. They're perennial, so worst case I just chop them off and we'll see them again next year. They opened today, and will stay blooming almost til Dec, nice!

Above is the perennial Maximillian Sunflower (some people regard it as a weed!)

Below, these are the Montauk Daisies, they opened last week and will bloom until about Thanksgiving.

The good ol' dependable mums now in full bloom

Mums & Rosemary

Sorry all these photos are pretty bad but its been raining and overcast for days. I was able to get the broccoli & cauliflower trimmed of badly eaten leaves, planted my leek seedlings that had been forgotten in flats outside, and the cosmos pulled out of the empty beds where the garlic, shallots & onions will go. My peas are about 8 inches high now. Trimmed the zinnias in the pea bed, I can't bear to pull them yet since there are still some buds on them. I am finally seeing spinach and lettuce after a long hot summer with no greens! I will go out there later this weekend after the rain and do a second sowing of greens and leeks.

Current state of the garden from atop the kids' fort

In other news, this week was "eat school lunch with your munchkin" week. Since I have 2 kids I had to go twice. Monday was Finn and I wimped out and had the chef salad which was really quite good, but a bit spendy - I think this is really a big fundraiser since adults pay twice what the kids pay for the same lunch! Wednesday was Loch's day and I chose to eat the actual "meal". Choice between Pizza Hut pizza (yuck) or Boca Burger. I happily chose the Boca since I love those, we eat them at home all the time.

But wait... check out my banana!

Blech!

Wow, I finished up outside just in time - it's really dark outside and raining and the wind is blowing about 25 knots.

Tonight I am headed to BFF's house for some knitting and wine - her 2 boys and mine are the same ages and are like cousins so they do pretty well with little intervention from us, so it can actually be relaxing. Yay for adult conversation! It's pretty hard to come by these days...

The wine selection for tonight says it all!!

my crack pipe is broken!

Oh yes, it's THAT serious! Some of you are familiar with my addiction. Well, my world stopped turning about 4 days ago when my espresso machine developed a serious leak that was preventing the water from entering the basket... i.e. NO ESPRESSO! I cannot afford to replace this machine! I have been drinking iced coffee the past few days and let me tell you, it's not the same - not even close. I am the whack job that drinks espresso pretty much 24/7. I think nothing of drinking a double shot latte at 11 pm. I decided to do what any self-respecting mama with limited funds would do: I fixed it myself! If you are really bored, you can visit this awesome tech post on the Breville! Yeah, I didn't think you were that bored LOL.

Household Emergency

I really don't know exactly what I did, but it involved tightening screws, shining flashlights, a wire brush and lots of vinegar.

The big moment!

Yay! Back in business!

For any of you considering an espresso machine purchase (the kind of machine that makes real espresso), I actually highly recommend this one. The Breville isn't cheap (several hundred), BUT - it's not digital, which means it can be fixed, customer service is awesome, and it's been pretty much unstoppable - I've had it 5 years already. I have had one problem a couple of years ago with the power cord, and Breville not only replaced the entire machine with a new one, it was delivered the same day UPS showed up to collect the old one. And I am NOT gentle on this thing, I pull about 12-15 shots a day and it is on for at least 14 hours a day. So there's my plug!

In other exciting news, I was able to go thrift store bargain hunting without my kids for the first time, and it was pretty lucrative today. Get ready for this: I got Patagonia and Columbia fleece jackets for the kids, the 89.00 Mountain Hard Wear fleece jacket I was coveting last year, and Banana Republic and Icelandic wool sweaters with original tags still on for hubby for a grand total altogether of $13.50!

I hit it on just the right day, winter clothing was 50% off plus my military discount = Sweet Bargain! I have been stressing all the winter clothing we need for our upcoming winter vacation but this has made things much easier. I think it helps that we are in VA, there's lots of winter things that have pretty much never been used! Now if I could just find tires for the Outback for 75% off LOL, those are seriously needed before we go too!

and oh, look at the time - I guess I forgot the garden again today!

Weekend photo update!

I admit it, I still haven't gone out to the garden to do chores! I had everything weeded, ripped out, replanted and looking pretty good - then I got sick and the caterpillars took over the broccoli and cauliflower beds, followed by a week of 10 inches of rain which just destroyed my lettuce seedlings and made a mess of everything! I kept meaning to go out and start over again, but haven't had the motivation. Too many things happening last week not leaving me the long block of time I need for a do-over.

This past weekend I decided yet again to shirk my garden duties and took the kids out to enjoy the nice weather:

Saturday we got our pumpkins...

and made our way through the maze...

and finished off with fresh strawberry ice cream!

Sunday was unbelievably warm, temps in the 80's, so we spent most of the day outside, kids riding their bikes and me knitting in the driveway watching them!

I let Loch practice his violin outside and he got the first glimpse of how "the nerdy kids win out in the end" LOL.... some girls were hanging around him saying "wow", "you know how to play that?" and "cool!" A nice confidence booster for him, I noticed the bully down the street didn't have his own groupies that day!

Not to be outdone, Finn asked the girls if they would like to hear him play the piano!

His selections were "Old MacDonald" and "Jolly ol' Saint Nicholas" LOL

The kids have been begging me to get down the Halloween decorations for 2 weeks now so I went over the proper protocol for what to do if they hear a "thud" followed by mommy's legs sticking through the ceiling and braved the attic!

Success! (This is usually DADDY's responsibility!)

We spent the rest of the afternoon making a scarecrow guy and assorted spooky stuff

The nighttime shot!

Today I was sidetracked by having to go to the post office to mail a care package to hubby (which was closed, duh) and then it was "school lunch with your child" day - so basically I'm not out in the garden today, either!

I have every intention of going back to the post office early tomorrow and getting back in time to spend 3 good hours doing garden chores tomorrow.

Do any of you get overwhelmed in the fall or is it just me? Even though the temps are perfect for doing chores, I am preoccupied with the holidays, deployment stuff, kids and their school-stuff, wanting to get back into knitting and learning to sew, etc, etc, etc!