It's definitely fall around here

I didn't realize that I didn't post last week. We had General Conference for church and it threw off my schedule, so I completely forgot to do it. We got to go to my parents' house on Sunday and watch and eat and play with them, so it was an enjoyable day. We spent last Saturday cleaning up the house and yard while we listened. I also made a halloween wreath for our door.

I'm not going to remember everything we did that week. It was too long ago. I took this picture, though, of the bookends I received from my friend Megan Taylor after arriving home from our California adventure. There was a note with them that said she was sorry we weren't able to experience Europe, but she hoped these would tide me over until I could. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness. I've also been surprised at how many of my friends have come up to me and expressed true sorrow over our not being able to go. It's made me feel very loved.

I also took a picture of Cecily dancing at the store when I went shopping for fall clothes for the girls. So I guess I did that, too. :)

Cecily got out the ViewMasters this week and was looking at them. I have to keep a close eye on her with those because she thinks it's fun to rip the two circles apart and pull the film off of them. She hasn't taken them out for a while, so I forgot that little detail until she was pulling the last film off one and announced, "I like pulling these off, okay Mom?"

I've been particularly enjoying some aspects of motherhood lately (like getting hugs and "thank yous" from my kids). Other aspects, like whining because of their entitledness, are getting on my nerves more than ever. At least it evens out.

Whenever Mira makes her bed, she takes a picture of it. I think she's proud of her styling abilities, so I let her and then delete 40 of the pictures and keep the one that's in focus. :)

This week was packed full of good busy-ness.

I was able to help my friend Julia on Monday, which I was glad of. She's taking care of her daughter who has a debilitating illness and she is not in the best of health herself, so she's been too tired to do much lately. But I was able to clean her bathroom and vacuum her windowsills and peel potatoes and carrots for her this week. I've had a lot of people tell me (at church) that I'm such a saint for going to help her each week. But I have such a testimony that helping others does more for you than it does for them. It uplifts my soul, makes me grateful for what I have -- physically and monetarily and cognitively, and gives my a chance to get outside of myself and my problems -- every week! Admittedly, there are weeks, where I'm busy and I wish I didn't have to carve out that time, but I'm always so glad that I do.

Also, last week on Friday evening, I had a neighbor call and say they weren't going to be able to use the seeded grapes they grew this year and would I be interested in taking them? Since my parents own a juicer, I thought, "Why not?" because I'm a glutton like that. It all ended up being a good experience in the end, but man, juicing those grapes was a lot of work. When I took them, I had an inkling that seeded grapes could be hard to work with, but it still seemed like more work than I imagined! There were about 35 lbs of grapes and all those seeds gummed up the juicer and I had to keep cleaning it out. Then I blended up the pulp and strain it to get more pulp separated from the seeds. Then I cooked it down, burning it to the bottom of the pan, but thankfully not ruining the whole batch. Then it took three days to bake it into fruit leather.

Thankfully, it all turned out good and my girls are even willing to eat it!

My parents also gave me plums off their tree and I made it into plum sauce and more fruit leather. It was so beautiful and yummy.

Since I was being all domestic, I also borrowed the dehydrator and dehydrated all of the parsley I grew. Parsley is prolific.

A cute friend I found while working on the parsley:

I took Cecily to the local pumpkin patch on Friday to award her for being so good all week while I worked on preserving stuff and helping friends. She loved being up high on the haybales and going down the slides.

Saturday, we took two of the Childress girls to Cornbelly's, the local overrated corn maze and fun stop. We had fun, but for the price and crowds, will probably not go back again ever.

And finally, I took some pictures of the family to put our names in for an opportunity to be in an advertisement. I don't think we got the parts, but I thought the pictures turned out well.