Davey uses the potty

Now that Davey is almost 2 and a half I realized that it is high time he is potty trained and he really should be reading too. I decided to do it all at once. I will be writing a book. You can pre-order it soon. I think I will call it: "The Daycare Alternative." Because if your kids could read and use the bathroom all you would have to do is write a note in the morning before you leave and leave a recipe out for them to use for lunch and they could even get dinner started. I anticipate making a lot of money with this idea. I am looking for sponsor so let me know if you would like to get in on the ground level.

Quilts

I also worked on some quilts since the last time I posted anything. I made a quilt for Aaron on our anniversary in July. I wanted to help this quilt look all homey and whatever so I even staged clutter on BOTH night stands... I know, my attention to detail is amazing.

My favorite one is the quilt I did for my nephew in Louisiana. I though it was hilarious in a very tough sort of a way. I was hoping to get a picture of the quilt in Foster's room but my sister is "getting it to me right away"... Here it is on my bed.

Nothing says macho like cozy skulls and crossbones right? Now that canning is done I have big plans for my boys' quilts too. (can you say rocket ships?)

Happy Autumn

I love Autumn here... crisp breeze, sweaters, pumpkins, snow. Err, wait... Yup it is autumn. I guess that mother nature got all excited for Christmas and wanted to skip Halloween, and Thanksgiving like all of the stores do now too. Before you know it they'll do away with Columbus day too. (oh they already have? so much for my scale sized models of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria that I bought for next year)

Well, in the first week of October we woke up to a Winter Wonderland. One day it was in the low 80's and literally the next day this:

Funny how the first snow kept my boys outside and interested for almost 2 entire hours... Soon they will cry when there is snow in the forecast. I already am.

Yellowstone

Sometimes, other than can this summer, we would let some stuff spoil and went to Yellowstone. On this day there was some bison migration (say that 10 times fast). There had to be at least 100 of the (huge and scary) animals crossing the road. We just sat there very quietly and let them pass around our car. nice bison... that's a good boy... don't mind us ...

The Yellowstone Grand Canyon. Not as large as the real Grand Canyon but I guess that it is much colder here. The water is glacial runoff and apparently cold water is bright bluish green. Very pretty but also very cold. Davey wouldn't let the coat come off even for a picture.

William and Davey liked to watch the little pools and geysers. They got used to the sulfur smell but in the beginning William kept asking me if I had brushed my teeth. Ha!

The big blob behind Will's head is a bison. I was thinking of using this as a Christmas card from our family. I think it says "hey, we are active and do fun things with our kids." But then I realized something was missing... see if you can spot it..........
Eyelashes! I didn't wear makeup (no there was no horrible canning accident rendering me

eye-bald) and my blonde eyelashes are apparently invisible. So I guess we will go another year without christmas cards. I tried.

What I did last summer

What I did this summer? Certainly not blog. I canned. Well that and gardened. But mostly I just canned,

and canned,
and canned.

I am almost done. I have 2 more batches of tomatoes to do. I am at a loss though. If anyone has ideas please let me know. We have salsa, tomato sauce, tomato ketchup, tomato preserves (green, yellow and red), tomato soup, tomato juice, stewed tomatoes, and tomato paste. I was thinking maybe tomato compost with the last 40 pounds unless something better presents itself?

I have learned a lot about canning (especially that your children can be amazingly resourceful when left to their own devices). William and Davey played together really well. Will sort of took charge. He made sandwiches (bread, cheese, bread) for lunch one day when I kept putting it off... oops. He is only allowed to use a butter knife though so the cheese was more massacred than sliced. I was right in the kitchen with him and I had no idea that he was working on sandwiches... I won't be getting "mother of the year" this year.

We are all happy that it is done but more happy that we have a lot of (hopefully) good food. Now whenever William sees me cutting or freezing something he says :"Oh look we are going to have bananas (or whatever I am working on) ALL winter long."