Oh shoot.

Did you think I forgot you? I didn't. This NaNoWriMo thing is exhausting. And I really must sew. I thought I had so long because Christmas isn't until December 25th, right? Well then I remembered that I not only have to MAIL THINGS but we're going on vacation and leaving before Christmas. Whoops! I'll get things done, it just means that I can't lollygag around (don't you love that word, lollygag?).

And how can I get things done around here when my family is doing silly things to distract me???


On the homeschooling front, we learned about Thanksgiving. Books were read, crafts done, and we all had fun. Here's Reese's Thankful Tree and her turkey:

And here's Eli's Thankful Tree and turkey.

Let's see. Nothing else fantastic enough to write about, and House is coming on any minute. So. I'll try to be back more regularly. :)

I've been busy sewing stuff. That is what I like to do. This fun pile of stuff is for my secret santa person on a cloth diapering message board. I know, I don't cloth diaper anyone anymore, but the people there are awesome, and we talk about much more than cloth diapering.

Here's some of the stuff laid out nicely. My person wished for placemats and cloth pad liners. My friend Denelle dyed the bamboo velour, which tops the pads. It's awesome. I included a travel kleenex holder because they are fun. And I also threw in some sewing goodies, like Diva tags. There's some tea in the package too. I'll be shipping early this week. Yay!!!

The kids and I went for a walk (well, we walk just about every day) the other day. Eli started doing this thing where he makes his hands into binoculars when you ask him to smile nice. I suppose it's better than seeing the back of his head all the time. That's the pool closest to our house. It's still open, but man, that water looks cold.

Let's see, what else has been going on? I've been sewing, mostly Christmas gifts. I'm also 10,000 words into my novel. That's right, I am 1/5 of the way through! Impressive, huh? And there's the usual homeschooling and hanging out with the family.

I am loving the "fall" weather here. Today it was 60 degrees and sunny. We're a good chunk into November and I'm not feeling the seasonal blahs like I have in the past. I miss my friends and family, but I do think this was a good move for us.

Well, time to think about dinner! I'm hoping I can talk Eric and the kids into eating chips and salsa or nachos or something. What do you like to have for dinner on weekends?

Are you scared by this mess? Me too. Gah. This is what I get for suggesting that instead of Mom writing down everything the kids think they want for Christmas, they cut pictures out and paste them on a piece of paper. I have to admit, it keeps them busy. But the mess...sigh.


Oh well. I'm busy in the kitchen. These are the last three pie pumpkins in Georgia. All right, I don't know that for sure. However, when I went to Marvin's Market, all the pumpkins are gone.

So these three are it, I think. I cut them in half, scooped the seeds, and baked for about 45 minutes. The last batch of pumpkin I baked I turned into pie filling. We used that for smoothies and pumpkin waffles and pumpkin muffins. Mmmmmmm.

I suppose we still have squash even if the pumpkins are done for the year. I bought a spaghetti squash the other day, and I have a butternut squash to use up as well.

Do you like squash? What do you do with it?

How about some Halloween pics? We had trick or treating on Saturday evening. Here's my favorite pumpkin:

Reese and Eli trying to figure out if someone was home at this place:

Reese is Little Red Riding Hood and Eli is a vampire. They picked their costumes out of a Joann's ad flyer, which I thought was kind of funny.

I think the kids had a good time. We went trick or treating with some friends in their neighborhood. Lots of candy was acquired and eaten last night, and then today during the game.

And what did we eat on this last day of Vegetarian Awareness Month? Risotto with mushrooms, red peppers, and sundried tomatoes. It was delicious. I know I talked a little bit about posting heavy on the food pics during the month of November as well for Vegan MoFo (Vegan Month of Food), but I think I need a break from food blogging. If I come across something extra yummy or something worth sharing (like vegan Thanksgiving), I'll definitely tell you all about it. I decided this because I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo...don't you love the cutesy nicknames???) which you can learn more about HERE

It's been a long time since I wrote anything that wasn't a blog entry or some crappy junky fanfiction (that I will NOT share, so don't ask...seriously, soooooooo embarassing). I haven't totally decided what I'm going to write, but my first line is going to be: There are no vampires in this story. That's funny, right? Or only funny to me? I don't know. We'll see what happens. The purpose of NaNoWriMo isn't to necessarily write something good, it's to write something. Believe you me, I can manage to write something. 50,000 words in November, yeah!!!!!

So in November I'll be writing like a crazy person, planning an awesome Vegan Thanksgiving (and perhaps rounding up local friends to share it?? Local friends? Vegan Thanksgiving? Sounds aweosmely fun, right????), and healing my knees from a failed attempt at Couch to 5K. And I'll leave that last thing for another blog.

Got some November goals to share?

Vegan Omelettes? Yes!

I think if you backed me into a corner and said you would torture kittens unless I told you my favorite cookbook, I'd have to pick Vegan Brunch. I love a freakton of vegan cookbooks, but there's just something magical about brunch foods. Of course when I went vegan, I chose to no longer eat my brunch staple, eggs. Color me thrilled when Vegan Brunch came out with a recipe for tofu omelettes. I think it's pretty much the best recipe ever invented. These delicious tofu omelettes were accompianied by banana flapjacks, also from Vegan Brunch. I meant to take a picture before I started eating, but man, I forgot and had half my food shoveled into my mouth before I remembered. Sorry about that..

And here's a random, fun picture of the kids. We went on a walk this morning to mail some stuff and to take pictures of trees for a homeschool project. This is what you get when you ask the children to smile nice:

After getting business taken care of, we headed to the Sand Playground. It rained this morning, so the sand was nice and packy. Great for sand castles!

I feel like I haven't been blogging my food nearly enough. Or my kids nearly enough. Or our adventures nearly enough. Part of the reason is that we're pretty much repeating recipes, and some of the places we've gone in the past few weeks we've been to before. The other part of the reason is that I'm dealing with a stressful time right now. I don't talk about it a lot here because I don't want it to be the focus of my life anymore, but for those of you who don't know, I was diagnosed and treated for rectal cancer last year. I have a blog about that if you're interested I'm Sorry for Cursing

Anyway, I had my first post treatment ct scan last week and am waiting for results, which I will get this Wednesday. Following in Single Dad Laughing's footsteps, I feel like I need to be real about this. So I've been preoccupied and not very creative, just trying to get through the days. Prognosis is very good, so of course I shouldn't be worried, but I am.

I didn't think this all would affect me as much as it has. I thought it would be no big deal, but it is.

I hope to be back to my posty self (complete with pictures of foooooooooooood and kids and life) soon. Maybe I'll try for blogging all our dinners in November, complete with a fabulous vegan Thanksgiving. That sounds like good times, doesn't it?

I'll leave you to Cry It Out, you jerk.

Insert sad face here. Sad, angry face, that is.

I can overlook a lot of parenting practices that I wouldn't choose for myself and my family. Really. It used to be that everything got me up in arms, but a while ago I decided I just can't get outraged by everything. One of the things I haven't been able to let go though is sleep training, controlled crying, Cry It Out, whatever you want to call it. It just makes me so freaking sad. Babies crying alone in a dark room? How can that NOT make someone sad???

Plenty of people defend this practice. Plenty of people feel it's important to train babies to self sooth, sleep alone, go to sleep at X time.

I just can't get past the fact (yes, FACT, people) that babies cry when they have a need. What else are they supposed to do? They can't talk. Oh wait, your baby is fed, has a clean diaper, and isn't hurt...so that's that? No more needs to be met? What about the need for human contact? What about the need to have mom (and dad too!) close? The need to be held and cuddled and protected?

See why this makes me so sad?

I guess people have their reasons for doing this, whether some family member or doctor suggested it, or maybe they just can't take the nightwaking anymore. I know the nighttime parenting is the hardest part of babyhood/toddlerhood for me. Being tired sucks. But hearing my babies cry when I'm RIGHT THERE and could pick them up if I wanted to sucks even more.

Sorry, this just isn't for me. And reading about it, hearing about it...ugh. It makes me want to go stick my head in a hole and yell La La La La until it goes away. I like pretending that this doesn't exist.

In the end, I can only do for my own family though. I wouldn't have even blogged about it except it's just making me SO FREAKING SAD that I've heard/read about this more than a few times this week. I so wanted to suggest that parents read Dr. Sears' Nighttime Parenting or The Baby Book or even The No Cry Sleep Solution by Pantley. That nightwaking and needing human interaction and parenting to sleep is NORMAL. I want to share that there are options, that your babies will eventually sleep.

Really. They will. And then mama can sleep too. No one said this whole parenting thing was going to be easy. Big hugs for tired mamas!!