Five Things for Friday

1. Peter was in Virginia in the Washington D.C. area this week for a conference (not far from where we stayed when we were stranded there in January). He was looking forward to taking it easy for a few days, but he found out once he got there that it wasn't just a conference--there was also an actuarial exam that he had to take on the final day! Somehow he missed the memo on that! He ended up having to study thousands of pages of material in about three days for the exam that was yesterday morning. I don't know why but I found this situation really funny! He, meanwhile, did not. I don't know why! Ha ha.

2. I got our Christmas cards picked out, designed, and ordered last weekend, which is a record for the earliest in the season that I've ever gotten that done! Usually it takes me a long time to narrow it down to the cards I like the most from a few different websites, then I have to choose which pictures to use and design it, and the whole thing becomes daunting for my inner perfectionist and I tend to put it off. But this year it was a lot easier to do all of that, I think because I knew for sure what pictures I wanted to use and what type of card I wanted. And I got such a good deal for doing it early! 50% off(!!), plus a $10 off coupon, plus free shipping! Thank you Shutterfly!

3. Sam made me the sweetest little baby owl from a mini pinecone at preschool. It's precious! It means so much to me. It's wonderful to see that your children can be thoughtful and kind as they grow up, especially when you are the recipient of that thoughtful kindness every once in awhile. Things like this make me especially thankful to be a mother. 

And bonus owls! The boys went to an activity this week where they made a craft and it happened to be paper plate owls. This was my lucky week when it came to owls, thanks to my children!

4. Remember how I complained about my father's ridiculously high nutritional standards last week? Well there was a very interesting and relevant article in The Wall Street Journal this week about people who are overly preoccupied with eating healthy and who are being treated for it because it can become an obsessive-compulsive disorder or type of anorexia for them. I definitely think this might describe my dad. 

Click here if you want to read the article.

If you're in my family, you MUST read it! And let me know what you think!

5. It snowed for the first time this week. Yay. Boo. I don't like cold temperatures and snow that sticks before December, but I have little say in the matter.

We're supposed to get a few inches of snow tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I'm hoping to get some much-needed downtime at home this weekend. This week I was out of the house several times for 5-6 hour stretches at a time, and that is way too much time away for homebody me. It depletes my energy and makes me feel unbalanced. So here's to a happy weekend spent mostly in the comfort of home!

Amazing Bubbles!

One of Sam's favorite things to do in the mornings when we're outside waiting for his bus to come is to play with bubbles. I found some really good bubble wands at Target this summer that make lots of awesome bubbles easily without even blowing. You just wave the wand through the air and tons of bubbles come out of it. And they're big, strong bubbles too--they stick around for awhile and don't pop easily. Even better! 

Bubblemania!

On that beautiful foggy morning that I wrote about earlier, the ground was damp and not too cold or too warm, so the bubbles stuck to the ground instead of popping when they landed. They looked like little igloos. Sam and I were very entertained by this! 

He couldn't believe they weren't popping on their own! Neither could I! 

Bubble-busting time. So fun!

 I like how this picture captured a bubble in the foreground in front of Sam.

Another cool thing about these bubbles is that they were very iridescent and full of color, more than I've seen in other mostly clear bubbles.
{Our bubbles are better than your bubbles! Ha ha}

This is another reason why this was my favorite morning of the fall:
fun with my sweet boy and some really cool bubbles!

Foggy Fall Morning

One of my favorite types of weather is foggy fall mornings and cloudy fall days. We were treated to a few of those this fall, and there was one day in particular in which the fog uncharacteristically lasted all morning. I loved it! I love how mysterious and atmospheric the fog is, and how nicely it contrasts with the bright colors of fall.

Our summer-to-fall tree

My favorite backyard tree surrounded by all that wonderful foggy mist

 

Later that morning, I went to the apple orchard to treat myself to one of their delicious hot apple turnovers and a hot apple cider and to enjoy the lovely views of the orchard in the fog.

What a perfectly situated little bench!

 It was my favorite morning of the fall!

Fall in My Yard

In defiance of the overly early and particularly cruel onset of winter, I've decided to post about fall all this week. 

I was putting away laundry in Sam's room one day about a month ago and noticed how pretty the view was out of his window.

The above view outside "in the flesh," so to speak. 

The leaves start to fall as October progresses...

 Even the ivy that popped up on the house over the summer changed color.  

How very Ivy League of it. 

 This is our summer-to-fall tree. 

I like how it changes color slowly from the top down, easing its way slowly but surely into the new season.

 

 

Our festive front stoop fall display, nice and simple, mums and pumpkins.

Note that the mums are still alive! They lived all through October, fulfilling my goal of not having to replace them before Halloween. It's a new record for mums' longevity for me, yay!

And an orange-and-black Halloween wreath on the door completes the decor.

Fall is such a pretty season, but all too fleeting. I can't believe it's already over!

Fun with Foliage

As you may or may not know, most of the country is supposed to be hit by an unusual, unseasonable, very mean, no good, long-lasting cold front starting tonight/tomorrow, so today is our last nice fall day before the winter temperatures really start to bare their teeth. To fight back against that in a small (and ultimately insignificant) way, I'm posting some pictures that I took of a beautiful fall day in my backyard about a month ago, when the foliage was vibrant, the grass was soft and green, and the temperatures were nice and mild. 

Not "Leaves of Grass," as Walt Whitman would say, but definitely leaves AND grass, summer and fall. 

The falling and fallen leaves were big and plentiful and Sam gathered a nice big bouquet of them.

{I love how these pictures of my little man Sam turned out!} 

   

This tree in the backyard is one of my favorite things in the fall.

 

The tree provides a pretty view from inside the house too.

 

Fall is such a beautiful gift of nature! 

P.S. Ghost alert! 

I see what looks like a small headless ghost or apparition of some sort in this picture. 

Can you spot it?

I know it's probably just a play of light on the camera, but it's fun to speculate--you never know!