Pumpkin Patching

We had a great few days so today I decided to run errands after school was over. 

actual photograph of how we did school today, snuggled 
under heating blankets with half-eaten breakfast

The school day dragged on, Friday is always hard. It's still a school day but its almost the weekend. Mommy is tired. Everyone is tired. But here we are still showing up! We didn't start until 9 which is unusual for us but I needed a quiet morning to decompress.

And by decompress, I mean from my life choices, which I love. But I digress.

Anyway, I made the kids bagels and myself bean and rice tacos with guacamole. It was perfection, only broken up by a few tantrums because we are all still human. 

After school, everyone was excited to go out! We ran to Taproots first and bought lip balm and a few other necessities, like lotion. Every fall I buy new lotion and lip balm because it really only lasts a year and I only seem to need it in fall/winter, when the dry cold weather comes. Also, we always loose the lip balm by Christmas and I have to buy more. Good thing it's only a few dollars? Oh, and I always like to buy a different lotion scent. This time I bought a vanilla one and it smells awesome and will live by the front door for everyone to use. 

I would like to point out everyone gets their own lip balm, but we all share the same lotion. For some reason this is a very important clarification. 

Everyone was pretty well behaved at this point but I was already tired of getting my toddler in and out of the car. Why is this so hard? She's barely three feet but for some reason it's like wrangling a feral octopus every time I try to go into the store. And it's sometimes a fight to get her to hold my hand. And usually I open the door to find her shoes and socks off and...well, every mom has probably done that treasure hunt. It's just a lot, and I wanted to go home at this point but everyone was excited about our next location...which was Hobby Lobby. 

Hobby Lobby is where it all fell apart, which is perfect when you are learning about entropy in your homeschool, or about God's everlasting grace, but also hard because I'm Tired, Forty Years Old (in January) and So Over It. Anyway, my three year old is completely feral. She doesn't know how to behave in public and I'm trying to teach her but I think I'm a bad teacher, or something. Perhaps we don't go out enough. Anyway, we were at Hobby Lobby. The kids really wanted these alcohol markers for coloring and Hobby Lobby had the best price. They had good packs of markers for $12.99 each and I got one for each kid. 

Esther asked every three feet if she could have something, whining and crying when I said no, carrying things around when I asked her to put it down...I was about to lose my mind. I think when she acted up maybe I should have just left? But that would have been no fun for my big kids. Everyone picked out a new cute coloring book after the markers. Esther wanted to run here and there and touch everything and ask loud questions about passersbys "What's wrong with that lady? Why is she so short? I'm hungry! I want a TOY" In true feral passion.

She is the best main character in her own story and she definitely wants to be the main event in a lot of other peoples stories too...

At the check out there was an elderly lady with a little poodle dog and Esther and Becky were obsessed. They wanted to pet the dog then they wanted to pick up all the candy and ask if they could have that and I was trying to pay and leave and it was just chaos. I'm sure the poor teenage cashier will never want to have kids, if she was paying attention. She seemed to be doing her best to disassociate from her entire job experience the whole time I was there; but who am I to judge. Working retail isn't the most fun...I remember.

Our third event of the evening was to get Reuben a Halloween costume. We went to the mall to visit Spirit Halloween but couldn't find it anywhere. It turns out it was over near Liberty University and we were in the entirely wrong place, but I didn't find that out until after dinner. Anyway, we couldn't find it and thus Reuben did not get a costume, which is fine but he was disappointed. We will continue looking tomorrow. 

We did get pretzels, which was nice. I got one for each kid after looking up if they had eggs in them to find out if Becky could eat them. It said they did not have eggs in them, but it still gave her bloating issues and a stomachache so I"m not sure what is up... I mean, it's junk food...

silly Reuben

Our fourth and final adventure was to the ratchet pumpkin patch on the way home. We drive by this tent-and pumpkin selling market/fun house thing whenever we head to piano and the kids are always begging to go. Reuben did go once with daddy when he was two, but I just haven't made it out with Becky or Esther who want their turn. Not that Reuben remembers being there at two... anyway, today was the day. I promised we would make it this year before they closed after Halloween and I'm thrilled to say I kept my word.  

The kids had fun and I enjoyed getting a little bit of sunshine. This place was a little bit sketchy but seriously fun and everyone had a great time playing on all the blow up rides that looked like they should have been retired last year...and were literally, in some places, being held together with duct tape.

And at that point I was utterly done. I loaded up my overly aired children and took everyone home to watch a movie while I puttered around the house and continued to contemplate my existence. 

So, here we are. We all survived and life is beautiful. I've put myself to bed with a pack of free2b sunbutter cups (hey these things are delicious and made in a dedicated dairy free facility) and next I think I'll read a book. The last two books I tried to read bombed spectacularly. Lady Anna was horribly boring--seriously could have been shorter. Which is sad because I adore Trollope but I guess not everything is going to be five stars...I also tried The Pemberley Chronicles and it is the worst writing I have encountered in a long time. It's like watching characters move from above. There is no feeling or dialog in the book. I gave up after making myself read a few chapters. It's really awful. How does this book have so many good reviews? I could not stand it!

Obviously if you have any book recommendations, pass them on? I need a new read.

Alas, the chocolate is gone and I need to brush my teeth and do some cleaning rounds before I head to bed. Tomorrow is an unusually busy day...Reuben and I get to try something new!