September 2020

This morning I was cuddling Ollie on the sofa, scratching his back. I said "Do you like scratchies?"

(phrase borrowed from Adam & Kinley, by the way)

I could feel his head nod up and down on my shoulder.  A moment later he said "I yested my head." 

Ollie playing with a lego spinner on the drive.

Cora slept in Magic Curlers, and loved the result this morning

On Monday I got Ollie a seat on craigslist that Scott was able to mount on the Rad Runner.

Now I can pick up Cora from school with Ollie in tow as well.

Fun new children's book that we ordered, authored by my talented 2nd cousin, Kirsti Call.

Ollie likes to say "I'm in a bad moooood!"

Sometimes I cook.  Actually, I feel like most of my life consists of preparing and cleaning up food.

Here's proof of some cooking.

This is a porcupine that been hanging out by our house lately.  This is our 4th or 5th sighting.

A lovely early Fall evening.  Trees are getting a touch yellow.

The Beaver Pond is all but dried up.  We've had a level 2 drought this year.

Timmy was tromping around in the mud.  I had a really bad idea that he should wash his boots off in the pond.

Yeah, I admit.  Bad advice from your mother. 

Sunday breakfast at the Stapletons

While rummaging around for a cable, I found my trusty old walkman from high school/college

I replaced the batteries and cleaned out the corrosion, and it still works!

I even had "Mix Tape from Mel" in it.  Such 90's colors! hahaha

I enjoyed listening to the songs and being taken back to 1998.

Here is the playlist for your enjoyment. :)

The Beautiful South, Song for Whoever

Laura Pausini, La Solitudine

October Project, Now I Lay Me Down

Nanci Griffith, These Days in an Open Book

Dar Williams, The Christians and the Pagans

Everything But the Girl, Apron Strings 

Nanci Griffith, Late Night Grand Hotel

The Police, Don't Stand So Close to Me

Gin Blossoms, As Long as it Matters

Toad the Wet Sprocket, All I Want

John Denver, Rhymes and Reasons

Edie Brickell, Circle

David Wilcox, Language of the Heart

October Project, Deep as You Go

John Gorka, Silence

Dar Williams, February

Toad the Wet Sprocket, Good Intentions

Everything But the Girl, Love is Strange (remix)

Laura Pausini, Seamisai

Nanci Griffith, Love at the Five and Dime

Star Wars Fan Film

 When our canoe trip was cancelled in May due to Covid, I wanted to do something creative and unusual with the kids at home.  So we decided to make a movie.  The kids and I came up with a story, we all got costumes, and we spent an entire exhausting day filming.  I thought: cool, that was fun.

Then I went to the task of editing.  Oh Man!  This was like having a part-time job every night!  Sound, clips, and special effects are no joke, and we did a pretty poor job with it all.   It took about 3 months, but finally I decided that enough was enough and we needed to just finish it and ignore all of the imperfections, so here it is in all it's glory!! (I think you have to be using the desktop version of the site to see the videos)

Oh, and here are the bloopers:

Enjoy!

First day of School Pictures 2020

Cora - First Grade

Tim - 7th grade

Aaron - 6th grade

Aaron wanted to make his face show very clearly that he was sad his 

6 month summer vacation was over! :)

Ollie - PreK 3

Off he goes!!!  

My mother heart was pulled in two directions.

He loved pre-school and can't wait to go back!

 

cora-isms

 Cora-isms: 

"I'm instrasted in reading this book!"

"Mama - bremember to read me a story"

"Bremind me to get lamby"

"I'm escited!"

"I'm ready, a-sept, (except) I need to put on my mermaid sleeping bag"

"We goed to a baseball field.  Den I had ice cream, and I was escited! And den we goed and played and made a fort, and den they builded a base and we goed biking"

"Can we watch a show?????"  (every every day)

"deee end!"