In praise of Fall (aka a rambly updatey post)

(Steve and Edmund are napping, Harriet is out with the relatives, and I'm going to do something that I don't have to do.)

Fall makes me so happy, really and truly.  Summer is great because it's warm and relaxed, and spring is great because I hate winter, but fall?  It's this roasty-toasty blend of routine and sweaters and lattes and football and windy days and warm-right-through-you sunshine.  It's crunchy leaves scattered all over the ground, swirling and twirling like some kind of organic glitter.  It's snuggling up with kids in their pajamas and making cinnamon swirl pancakes in the morning because we don't care if we heat the house up right away.  It's COLOR and pumpkins and carrot cake cupcakes.  And it results in a smiling me, just because.  

Plus, fall means that I can wear my favorite outfits in the whole wide world.  

Who can resist the cozy comfort of cardigans, skinny jeans, and sneakers (or flats)?  I can't.  This is the time of year when my personal fashion taste flourishes...and I learn that successful self-portraits involve a tree branch and a large rock sort of wedged together.

Okay, enough about me and my seasonal euphoria.  I realized that it's been a while since I talked about the kids in any sort of practical Real Life way, so here we go.

Oh Harriet.  Where do I begin with Harriet?  She is something else.  I think we would call this era in Harriet's life the Terrible Twos, but it feels more like the Terrible Thirteens which has me quite scared for her hormonal pubescent state.  OR, maybe she's getting it all out of her system now and that loverly transition into teenage-hood will be a walk in the park.  Frankly, I'm just glad that she is our oldest child and that she came along when I was rather young and energetic and open to reading lots of things about how to deal with such strong personalities such as the one she possesses.  

She cracks us up with her vocabulary.  

Harriet: I fell off the couch and bumped my head.

Me: Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that!

Harriet: It's okay.  I forgive you.

She is such a wonderfully sweet sister to Edmund and genuinely wants to get along with him.  She is very consistent in "trading" toys with him when she wants whatever thing he has.  She manages everybody and everything and eats lots of cheese and hummus.  And milk.  And homemade popcicles.  And cauliflower pizza.  She basically wants to spend every moment of every day either watching Veggie Tales (she knows more song lyrics than I do) or playing with the Small Aunts (who she can name in age order).  Harriet can count to ten, match shapes and colors, find all of the circles in the house, and cut playdoh with a butterknife into teeny worms and chase me around with them.  

Harriet is not confined to the popular notion of being a Princess, Cowgirl, Artist, or Mommy.  Nope, she wants to excel at EVERYTHING.  I think that if you aren't able to spend a lot of time with Harriet, but you want to know what she is really like, you should read the Olivia books by Ian Falconer.  Because that is Harriet in literary pig form.

 Goodness, we love her and we pray that she will use her passionate, persistent self to glorify God.

Then there is Edmund.  Edmund is getting teeth in a big bad way and is so horribly pathetic that I can hardly bear it.  When Harriet was getting teeth, she was just angry at the world.  I was angry at her for being so out of this world unbearable, so there was a lot of general angst until the teeth popped through.  With Edmund?  He looks at me with these sad watery eyes and just moans.  It's so sad.  We spend a lot of time physically touching each other because that seems to help the tooth problem.

He isn't crawling yet, but he is dreadfully close.  He seems to have adopted this stealth crawl thing where he quietly slides around the floor on his belly very quickly.  He also used his stealth crawl to slide quickly off of the bed, which made his mother very upset.  

Edmund loves textured food.  While pureed stuff is okay, he would much rather chomp down on muffins, beans, or avocados.  Like Harriet, he is a tremendous fan of cauliflower pizza.  He has developed a bit of stranger anxiety, but continues to be a contented and easily pleased little guy.  His smiles kill.  I can't wait to see what they look like with some adorable teefies.  I can't believe that he is going to be eight months old next week.  Seriously?

(Okay, that was a wondrously refreshing forty-five minutes of silence and productivity.  Now the pile of dishes really doesn't look so treacherous.)

The Nebraska State Fair, etc

We're very glad that the Nebraska State Fair moved to a town that is only 1.5 hours away instead of 3 hours away.  Now we can actually attend and enjoy and take pictures to prove it.

(You can tease me all you want about how jacked up these photos are...but State Fair related pictures need a cheesy, vintage feel, don't you think?  It's right up there with chili cheese fries and funnel cakes.)

Margaret won a purple ribbon in the fashion show.  Woot!

Steve is loyal to the slightly sketchy Kabab House.

Harriet helped me eat my smoked turkey leg.  I hope she didn't share my indigestion, as well. :-P

What's the fair without giant livestock?

Or prize winning photos?  (Good job, Tim.)

Or a photo with the original Trigger?

Lydia's souvenir was a milk mustache.

And a ride with Eleanor on the swings.

Harriet and I went on the carousel.

And Steve, Jacob, Tim, and Margaret went on the Puke Machine.  (Yep, they are upside down on the right.)

The fair was hot and we got dirty and really super sunburned, but it was a loverly way to spend a Saturday.

In other news, I have been trying desperately to keep caught up with school, keep the kitchen clean and keep Harriet from killing herself.  Today was an exciting day as she refused to nap until after 3pm, dove off of the bed and split her lip open, and then threw Farmer Jed into the flushing toilet.  Wowsers!  She really is the best thing, though.  And now she's sleeping so I can finally. have. some. me. time.

Crazy Life Happenings [in bullet points]

• My grandad passed away last Friday at home.  It was a blessing that Levi and Clara were there when it happened.  And it was a blessing that it happened on a Friday so that relatives and friends could get here over the weekend for the service on Monday afternoon.  It was really a splendid service with military honors which reflected what he desired for a funeral.  I learned yesterday that Texas A&M at Commerce (where he was a professor for many years) flew their flag at half staff in memorial of him.  That's pretty special.
• Grief is such a weird thing.  I still haven't felt the need to have a huge deluge of tears.  It's just more of a "bleh" feeling.  I mean, it was so hard to see Grandad suffer at the end (although God was gracious in allowing him to be made comfortable by the morphine) and he was so unlike his usual jovial self that I am relieved that he is no longer dealing with that.  However, it's the memories of him as he was two, three, or fifteen years ago that makes me feel sad.  
• A very good thing is getting to spend time with the crazy Texas relatives: looking at photo albums, swapping stories, and just laughing like crazy.

• And another very good thing was spending time with the wonderful, fantastic D girls this week.  I just can't get enough of their fellowship (sadly, I don't have any pictures on my camera) and it was a blessing to host them in the middle of a crazy week.  They graciously postponed their arrival by twenty-four hours and then survived the chaos of family happenings.  Maybe we'll have a visit when things aren't so hectic.  But I doubt it.
• Part of the hectic-ness occurred when I waltzed downstairs to let the Cretans dogs out of their kennels for an afternoon outing and discovered that there was 1/2" of standing water in one half of my basement.  [insert much moaning, groaning, and general freaking out]  Thankfully, the water was only on the unfinished side and everything that was on the ground was in plastic storage totes so we didn't lose anything.  And I was so grateful that Jenny was the dog wrangler, Tim and Julia hauled out tons of soggy boxes, and Levi pretended to be stomping grapes on the water saturated blankets that were in the dog kennels.  What caused the momentary disaster?  The air conditioning was clogged up with dog hair and was not draining properly.  My dear father came over with his air compressor and performed a very inexpensive fix.  Now we're all dry!
• Baby Jemima is a darling.  She has the most massive baby legs I have ever seen. I hope our next baby is this deliciously chubby.

• Can my life settle down for a few minutes, now?