The Color of Butternut Squash

Have you seen pictures of my house yet? I keep promising to post some and then never do. Here is a picture for your imagination. My house was built in the late 40's and has some very interesting colors in it. The most interesting and dated color can be found in the kitchen which coordinates coincidentally with the master bedroom. (You think the previous owner liked this color much?) Some might call it Pink. Some might call it Mauve. But as I prepared dinner tonight I realized that it is neither pink nor mauve. The color of my kitchen is the beautiful fleshy, pink color of Butternut Squash skin, which I think is an absolutely beautiful color, especially next to the bright orange color inside the squash. (That is the color of my back bathroom.)

As I peeled squash tonight for this recipe it accursed to me that the skin I was peeling off was an identical match to my counter tops. Although it is not my favorite color in bulk I can appreciate it a little better now. I sure do love the color of butternut squash, especially in the Fall.

By the way, the squash recipe was delicious. I kept thinking it would make a wonderful Thanks Giving Day side dish. You might even try making it with yams instead of squash.

Smiling Grey

Check it out! Isn't he handsome!?! Two months old and already smiling like a pro. He must know something about how great his life is . . . or is going to be. LOVE IT!

Grandma, this is for you.

Ups and Downs

The trees are down. The fence is up. The leaves are raked. And all just in time because today it snowed, and then it rained. The flurry of Fall work these past few weeks reminds me of this book:

Hurry Hurry Mary Dear by N.M. Bodecker

Only in this book poor Mary is alone in her endeavors, and I have a hard working husband to blame for most of what get's done around here. I feel like very few people around here believe in their own ability to get things done. They are always saying they have done something when what they really mean is they have hired someone to do it for them. When said people visit and see the work Matt has done taking down trees and putting up fences they are truly amazed that he did it himself. I think they also consider him a little bit crazy for working so hard. Time is money around here . . . or something like that. Maybe it's, "Why do it yourself when you can boost the economy by paying someone else to do it for you."

My only contribution this fall consists of 1 quart and 1 pint of apple sauce (almost all eaten) and a freshly raked lawn threes weeks in a row.

Driving At Night

The ladies here meet every week for volleyball at the church. I like (in all little letters) volleyball, but I don't love it. It reminds me of all those activities and tournaments you can probably read about in the journals of my youth. I'm sure I'm the only non-volleyball enthusiast who knows what it means to be "second hit," or who has a solid under-hand serve. Every time I see a ball fly toward me I hear Brother Moon's voice telling me to cushion the hit, slow it down, and stay in my half moon formation.

So I've been spending my "volleyball nights" doing other things, like shopping the JC Penny's sales. But Matt talked me into it this week, and as I drove to the church I realized why I don't like to drive at night. Like any other place, it's dark here, but unlike other places, there aren't very many street lights, even on major roads.

At one point I was on a section of road that had been recently repaved with only the middle line repainted. I watched the yellow line to make sure I was staying on the road. No big deal, right . . . until a couple of cars come your way and you have to stare right into their head lights because there is no where else to look to keep yourself on the road.

Oh Upstate New York. I don't know why you have to keep it so dark at night; perhaps so we can always see the beautiful stars.

Leftovers Night

I never thought I would say that I feel lucky to have had leftovers tonight, but I do. This day was a fun one. While Jill was in school I watched my friend's little boy and raked leaves. Then I picked up Jill and drove to meet Matt for lunch. The girls LOVED that.

Then we went to play with some friends for the afternoon. We got home around 4 and pulled out the leftovers. I happily started my dishwasher half full.

Happy Veteran's Day

The weather today was beautiful, and the girls and I had a plan, which we wrote on a scrap of paper with a crayon last night. Mostly it was my plan and the girls just signed their consent. Here was the plan:

Wake up!
Eat breakfast
Take bathes and get dressed for the day (very important because all my children were very dirty.)
Find the missing library book
Return books to the library and go the the grocery store
Eat lunch
Rake leaves
Quiet time
Make dinner
Eat dinner
Deliver dinner to a sick friend (planned service, not random)
Go to bed

Notice that waking up was probably the most important part of this plan. Because it was a holiday and none of us had to actually be anywhere (except Matt, who did not get a holiday) we had the potential for never waking up the entire day.

Other high points in the day include actually finding the missing library book, making it in and out of the store without losing any children, or fingers (I may or may not have made threats about fingers falling off if my children let go of the cart to touch unneeded items.), and raking most of the front yard and part of the back. At one point MaryEllen stood on the stump of a felled tree looking very Lorax like. She also won my heart when she offered end of season mums to Jill who was hiding under my big black leaf moving tarp as if the whole leaf raking project had thrown her into deep mourning.

Now it's late and I'm tired. The laundry is still in piles, but at least they are clean piles now instead of dirty ones.

The Thankful Tree

Today started out as a normal Monday with normal type goals. We are in charge of snacks for Jill's preschool class this week. Nothing fancy. We took animal crackers and fruit snacks. At home we started some laundry, watched a show, and talked about President Monson's Sunday morning conference talk with my visiting teachers. Then we picked up Jill, and had lunch.

And then I got an idea. I got a box for the garage, and while my children got into all kinds of mischief, I cut out a tree trunk and 6 limbs for our living room wall. Half way though my random project my friend called and asked if Jill and M could play with her daughter. Perfect. She picked them up, Grey fell asleep moments later, and Hannah and I spent some quality time together pushing leaves down the drive way. Then she took a nap too.

I had all afternoon to do very productive things, like laundry, or rake more leaves. Instead, I finished mounting a cardboard tree to the wall and cutting out beautiful construction paper leaves. I was so into leaf cutting that when Matt and the girls came home from work and play I hadn't even started dinner. We had something very random and then had a Family Home Evening lesson on being thankful and taped leaves to the tree that said what we were thankful for. We again had something very random for FHE treats, and then went to bed.

I'm thankful for a loving family that puts up with my randomness and plays along.