Get a grip, people.

It's  getting to be that time of the year again.

Fall is coming and people are anticipating cooler weather, and for whatever reason it seems that people just have to equate that with one thing.

Pumpkin.

Pumpkin everything.

Pumpkin all the things.

Personally, I despise the stuff. I think that the taste and texture of pumpkin is nasty, and yes, I've tried to eat it numerous times, and no, I don't give a crap how YOU make it - I don't like it.

Pumpkins are good for 3 things: jack-o-lanterns, roasting the seeds after making said jack-o-lanterns, and then smashing the aforementioned pumpkin after Halloween is over. That's it. Nothing else.

But yet, there are people who worship the almighty pumpkin. As soon as there is a hint of fall weather (or even before), their eyes glaze over, drool runs down their chins, and all they can think about is adding pumpkin to everything edible and/or drinkable.

They act as though they can only get their beloved squash for a limited time each year - which for the most part is true - if they're going to wait for one to ripen on a vine in their garden. However, with the dozens of people I know who are afflicted with pumpkinitis every year, not a single one of them stands in their garden, guarding the plant, watering it, weeding it, talking to it, waiting patiently for it to ripen so that it can be harvested and cut open and gutted for its (supposedly) delicious flesh. Instead, they do what most people do.

They go to the store and they buy a can of it.

See that? I bought that can of pumpkin last year specifically to make a point. It's been sitting on the shelf in my pantry for close to a year so that on the off chance I decided that I wanted a pumpkin pie in June, I could make it.

Want a pumpkin roll in February? Well, by golly, whip that can of pumpkin off of the shelf and make it!

You want pumpkin cupcakes in May? Crack that can open.

Got a hankerin' for some pumpkin pancakes for a delicious brunch in December? Guess what? YOU CAN MAKE THEM ANY TIME YOU WANT THEM.

You don't know how to cook/bake, or you don't want to? I bet you can find another pumpkinitis victim who would gladly do it.

Oh, but then there are the people who think that their coffee needs to be laced with the crap too. Pumpkin spiced lattes and cappucinos and whatever - well guess what? Some of them DON'T EVEN CONTAIN PUMPKIN!!! They contain "pumpkin spice" which is usually a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice (all of which are available at any grocery store *GASP* year round). If you don't want to make your own "pumpkin spice" mixture - you can buy it already made and sprinkle it in your drinks until your little heart is content.

Now from what I understand, some of these places that sell these grossly overpriced fluffy coffee drinks are now adding 'real' pumpkin to them - but a quick google search brought up about eleventy bajillion recipes for drinks with pumpkin in them - so if I had the desire to ruin a perfectly good drink, I could do it myself for a lot less money. And you can too!

Of course it doesn't stop there. Corporations feed into the pumpkinitis epidemic by adding the crap (or some imitation of it) to everything that is prepackaged whether we want it or not - Oreos and M&Ms and peeps and salsa and candles and soap and pudding and bagels and marshmallows and air freshener and cookies and soda and toothpaste and ice cream and it just. keeps. going. on.

I even found an image for pumpkin spice flavored condoms - which I found are NOT a real product. But I wouldn't be surprised to see them on the shelf at the local drugstore any time now because people will somehow feel that they just can't live without them.

How long until we have pumpkin scented toilet paper?

Seriously people. You can buy pumpkin year round. If you love the food that much, make it whenever you want to make it. SEIZE THE FREAKING DAY and make a pumpkin pie in March if it will make you happy. If you love the candles so much and they're not available at your favorite candle store year round, then stock up on them in October when they are on the shelves. Burn them whenever you want to BECAUSE YOU CAN. All of this prepackaged food has the shelf life of Twinkies anyway, so if you love the Oreos that much, buy a case of them and stash them in the cupboard to enjoy year round.

Stop acting like you can only get the crap for 2.5 seconds out of the year.

Oh look - I still have over
15 months to use it.

It's an amazing life

This is my life tonight.

Roughly half a case of bananas, 4 loaf pans, and my oven.

By the time that I'm done, I should have about 14 loaves of banana bread made. And I won't eat a single one.

Instead, it's all going to the local homeless shelter. They put out an announcement today that they were inundated with a huge donation of bananas, and they couldn't possibly use them all before they went bad. They've tried to freeze them before in the hopes that they'd get used eventually, and that just didn't work - so they asked for help with them.

I like to bake, especially when I'm stressed. Problem solved.

What's funny though is that my stress is probably some of the best stress that a person can have.

How is that possible?

Easy.

My life is amazing right now.

I might bitch and moan about the amount of work that I have to do on the house - and trust me, there is so much work to be done - but it's my house, and I'm able to do most of the work myself.

I've been complaining about the kids a lot - and not without reason. Summer vacation is crazy insane at times, and the amount of togetherness is starting to grate on everyone's nerves. The fighting and bickering and laziness is at an all-time high, but at the same time - they are having fun most of the time. They have been working together to help clean the house and do their own laundry and help me do yardwork.... and there is absolutely no reason to complain about that.

I'm getting ready to take The Dude and the kids and do our cross-country jaunt to see friends and family. I was able to rent a 12-passenger van so that we can travel without sitting on top of each other or with the kids' knees up their noses or elbows in each other's sides, which will hopefully keep the road trip relatively bicker-free.....and considering that the last time we made the trip we came back without a transmission in my van, renting a vehicle seemed like a wise choice. We are going to hit some new stops along the way and do some really fun stuff, and we haven't even told the kids where all we're going yet because that's part of the fun.

Speaking of The Dude - he continues to put up with me and the kids and my neurotic tendencies, no matter what I throw at him. And if I throw too much, he calls me on it and throws it right back at me. He helps with the kids and the house as much as he can with his own responsibilities, and he continues to amaze me every day. Heck, we even have the chance to go on a real date - kid-free! - on Friday.

I see so many of my friends struggling right now. Seriously struggling. And it breaks my heart. I see marital problems, financial problems, issues with domestic violence, deaths of loved ones, kids using drugs - and I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have the life that I have right now.

But I also realize that it can be gone in a heartbeat. I refuse to take this life for granted. No matter how much I complain about petty crap, I know that it's petty and people have problems that are so much worse than mine.

So I will stay up all night to make different varieties of banana bread to take back to the homeless shelter tomorrow, because I know that someone there is having a much worse day than what I could ever imagine.

I'm not writing about this to get the attagirl's and the good job's that typically come when someone does something like this. I'm writing because I truly believe that we ALL have the power to make someone's day a little bit brighter. Maybe it's not by baking a bunch of banana bread. But we can all do something.

Donate your old clothes to charity. Buy something from that kid's fundraiser, even if it's overpriced garbage. Go to a local nursing home and visit with someone whose family has forgotten about them. Volunteer at your kid's next school function, even if you have to put up with those parents. Smile at someone you pass on the street.

Do something. I know you can.

Randomness

I dumped the pictures off of my phone tonight, so that's what you get. Random shots of the past couple of weeks or so.

Trip to the dentist.

Doesn't even bother him a bit.

Do you really need an explanation? 

Chocolate chocolate chip muffins - one of the kids' favorites
for breakfast.

Enjoying some froyo.

Compare their heights - does it really look like there's 3 years
between them?

Sunset tonight.

Waiting patiently for food.

Also waiting patiently.

1. Why I will never buy New Balance sneakers again, and
2. Why I splurged on a new pair of sneakers tonight.

So....we're supposedly getting something like 7-10" of snow tomorrow (according to just about everyone on facebook). I think we might get *some*, but I don't think it's going to be that much. And yes, I am well aware that I'm going to have to eat my words one of these days, but in 15 years in Kansas I don't think that I've seen one single winter storm live up to the hype before it hit. So for me, tomorrow is business as usual, although it will actually involve a trip to the grocery store - not for storm supplies, but because we are out of just about EVERYTHING that is necessary right now. And it's driving me insane.

Of course first, I have to meet a kid at the doctor's office for a potential toenail removal....

And I want to go through the boys' clothes to get rid of a ton of stuff.....

Wednesday night chaos....

Yep. Business as usual.

Cake baking, quilt making, building burning...

Over the past day or so, Alex has gotten to bake a cake. His Blue & Gold banquet for Scouts was tonight, and part of that banquet is a cake decorating contest. And although I have mixed emotions about him being in Scouts - the fact is that he's in right now, and he will continue to participate until a decision is made otherwise.

Anyway....the cakes were being judged in a number of categories, but we decided to go for the Most Patriotic and/or Most Colorful categories.

He helped with every step along the way....

Dumping the mix into the bowl.

Separating the eggs. Love this trick!

Mixing mixing mixing....

Adding food coloring to the batter.

The finished layers.

Stacking the layers.

Frosting!

More frosting!

Flags. And sprinkles.

Can never have too many sprinkles.

The finished product - from the outside.

And the inside.

We had hoped that the cake itself would be red, white, and blue - not pink, white, and light blue. But at the risk of having everyone oozing food coloring out of their pores, we opted to not add any more color to the batter. It still came out pretty nifty though - considering that it's been many many years since I've done one of these cakes.

If you're curious, I used a thing from Pampered Chef to do this - I think it's just called a checkerboard cake pan or something like that. I don't know if they still make it or not. It's not difficult, there's no magic involved - but it is a little bit of a pain in the butt, especially if you're in a bit of a hurry when you're doing it.

Anyway, he didn't win any of the prizes, but that's ok. We had a blast making it, and it tasted great.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In the midst of all of this, I was working on a sewing project or three. And while I got a lot of it done, it also further reinforced the fact that we have GOT to get out of this house and into some place bigger. I can't deal with having to combine my sewing space and my sleeping space - since I worked on my project until the wee hours of the morning, I ended up sleeping on the couch because...well, because I couldn't find my bed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This afternoon, I was outside changing the blinker light bulb in my van, and I heard sirens. I looked up and saw a cop go tearing past on the big street nearby. I didn't think too much about it. Then I heard and saw a second one. No big deal - they almost always travel in pairs. Then I heard a third one and when I looked up I realized that he had stopped and was blocking traffic on the bigger street. Curious, I put the light bulb down and walked to the end of my driveway and looked - and to my surprise the business three doors down and across the big street from me was on fire. As in - thick black smoke pouring out of the roof and the back of the business. 

Within moments every piece of emergency equipment was there and traffic was a standstill. People pulled into the parking lots of other businesses and got out to take pictures and to watch. Nice Neighbor had walked down there to give one of the employees a coat to wear (it was cold)(and that's why she is Nice Neighbor) and she said that there were only 2 employees inside at the time and they had both gotten out safely. The business had been remodeling, so I'm willing to bet that something electrical started the fire.

Alex came outside to watch the fire trucks for a little bit, but we were getting ready to leave for the banquet and it was cold - so I didn't let him stay out too long. But he still got a kick out of it, and we are thankful that no one was injured.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So now, after running around like a crazy person for the past few days, my feet and ankles are killing me. Alex went home with his father tonight so it's just me and Daniel - who is currently snoozing on the couch. But I promised Daniel that he could sleep in my bed tonight so I think I'm going to go uncover it and we're going to crawl into it. Tomorrow is another day - and I can take care of everything else then.

Good day

Today was a good day. It really was. It's been a while since I've had a truly good day, so this was a welcomed change.

I have taken so many pictures over the last 24 hours or so, so I'm going to let them tell most of the story. Because we all know that I like pictures.

Another moon shot from last night. Or maybe it's the same one that I
already posted. Either way, I still think it's really cool.

Sunrise this morning. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Stupid pole ruined my perfect shot of the sunrise and the cows.
I love cows. I hate poles.

I got the sunrise pictures on the way to
Emily's honor roll assembly. All A's again.
You can't see her full outfit, but today was
Dress Like A Nerd Day.

The sun was up higher when I left the school to come back home.
The sky was an amazing shade of blue.

Now don't lie - I know that the majority of you are reading this so that you can see what The Dude brought to me today. I won't keep you in suspense any longer, but I'll tell you the whole story now.

Today was his day off from work, so we had talked about hanging out today and maybe going out to lunch - alone, just the two of us, no kids. I was up way early this morning (hence the sunrise pictures) and spent all morning either running around or cleaning the house. I started to get a headache so I laid down on the couch and totally crashed.

I awoke to him coming in the front door. And he had this stuff in his hand. 

For no reason at all.

So we went out to lunch. We decided to try a new Italian place here in town (new to us, anyway) and we were not disappointed! The food was amazing, the service was great (might have had something to do with the fact that there was only one other table there), and we just had a great time stuffing ourselves silly.

I even tried fried calamari. And it wasn't nasty.

After that, we went to a used furniture store because he wanted to look for something - they didn't have exactly what he wanted, so we wandered around the store looking at other stuff (and they had some amazing vintage stuff that I really really like) and we stumbled upon a lamp. I've been talking about getting a lamp for my sewing area - since I do most of my sewing at night and the lighting in this house sucks, a floor lamp is a necessity. But we found this one, and it was really cheap, and so he bought it for me.

We went in looking for something for him, and I came out with a lamp. I think he got the short end of the stick on that one, but I love my lamp.

And I really kind of love him too. At least a little bit.

...and it's really bright.

It was such a beautiful day that I drove to pick the boys up with my
windows open. And I gained a friend in the process.

The boys and I walked over to the grocery store to get a few things.

Hard to snap a picture when he's using me
for balance.

Whose brilliant idea was it to walk to the grocery store and come home
with pumpkins? Thank goodness I took the reusable bags with us....

Notice the clash of the holidays there? 

I got moves like a ninja. Or something.

Someone was getting sleepy.

"Mom, can you carve it to look like THIS?"

The finished products. Yes, we only did the two this year.

Then it was time to whip up a triple batch of cookies, because I
volunteered to send in snacks for BOTH classes tomorrow.
I still can't decide if that was a good idea or not.

Oooohhhh.....spooky!

Another moon shot, but from tonight. Can you tell I'm having fun
with a camera that will actually take shots at night?

So now I am running back and forth from the computer to the kitchen while I work on making the cookies - but the good news is that I'm almost done with that project. Then I can figure out what seasonings I want to put on the pumpkin seeds and get those roasted up so that I have something semi-healthy to snack on for the next day or two.

And I need to sew. I have a bazaar coming up on Saturday and I'm not ready for it. And I need to rearrange the girls' bedroom. And do some laundry. And do the dishes.

Guess it's a good thing that I got that nap today!

Easter preparations

I had to pull some strings and bribe the Easter bunny, but he's coming here tonight instead of tomorrow night. The older 3 kids are leaving in the morning to go back to their father's house, so we colored eggs tonight so that they can have their baskets tomorrow.

Of course, they were banished to their bedrooms early because of a lovely stunt they pulled outside, but I allowed them to come out long enough to eat supper and color eggs - and then back off to bed they went.

I did have a moment of terror when I opened the one package of Easter egg dye and found this...apparently the little tablets somehow managed to get wet, even sealed in their little plastic bag. But, a quick google search later and after digging through the pantry for the food coloring, we were on our way again.

And then I got to spend the rest of my evening finishing up the "crack cupcakes" to take to a friend's house tomorrow for an Easter egg hunt/get together.

Of course, the Easter bunny just remembered a few minutes ago that the baskets still need to be brought inside and filled with goodies. Darn it.