Raise the song of harvest home

And I blinked and Thanksgiving is over.  On to Christmas!  

Gideon sent us mail.  It made Emmy's day to get a letter.  

My cousins and siblings started sending election day 'I Voted' selfies waaayyy to early in the morning.  We voted at a more seemly hour.  Yay for stickers!  Emmy wanted to know if they would pick me to be in charge.  hehe.  

Cecily made a 3-D version of the game Bob and Nathan are developing.  

I attempted to stop taking anti-nausea meds.  I was puking again in 48 hours.  *sigh* Oh well.  I will gladly continue taking them, much preferable to the alternative.  Also, how did I not know about them the first three times??  It's basically just a vitamin and an over-the-counter anti-histamine but it makes such a world of difference.  Maybe I was just too proud... or didn't think I was sick enough for the doc to let me take something.   This time was so horribly bad though.  And thanks to Shelly, I now know I could have a genetic blood clotting disorder and I do NOT want a blood clot and I do NOT want to give my self shots of blood thinner twice a day for months and so therefore I will call and BEG for meds so I am not stuck on the couch for 10+ weeks.  And I didn't even need to beg.  
Cecily did not get my procrastination gene- she brought home a paper turkey to disguise for thanksgiving and wanted to work on it right. now.  Emmy thought it sounded fun too; good thing we have a copier.  Cecily disguised her turkey as Rapunzel; Emmy turned hers into a girl.

Hewo, Bama.  Eh-cess, Em-ma, My, Fahm.  Translation: Hello Grandma, Cecily, Emmy, and I want to come to the farm. :)

Cecily's wish of wanting to play in the leaves was finally granted!  It wasn't too cold, or too wet so they had lots of fun.  Then I mowed them all and they were sad.  

Michelle hosted cousins night.  She made soup and we all brought an appetizer- so we had lots of good food.  The girls had lots of fun with Jack and Gideon and they even warmed up to playing with Clayton.

Cadence is fond of taking pictures on my phone, however, she mostly ends up using burst mode so I end up with 30+ blurry pictures of Clayton's face.  Ha.

I love Hobby Lobby.  They had a whole section of cute, small cross stitch projects like this one for $5 or less and I could hardly resist.  Even though I don't really have time to be doing cross stitch projects... and I really don't have anywhere to put this.  (It kind of matches the colors in Cadence's room so it's hanging out in there for now- unless someone really wants it.  I'd gladly pass it on to a good home!)

I went and had a nice chat with my eye doctor last week.  Eye doctors are just a strange breed.  Then the next day I was brave and took Emmy and Cadence with me to my OB appointment.  They behaved themselves fairly well, at least it was a fast appointment.  Then we got McDonald's for lunch, which they love.  
It snowed!  The girls were so excited so I got out all the snow clothes... woot.  The weather has not been conducive for leaf removal so there was a lovely carpet of leaves under the snow.  It made for a very dirty looking snowman.  

It wasn't a very cold snowy day; they probably would have stayed out until it got dark but I wanted to go in... 

Saturday was a busy day for me.  Dress rehearsal for Messiah was in the afternoon until 4:30 and then I got to hurry home and get ready and rush off to potluck in the evening.  We played some family feud after supper- Bob beat me.  It wasn't fair.  haha.  I may be more competitive than I thought.
Sunday was a big day.  There was a wedding at church, so there was lots of company which is always fun.  Cadence picked Sunday to be the whiniest, squirmiest, naughtiest she has been in church in a long time.  I was ready for a nap before lunch.  But, no rest for the weary, after church was the performance!  Messiah is just such a great piece of music and getting to sing with an orchestra is just so fun.  From my perspective, I thought the whole concert went fairly well; at least, I didn't make any super obvious mistakes.  :)    It makes me feel very... unworthy... on so many levels.  I'm really just an average singer- how do I get to sing for Phil?  With Jan (the best soprano I'd ever heard as a child...)? With professional musicians?  
I pretty much collapsed on the couch when I got home and didn't do anything the rest of the week.... 

We spent Thanksgiving in W-ton.  The girls were pretty excited to go to Grandma Kathy's church, they were even pretty good during the service.  We changed at the farm and then went to Paul and Jean's for lunch.  So much good food.  And pie. Yes, Cadence does just have a plate of whipped cream.  No sense wasting good pie.... unlike one of her sisters who only ate the whipped cream off of the top of her pie....

Yay Thanksgiving!

We spent the afternoon playing games and relaxing until supper.  Hooray for leftover turkey!  I seriously love turkey.  I may or may not have two whole birds in my freezer at the moment because it's so cheap at Thanksgiving.
Rub-a-dub-dub, three kids in a tub.

Mom wanted to try and get a picture with all of us and of all the grands since we were all together. It was a rather hilarious scene behind the cameras...

Michelle and I insisted on our tradition of singing thanksgiving hymns, which I love, and which we unabashedly imposed on everyone else.  Then we took our tired kids home to bed.
Friday was a pretty quiet day.  I did some online shopping, cleaned, and started putting up Christmas decorations. Nathan and Gideon came over after supper to work on their game.  Then Nathan discovered they had a flat tire, which he and Bob couldn't get off of the car so they couldn't put on the spare.  (In their defense, the shop had to grind something to get it off)  Gideon happily played and entertained me until after midnight... haha.  So much energy.  Nathan eventually took our van home and came back in the morning and took his car to good old T-town oil.  Cecily was glad because they got to play a game in the morning while the tire got fixed.  Then Susan came for lunch... busy day here.  
Blessings.    

Books

Way back in January I actually made a goal for the New Year to read 12 books in 2018.  I used to read all the time.  But once we had kids, well, there are rarely uninterrupted blocks of time in which to read.  Or I was completely sleep deprived and couldn’t focus on anything.  Or just plain mentally too exhausted to want to wrestle with a decent book in the evening; it’s much easier to crash on the couch and scroll through Facebook.    I’m also usually kind of picky about the books I want to read.  I want to read good books.  Books that are challenging, enriching, well written, that make me think, that improve my mind and encourage my heart.  I don’t want to read books that are poorly written drivel that will not stand the test of time, don’t spur me on to greater things, or encourage the building of fantasies about life and relationships (*cough* Christian romance).  Not that I don’t enjoy a bit of fluff now and then, but the books that stick with me are the ones that take a bit more effort, the books with truth woven deep within them whether they are explicitly “Christian” or not.  Anyway.  A philosopher I am not, and I’m not sure if I can really quantify what I consider to be a good, worthwhile book. 

Unlike my father, I do not have a list of every book that I have read since High School.  This is the first time I’ve attempted to keep track. So this is what I’ve read so far this year:

1.  Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely by Lysa Terkuerst

I don’t read a lot of non-fiction so I’m not sure why I picked this one up.  Probably because the title was intriguing.  Maybe because it also seemed applicable to this stage in life- it’s easy to feel excluded because of having to put kids’ needs and bedtimes before my own social wants.  Or, if we are invited somewhere, we still miss out on things sometimes due to family priorities.  I enjoyed it, but I can’t really remember anything that particularly stuck out… I have that problem with non-fiction books (and sometimes fiction too); if it doesn’t have a plot I don’t remember what I read.  I’m not sure what that says about me.  Ha. Overall, worth my time but not earthshattering or world changing. 

2.   The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck

3.   The Wedding Chapel by Rachel Hauck

Ha.  Sap and Drivel.  The first one was a free kindle download and the hint of the supernatural/miraculous in the description is the only reason I read it.  It was decent and I liked the multi generation story.  There was a preview of the next book at the end of the first, so of course I had to read that one too… it was also ok, but I didn’t like the story quite as well.  Overall, a cut above the typical Christian Romance I guess.  The writing was better than most.  Sort of.  I wouldn’t recommend you rush right out to read these…

4.  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Now we get to the good stuff.  I borrowed this from my dad.  It’s a classic work of Russian literature, so of course he would own it.  I’m not sure it was a good decision to read in the middle of winter- since it takes place in a Siberian gulag and he spends the whole day trying to get warm/stay warm in sub-zero weather.  It’s based on Solzhenitsyn’s own experiences in the gulag which makes it even more compelling.  I’m always amazed at the human capacity to survive, and came away hoping I never have to experience anything like it.  I was also struck by his description of “Baptists” in the gulag, because that would be me. 

5.   A Passover Haggadah: as commented on by Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor who has written several books based on his experience.  I read (and own) Night in middle school.   He began life as a very devout Jewish boy- the camps caused him to lose his faith in the goodness and mercy of God.  A Haggadah is basically the “script” or service that Jewish people use to conduct their Passover Seders, so the book itself wasn’t written by Wiesel, he just added commentary.  I really enjoyed reading it, not just for the Haggadah (which is fascinating) but for his memories and stories of Passover celebrations before the holocaust and how they have changed for him since then.   

6.   I Isaac, Take Thee Rebekah by Ravi Zacharias

Wow, I guess I read two non-fiction books this year!  I enjoy Ravi Zacharias.  This was an encouraging read, although, I can’t remember anything that particularly struck me.  He tells lots of stories, and he has a very conversational style so he can ramble a bit.  I also find his non-western upbringing gives him a unique world view.  You really can’t go wrong reading Ravi’s observations of life and love.    

7.  The Chalice and the Stirrup Cup by George Baber Atkisson

So this book was a little different.  A blogger that I follow who is a published author just happens to be neighbors with a 90-something year old gentleman who wrote a novel.  She helped him self-publish and promoted his book on her blog.  It sounded interesting, so I read it.  The story is based on events in his childhood growing up in rural Virginia during the depression, World War II, and beyond.  It was an interesting read, but overall it could have used a little more condensing- it was long!  It also had a liberal dose of the author’s personal philosophy and theology sprinkled throughout which I didn’t agree with.  So, the story itself was good, the rest of it was mediocre. 

8.  The Complete Fairy Tales by George MacDonald

Ah, George MacDonald.  You just can’t go wrong with him.  At some point this year I decided that I should try and read the books that I own and haven’t read, this was one of them.  ‘The Light Princess’ might be my favorite.  Or maybe ‘the Giant’s Heart.’   Some of the stories can get really long and preachy… but he was a Victorian minister so…. Good stuff.  

9.  The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

I’ve had this one on my shelf forever and I’ve started it at least once.  I really want to like Mark Twain but he can get so wordy and drag out a plot for way too long.  It’s a great story, but I honestly probably prefer the “Great Illustrated Classics” condensed version.  I got about 2/3 of the way through and the poor king’s attempts to get back to London were thwarted yet again and I was just ready for him to hurry up and finish the story already.

10. Mandie Mysteries  1-40 plus 2 holiday stories by Lois Gladys Leppard

Haha…. Ok, so my goal was 12 books and then I found books 1-16 of the Mandie mysteries on the Turkey Fest book sale.  I got these from the library in middle school- they were pretty good and they had a Christian basis.  Mom always thought they were super cheesy and annoying.  So I had to reread them, plus I found the rest of the series used online…. I read all of them.    They’re quick reads- maybe 1.5 hrs. each?  The stories themselves aren’t too bad.  They could however use a lot more editing. The pacing would go from chapters taking place over an hour of time to suddenly a chapter covered a whole day.  Or they would just ride their horses from one town to another and then to another place in one afternoon even though real life distance would make it impossible (they take place at real locations in NC). I also got tired of the repetitiveness of Mandie explaining her whole backstory in every book.  Some of the books cover her trip to Europe which was sort of interesting, but the mysteries in those were super contrived.  Also, sometimes she’d “solve” a mystery and I would not really be sure what the solution was, but Mandie said it was solved so I guess it was?  Anyway, they’re great for middle school girls and I now own all of them if anyone wants to take a trip down memory lane.

11. A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

12.  A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

I don’t know how I haven’t read these two books yet.  They’re pretty much read aloud classics; one is a Newbery Honor and the other is a Newbery award book.  They’re also hilarious.  I laughed out loud so many times. Light, quick reads, but also delightful good clean fun.    

13.  Just Open the Door by Jen Schmidt

Make that three non-fiction books- I’m on a roll!  I saw a review of this book online and bought a copy as soon as it was released.  It is all about hospitality and ways to be hospitable.  I loved it.  It was convicting, but it also had lots of practical ways to overcome barriers to hospitality (like introversion!).  I love books that aren’t just theory and have some actual examples of application.  Have I improved….. hm…. Not really.  Haha.  I’ve got all kinds of reasons and excuses- Bob works late, we often have family/church plans on the weekends, we have little kids who need regular bedtimes, we’re both introverts, etc, etc. My only consolation is that I have a blog, and that I have let more people see more intimate details of my life and times through my blog than I could probably ever manage to actually have over for supper.  But I’m trying to do better. And this was a great book.

14.  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This book.  Wow.  It’s a Pulitzer Prize winner and I had heard about it several different places, but when Andrew Peterson recommended it on Instagram, I decided to read it.  Of course, it was checked out from the library for months.  When I finally read it I could hardly put it down.  There are several story lines taking places before and during WWII in France and Germany.  I think what struck me the most is the humanity of every single character.  The good guys and the bad guys were all so completely human.  I’m sure you can find a more intelligent, eloquent review from someone else, but this is one of the best books I have ever read. 

15.  The Magic Garden by Gene Stratton-Porter

16.  Michael O'Halloran by Gene Stratton-Porter

So then I read a few more books that have been sitting on the shelf, just waiting to be read.  This was a complete shift of gears, ha.  I love her books, though they can get a bit wordy and preachy at times.  My two favorites of hers are still ‘The Harvester’ and ‘The Keeper of the Bees,’ though I enjoyed these two very much.  She was an Indiana native, an early environmentalist, a self-taught botanist/entomologist, an author, and a filmmaker in the early 1900’s.  She was not however, a feminist.  So her books are full of nature and the importance of traditional family roles all wrapped up in delightful stories.  Basically, nature and nature’s God (but mostly nature) can cure all social ills and we all need to spend more time out in the fields and the swamps and work hard and it will make us better husbands and wives and our children will grow up moral and of good character.  She also loves a good unlikely love story, so there’s that.  She can be very anti-suffrage, which surprises me because I see a lot of woman-as-the-keeper-of-morality philosophy; a precursor to modern feminism.  Anyway, these are great books, but I would suggest starting with ‘A Girl of the Limberlost’ or ‘Freckles’ if you’ve never read any Gene Stratton-Porter before.  

Also she lived really close to my Indiana cousins and I don’t know why I didn’t know that and why I haven’t been to her house/museum yet.      

17.  The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather

My first experience with Willa Cather was ‘My Antonia,’ in my opinion, a most depressing and unsatisfying book.  It’s one of my father’s favorites.  (I don’t understand!) I tried it again a few years ago, and yep, still depressing.  I’m sorry, the bright, vivacious heroine endures family tragedy, ends up an unwed mother, then marries a dull, plodding man and will spend the rest of her life barely eking out a living on the unforgiving Nebraska prairie.  Not my idea of a good time.    But everyone raves about Willa Cather’s books so I figured I should try another one and I just happened to have gotten ‘Song of the Lark’ for Christmas a few years ago.  Now this book was good!   The descriptions of the Colorado landscape make it worth the read.  And the story is so much better!  The main character is based on Cather’s own childhood and adolescent experience growing up out west, and then on a Swedish opera star’s adult life.  I did have to laugh a little when Thea expresses her disdain for Oratorio, Messiah in particular, since I’m singing it again this year.  I can’t fault her love for Wagnerian opera…. and, at one point Thea spends a summer at an Anasazi ruin, which I love.  Best part of all- this book has a happy ending!   

18.  The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

I grabbed this randomly off of my shelf when I needed something to read while waiting for an hour at the doctor’s office.  I haven’t read it for a while and it’s just as good as I remember it.  It’s a great story- you’ve got the orphaned heroine used to tropical warmth and luxury who ends up in Puritan New England, throw in a witch hunt, a little romance, and of course a happy ending.  It’s written for young adults so it’s not as intense as, say, the Crucible, but it does have similar themes which are always thought provoking. 

I think I’ve successfully met my goal for the year.  Now that we are in November and the holidays are looming- our neighbor has an inflatable snowman on their front porch with a ‘Days until Christmas’ countdown… it was 50 something…yikes, the chance that I will get to do a whole lot of reading are pretty slim.   I did put a bunch of books on my Christmas list though.  And I’m always open to suggestions.

Actually, I would be really interested to know if anyone has a ‘most influential book they’ve ever read’. Or a ‘book that completely changed their life’ (excluding the Bible since most of my blog readers have read it their whole lives). I don’t know if I have any one particular book.  I’ve been mulling it over though, maybe something will come to me.  Or maybe I just haven’t read it yet!

Oh, and my all-time favorite, I could read it over and over and over again book?  The Count of Monte Cristo.  I have three different copies, with three different levels of abridgment.    “Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that, until the day God deigns to reveal the future to man, the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and hope.”

Blessings, and happy reading.

The rest of October

They wanted to go outside one drizzly afternoon.  Emmy stayed mostly dry.

 Cadence did not.  :)

 She is fond of dressing up in all the dress up at once.  And she was giving "Bocca" a stroller ride.

 And then it snowed.  In the middle of October. Emmy was so excited: "It's almost Christmas!"  Not quite kiddo... 

 She helped herself to an apple one morning. My ah-pul.  

 We went to the farm one evening to celebrate Gideon's 2nd birthday.  I think he liked the school bus we gave him- "oh my!"  Hehe.  Cadence was a little jealous of his school bus and talked about it every time she saw it in my closet- "Didi-don shool. buh-sch."   

 So grocery pickup has been amazing the last two months.  Not having to wrestle two kids and a cart while feeling crummy is so nice.  However, the girls think they need suckers every time now...

 It was Red ribbon week at school and the dress up days were a little ridiculous this time.  I think Cecily only participated in 3 of the 7 days because they were just really weird/difficult.  She did do the future careers day- she went as a librarian with a cardigan and my old glasses frames sans lenses.  Cadence thought they were pretty cool too.

 When you're the middle child and you always get hand-me-downs while Cecily gets new clothes (so she thinks) and you're really jealous of her new (more tasteful) unicorn print nightgown and your mom feels sorry for you and this is the only unicorn pj's in your size... she buys you the gaudy sparkly unicorn nightgown and you LOVE it and the world is good again.  

 Cecily built a model of Redwall Abbey complete with table and chairs inside (after this picture was taken).  Because every seven year old is familiar with the Redwall books.  (#Bobsfault)

 But I don't want to go to bed yet!

 So we had a slightly busy week and ate McDonald's for lunch 3 times.... yikes, I'm a failure.  
The first time was because I had to do an early glucose test because my midwife is paranoid (it was normal, no surprise).
Then the next day we took Emmy to a Pediatric dentist because she has four cavities.  Poor kid.  However, the office was really cool (movies on the ceiling!) and she thought it was the best thing ever so she's going to be pretty let down when we go back to our boring regular dentist.  haha.  Also, I realize I should not be letting her drink pop right after getting four cavities confirmed, buuuut..... somehow those cavities materialized in the six months between her regular dental checkups and she's been drinking pop a lot longer than six months, so....  They're baby teeth anyway, right?     

 Our third McDonald's trip was because Cecily had the day off for conferences on Friday and she is always sad she doesn't get to eat McDonald's with us when she's at school.  So.  You can't say I never did anything fun for you, girls.
Cecily's doing just fine in school, although she is still obsessed with cats.  Her leaf is special because it's shaped like a cat.  Poor kid.  No luck on the perfect country house or land yet, so no cats yet, woe is her.

 When you say "don't jump in the crib" and they don't think you reeealllly mean it.  *sigh*  This does explain why Cadence ends up in some really funny sleeping positions.  Also, it's really easy to get replacement parts- so fear not, she won't be sleeping on this for long.

 We made it to one wiener roast this year, which is more than plenty for me.  The girls had a blast on Dave and June's new zipline and climbing the hill and the hay rack ride.  Cadence also got ketchup, baked beans, cocoa, and lemonade all over her coat.  Reason number something why I dislike wiener roasts, or just eating off of laps in general.
There once was an Indian maid, a shy little prairie maid.... she smeared muddy finger prints on her face and it looked like war paint, then she built me a "fire hot" with sticks.  

 I finally had enough energy/ motivation to thin the turnips a little bit and harvested a lot of greens.  I'm not sure if that will be enough... ha.  Actually, the first time we ate them this fall I didn't leave enough in the pan for Cecily to have seconds and there were tears.  Odd child.

 They have been begging to carve pumpkins for a while and we finally got some carving pumpkins.  Cecily helped clean hers out, Emmy didn't want to get dirty.

 Cecily drew a scary face and Emmy drew a happy face (right on the field spot, oh well).  

 They got these butterfly wings for Christmas last year and they wanted to use them for Halloween.  That was completely fine with me- it doesn't get much easier than that!  Cecily is a luna moth and Emmy is a tiger swallowtail.  They were glad to pose for pictures.

 Cadence refused to cooperate at all.  I convinced her to put her ladybug wings on by bribing her with a snack.

 We just walked up and down our road before supper- Cadence sat in the stroller and let the big girls bring her candy.  Then she wouldn't put it in her bag, she wanted it on the stroller tray where she could see it.

 She did get out to go to Marci's door because she loves Marci.  Unfortunately that picture was blurry.  She wouldn't stand still for a picture back at our house either.  My three silly little bugs.

This morning Cecily woke up and threw up a couple of times.  woot.  She was feeling better by lunch time though, so it was probably "just something she ate"... or too much Halloween.  
Blessings.

Flotsam and Jetsam

It's been quiet around here, which we love.  It's supposed to be fall now though it hasn't really felt like it.

They should probably spend more time outside while it's nice, but sometimes I'm just lazy and don't want to go out. Or I have things to get done inside... and they refuse to go outside with me.  

 There's always an audience for Cecily's piano lesson.  When they start to get too involved and loud they get to fry their brains on the tablet... so it's pretty much a win win for the younger two.

 Aunt Shelly went to Tanner's and brought us back cider doughnuts.  Cadence is very happy: favorite shirt and a doughnut, life is good.

 Pretty sure I can no longer be expected to go in my basement or do laundry ever again.  (Thankfully, I've only seen two of this nasty large variety this year... wolf spiders are so awful.) Also, it's vindication for not letting the girls leave blankets/ couch cushions on the floor downstairs- see what could be lurking underneath!??

 I have a goal of reading at least 12 books this year (I've surpassed it- more on that later...).  This one was finally available at the library and it was well worth the wait.  Such a good read.

 The older girls got to bounce on the inflatables after the walk-a-thon.  It took Emmy a little bit to warm up.

 Cecily didn't stop moving the whole time.

 Bob wanted to camp with the girls so we set the tent up that afternoon.  

 They were soooo excited, and if tents had walls they would have been bouncing off of them.

 We burned some of our firewood from our tree felling adventure last year.

 Hot dogs over the fire for supper...

 and S'mores later. Well sort of.  They take after me and don't really like warm marshmallows.  Basically they'd rather just eat chocolate.  Also, all we had were chocolate graham crackers and strawberry marshmallows (Emmy is fond of the pink ones.).  I thought it was a good combo.

 It was supposed to get down into the low 50's that night so we bundled them up for bed and took out extra bedding. Things went down hill at bedtime... first there was an incident with a flashlight that caused a bloody nose.  Then Cecily chickened out.  And Cadence refused to settle down.  So they ended up inside in their beds with me.  Emmy and Bob braved the cold and made it outside the whole night! 
The next day was garage sale day, which we didn't go to any... but the neighbor had this on their sale and I just couldn't pass it up.  I don't know where we'll put it yet... but.... it's so cute!

The big girls got to go play at Hanna and Eva's house for a few hours.  They had so much fun and didn't want to come home.

 It has been so warm... they want to wear their fall church dresses with the sweaters but it's not sweater weather.  Then we had a chilly Sunday so I said they could, but by the time church was over it was back up in the 80's and they were hot.  And before anyone calls them 'prairie dresses',  they're not.  Probably best described as 'modern vintage' or 'classic English.'  Because there's a difference.  Haha.  So far Emmy's the only one who looks like she stepped out of "the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" (also a great read), but hopefully when the other girls will agree to wear actual shoes they will too.    

 That evening we all met Jake and Rachel halfway in Galesburg for supper and birthdays.  Cecily was very touched by her birthday card... and looooved all of her presents.  

 When you turn 30, the presents aren't as exciting, unfortunately.  Jake got jerky from us.  Since I'm not exactly the best gift giver.

 Cadence kept busy during Emmy's story hour.  She found a spot for all of the reading buddies to sit.

 We picked up Griffin for a few hours after story hour, but he didn't get to stay long enough to see Cecily on her birthday.  
She requested a heart cake with chocolate cake and chocolate frosting; super easy, which I love. And my mom just happened to have heart cake pans.  I really didn't put a lot of effort into making it look nice, obviously, but she thought it was soooo pretty.

 How is she 7 already?

 Bob has been raving/hinting about a chocolate mousse cake someone brought to work, so I filled it with chocolate mousse.  It was delicious...

 So excited to open presents!

 She's pretty spoiled, even if she doesn't think so.

 Friday was a half day of school so we girls went to the farm for lunch.  It was wet, so no combining, but we got to meet baby Aurelia.  Cecily was the only one interested in holding her.  She's so tiny!  

 Cadence dressed herself that morning.  #notworththefight 

 So last year there was a pumpkin field next to Dad's corn field and we rescued a few that had grown into the corn one windy day.  Michelle saved the seeds and planted them so she grew a bunch of Libby's pumpkins this year and let me have one. It was big.

 And I ended up with 22 cups of puree.  Not sure what I will do with all of this since I'm not really a big pumpkin everything (or anything)fan.  I'll just be bringing pumpkin pie to every event in the next year. Seriously though, apple everything is just so much better.  

Blessings.