Sharing Some Smiles

Naps

Lately, his book of choice is Curious George Rides a Bike.  We settle into the glider, snuggling and reading until my voice coaxes him into slumber.  Every once in a while, the backseat grows quiet, Abbey succumbing to a much-needed nap.  After our half marathon, but before picking up the kids, Ryan and I stole a brief, luxurious nap before noon.

 

Happy Grandma

After years of putting everyone else's needs before her own, my mom retired this September and had their kitchen cabinets and counters replaced, a project she's been talking about for a long time.  She deserves fourteen kitchens for the sacrifices she's made throughout the years, but this one makes her smile.

muffin recipe courtesy of Move Over Mary Poppins

visit for the recipe but stay for her amazing storytelling

Pumpkin

My mom's pumpkin bread kicks off my Christmas season, but until she begins baking, I seek out the flavor in other goodies-the pumpkin spice latte from Biggby Coffee or the above Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are my favorites this year.

 

Playing Outside, Before Gloves Become a Necessary Accessory

Equipped with Diet Pepsi, a Toy Story bottle of water, my ever present writer's notebook, a little leaf picked by small fingers "just for you, Mama", and a kleenex for slightly runny noses, we are soaking in the remaining outdoor weather that doesn't require wrestling Abbey and Dylan into snowsuits.

Photos courtesy of Pinterest

Click for source information

Fall Fashion

Dresses with tights and boots, jeans and cozy scarves, warm neutrals and pops of color.  I'm finding myself drawn to casual looks this fall, jeans with cute accessories (though I just can't get away from a good heel!)  With two little ones, and only one who enjoys shopping, I haven't made any of my fashion dreams a reality yet this fall.  There's still time, right?

This week at just.be.enough. we're talking about Five Things That Make Us Smile.

What made you smile this week?

Every MONDAY join us…
Write, post, link-up, share your story and your voice. Be part of carrying the weight of confidence, empowerment and share our mission
to empower, inspire, and remind women, parents and children
that the time has come to celebrate ourselves!

Next week’s prompt: The truth...

(Remember you can also write on a topic of your choice.)

Five Fall Favorites

Join us at Mama Insomnia and share your favorite parts of fall!

Fall in Michigan is a particularly lovely bridge between summer and winter.  The humidity relents but the sunshine remains.  Leaves change colors, blanketing the lawns and providing a perfect backdrop for pumpkins and the perfect shade of brown leather boots.

Following are my five fall favorites

(because I love alliteration)

Cider mills

Apples to pick, haystacks to climb, cider to drink, donuts to scarf, petting farms to furiously sanitize our hands after visiting, I love it all.  We've visited one of our favorite cider mills twice already this summer, to pick strawberries and raspberries, but it's just not the same as the cider mill in the fall.  If I could figure out a way to keep the cider-happy bees away, I might not leave for the entire month of September.  Or October.

Back-to-school shopping

Abbey actually needs supplies this year!  (insert hyperventilation here)

In order to harness my emotions about sending her to pre-school, I've made a list of my own.  I'm thinking a new writers' notebook and a giant pack of Flair pens, in all of the colors of the rainbow.  There's nothing like a notebook filled with empty pages and a fun new writing tool to make a former school-lover giddy with anticipation of endless possibilities.

Football Saturdays

Ryan is going to want to call my bluff on this one, mainly because of my habit (pre-children) of falling asleep during halftime and napping until the end of the game, but I adore the atmosphere of football Saturday.  Particularly when I am on a college campus, kicking back at a tailgate, and clapping along to the Michigan State fight song.  Even for non-sports lovers, college athletics are contagious in their enthusiasm.

Halloween

Pumpkins and costumes and candy, oh my!  In Michigan, even the trees get into the spirit of the holiday, trading their green leaves for gorgeous colors, their silky textures for a crunchiness that sounds so perfect that you ignore the little pieces of leaves trailed into the house in the treads of your shoes.

Fall Fashion

I love a sundress as much as the next girl, but there's something about a flattering sweater and a great pair of boots that makes me feel confident and put together.  Layering a dress with cozy tights helps me feel pretty when I'm chasing the kids around.  Jewel tones, broken-in denim, and no real need for a coat or jacket all mesh together to make fall the most drool-worthy fashion season for me.  I'm even hoping to find a way to break my ponytail habit over the next few months!

What's your favorite part of fall?  And if you don't have one, come visit for the weekend, and we'll do a fall extravagaza until you find something you love.  Maybe you can even figure out what to do about this hair of mine?

the day we picked raspberries

not surprisingly, that is an outfit of her choosing

surprisingly, she came home without a stain on it 

hanging out on the horse swing

made of tires

weird? cute? you decide

Gobble Gobble!

Being thankful is something I strive to do each day.  Like so many people, I can get caught up in thinking about what I don't have or what I want, both for myself and my family.  Yet, during quiet moments, when I actually reflect on my life, I marvel each time at how incredibly blessed and lucky I am.

I am surrounded by people I love and who love me back, even when I'm difficult to love.

Even in this economy, Ryan has a secure job that provides well for our family.

My husband makes me laugh every single day.  Even on the bad days.  And some of those laughs are the ones that I remember and appreciate the most.

My kids are perfect.

Sometimes they don't sleep and sometimes they don't listen and sometimes they take my patience and toss it back and forth like a fraying ball of yarn.

But, if I ever doubted there was a God out there, I don't anymore.

They are awe-inspiring little people, and I love them more each day, even when I think it's impossible to love them any more without literally bursting.

I'm not sure what I've done to deserve this life, but I am so grateful I'm living it.

I hope your "thankful things" are as special to you as mine are to me.

Happy Thanksgiving

xoxo

craft courtesy of our friends Michaelene and Jack

the feathers each have something for which Abbey is thankful

if you can't read her writing, that makes two of us

I know, though, that there's one for each of our family members, because she told me

and the yellow one kind of has a "w", because Jack wrote "world" on his!

Halloween - Take Four (an interlude)

Being patient is tough when you're two. 

It's tough when you're thirty-three as well, but trying to find more patience is something I struggle with daily.

I must have heard, "We're going to Grandma's now?" hopefully asked almost a hundred times before I finally packed up and went over to hang out with my parents a little early.  Even making cupcakes only distracted her for a few minutes, as did yogurt raisins (one of her favorite snacks.)

You can see the sunshine through the windows in these pictures, which is a little reminder that we were so lucky with our weather this year.  My cousins down south might mock us for needing jackets with our costumes, but I consider it a good year when it's dry and sunny!  Our fall has been lovely so far, and this week didn't disappoint at all.

More Fall Fun

After warming up at two cider mills, we decided to spend the afternoon at an orchard, picking apples, playing in a bunch of straw, and feeding all sorts of farm animals.  Abbey had an absolute blast, and I was half convinced that I was going to have to drag her out of there kicking and screaming.  I rallied as long as possible, but with Dylan in the Ergo and the diaper bag slung across my body, filled with our picked apples and a giant pack of wipes to combat the stickiness of the day, my poor back could only handle so much! 

loving the giant pumpkins

riding the train out to pick apples

apples on the ground

by the way, picking apples with Abbey involved some illicit bites here and there

ready to learn to drive

feeding a cow

llama? alpaca?  I'm not sure, but it was pretty cute

baby goats were a hit again

riding the "pony"

she actually switched ponies so that Dylan could ride one

I didn't even have to ask her to do it

climbing to the top of a giant haystack

(assisted by my friend - I like her to be adventurous, but it was pretty high!)

making her way through the straw maze

watching the band

she was pretty impressed that the horse and cow could sing, too

watching mechanized nursery rhymes

I couldn't decide if they were cute or a little weird

(just being honest!)

Mary had a little lamb

it looked like Mary was taking a nap instead of taking her lamb to school

Two Days, Two Cider Mills, Too Fun!

Fall in Michigan is a beautiful, magical time. Humidity goes south for the winter, sunshine stays around for a while longer, and the trees begin to change into their colorful finery before shedding their leaves to the ground in a crunchy blanket. 

Lots of things are just a little more fun in the fall, and I'm sure I'll post about more of them as the season meanders its way down the road to winter, but cider mills are one of my favorite fall experiences.

Fresh apple cider and piping hot cider donuts are unrivaled in their pure deliciousness.  The combination of the pure, sweet cider and the slightly crumbly cake donut is a little bliss for your tastebuds.  There are other apple-based goodies in abundance at the cider mills, but I generally stick with the cider and donuts, both for simplicity's sake and the sake of facing my scale the next morning!

I guess it would be possible to sit home and wait for someone to bring you some cider and donuts, but there's something about watching them press the apples into cider with the giant presses squeezing every smidge of juicy goodness from a seemingly unsqueezable fruit.  Then there are the other attractions, especially for kids - feeding ducks and conversing with farm animals and making friends with dogs and other kids and haystacks. 

Recently, we visited two cider mills in two days, one with our MOMS group (and my entourage of my mom, Aunt Carolyn, and Nan) and one with our Beland besties.  Nothing like welcoming fall in with some serious cider mill love.  We will be back and will visit others as well - Michigan's economy needs our support, right?

feeding ducks

throwing the bread

this year she didn't try to eat it herself

he looks so serious here!

he was quite displeased that I wasn't sharing my donut

Abbey and Aunt Carolyn on the bridge over the little stream 

yes! wearing boots means playing in puddles

she was wearing something else this morning

ten minutes before leaving, she pulled her Easter dress out of her closet

insisted on keeping on the yellow t-shirt

she wanted to visit the cider mill in style!

waiting patiently to bundle up the babies

watching the press

he's one of the few people whose hand she will always hold, without any prompting

keeping up my energy for our walk, ha ha ha

Abbey loved the black and white baby goat

trying to figure out his carrier

don't worry D; it took me a couple times, too

playing on the fall-decorated wagon

in the driver's seat

another furry friend

wooden fur, but still fur

Last Hurrah

As I sit down to write this post, it's cold in my house, and we're contemplating turning on our heat.  However, I found some pictures on my camera that tell another story - one that unfolded only last week.  Michigan, for all of its faults and shortcomings, has moments of pure beauty as well.  One of those times is the precipice between summer and fall, when the trees are beginning to show signs of magnificant fall colors but the air is still heavy with sunshine and humidity.  There may have been a few teases at true fall weather, with colder mornings and dampness in the evenings, but summer holds on tightly here for that final hurrah.

The kids and I took advantage of the last afternoons of summer by hitting the park as the sun started its downward arc towards sunset.  Though she couldn't be expected to understand the significance of  these last moments of summer, my girl seemed to sense the change in the air.  She investigated the changing leaves, exclaimed over the acorns littering the sidewalks, and attacked the slides and ladders at the park with reckless abandon.  Abbey is usually a tough sell when I am ready to leave for home, but the promise of making dinner for Daddy was enough to coax her away from these stolen moments of play.  As many parents of two-year-olds can attest, getting her to leave without a tantrum of any kind made these visits to the park just a little sweeter.

What a difference a week makes, though.  The air is brisk; we're taking inventory of fall clothes and jackets and tights.  Welcome to fall in Michigan.

so warm that Dylan's hanging out in just a onesie 

Abbey was supposed to be putting on her shoes

she's trying to figure out if there's any coffee left in that cup 

boy in onesie next to brown, fallen leaf 

a girl on a mission 

the leaves are changing

one of my favorite parts of the season 

that's some serious sliding  

checking out some dogs