So Long Ordinary

Oh, what a week. Do I say that every Friday? It sure feels like I do. Even if it is redundant, I mean it with every fiber of my being each time I say it... WHAT A WEEK! Sicknesses. We've been a little sick around here again this week - Paige and Maddie are looking rather pathetic with runny noses. However, they've had no fevers and they act fairly normal...as long as they can breathe. Brooklyn had a bad day yesterday with a high fever and very bad ear infection. She'd had an ear infection a couple of weeks back but it seemed to get better. The doc had written us a prescription for antibiotics and pain reliever if we needed it but she also encouraged us to wait a while before starting antibiotics as at least 80% of ear infections are viral anyway. (The new research on ear infections is kind of interesting. Ask me anything about it. I've researched it a lot lately...specifically at around 1 a.m. when my little girl wakes me up crying about her ear!) Anyway, we w

Mom gave me a huge batch of apples yesterday. Rather than make applesauce the old-fashioned way, I found a recipe and modified it a bit to make Roasted Applesauce. Oh. my. goodness. This is just too good not to share.... Roasted Applesauce Apples (about 3 pounds) Vegetable or Canola Oil (about 1 Tb.) Maple syrup (at least 1/4 cup) Dash of cinnamon (or cardamon, nutmeg, ginger - whatever sounds good to you) Peel and chop the apples and then mix with the other ingredients. I used way more maple syrup than the recipe called for - mostly because our maple syrup is homemade (with maple flavoring) and a little runnier and not so strongly flavored. If you had pure maple syrup, I'm sure 1/4 cup is plenty! The oil is just to keep the apples from sticking, so you don't need very much of that at all. I used 6 very large apples - you can use as many or as little apples as you have on hand. You can easily adjust the rest of the ingredients for more or less apples and according to you

Sean, Paige, and Duke in the mountains on a lovely September day. Even a quick trip to the mountains can be so rewarding -rest, relaxation, fresh mountain air, a chance to let the dog and the kids run, and a really great photo of my hubby with his Baby Girl and The Duke. I love it.

I'm just now getting around to posting about Brooklyn's first soccer game last Saturday. Thanks to the Ribaldo, the little Guatemalan boy on our team, we won! It was your typical 6 year old soccer game with a huddle of confused kids kicking anything but the ball and usually in the wrong direction! Well, everyone but our secret weapon, Ribaldo! At the start of the game, Brooklyn and two of her other teammates just stood there totally dumbfounded (this was Brooklyn's very first time ever playing soccer, so duh - she was a little confused)...but not Ribaldo, he was already taking the ball to the goal! It was just kinda obvious that he'd played some soccer before :-) ( in the picture above, that's Ribaldo in the black jersey right in the center going for the ball - Brooklyn is to his left and back a little bit) After the initial shock wore off, Brooklyn did start to get the hang of it, though she was still a bit timid. I would be too with all those kicking feet!

If I ever go to France...and I have lots of money and time to stay wherever I want.... (Hey, it's my birthday, I'm allowed to dream a little, right?) I'm going to spend at least a week here . If you go the the website, be sure to click around and look at all the pictures. This place looks like a little peace of heaven to me. I love the simplicity. The rustic-ness. The peacefulness. I also love the fact that the walls are bare except for the occasional mirror and that the wood furniture is either painted white or left unfinished. I love the simple clear vases brimming with wildflowers and the slip-covered sofas. The quilts on the beds, the bathrooms hidden away in unusual corners, the exposed brick walls, the peaceful patios... Okay, so the fact that there are no toys littering the floor has a strong appeal to me as well. Do you suppose I could come anywhere close to re-creating that in our own home? Nah, I didn't think so either.

So, I should be doing laundry. Maybe putting away the rest of the groceries. Making the bed? But I'm here at the computer instead. We're helping babysit my niece now. It's Day One. Maddie and Audrey are running around the house in their high heels. I'm so glad I get to have this time with my niece while her mommy works. I really haven't had nearly enough time with her. For some reason, Maddie and Audrey have been fighting a lot lately...but so far not today. They both promised not to fight. I'm holding them to that! Sean got these cute pictures of the girls by Grandma's sweet peas yesterday. I love them. (The pictures, the sweet peas, but especially those little girls!) I have so much on my mind these days, so much I'm dying to put down on this blog....but it's not quite time yet. I will say this much - God is incredible. He's HUGE. He's awesome. He's blowing my mind and changing everything I thought I knew about following

The older girls and Daddy and Duke in Pagosa Springs. Paige just being cute in her stroller! We had a great Labor Day. We went off to the mountains and wound up in Pagosa Springs for lunch. Then we had to hurry back home for Brooklyn's first soccer practice! Should be interesting to see how they do at their first game on Saturday ;-) Since then, I've been stuck in the house with a sick Brooklyn. She got whatever Sean had last week. She finally went to school today and I'm so glad to have my little girl back! She was not herself and I felt so bad for her. Tuesday and Wednesday were looooong days. That's all for now. Better go pick up Sean from work! We're selling our truck...so we carpool a lot. It's okay. Good for us.

This has been another busy and fast week. Did you know it's September? Yes. It is. Exactly one year ago, we were arriving back to the States and to Colorado. Wow. That was a fast year...and a good one. We got our first egg on Tuesday. We celebrated my mom's birthday yesterday with a lunch out at the golf course. Maddie and her cousin Audrey were being adorable. I have a video but it won't load. Maybe later. My sister's family is moving here! We got our second egg on Wednesday. Brooklyn ran away to the garage last night. Thank you grandparents for telling your running away stories, she took your advice and packed a blanket. Our cat sneezes a lot. Brooklyn loves school. She's reading sight words and spelling them and I can tell she's gonna be a reader like her mommy :-) Speaking of reading. Has anybody read a good novel lately? I can't seem to find enough good books to support my insatiable reading habit. We got our third egg on Thursday. Paige do

And evening walk...back when it was still summer! Fall is in the air now :-) Oh, it's been so busy around here. Madison has really stepped things up, so to speak, with her sister gone to school all day. I feel like I have to constantly be "on" - it's either me or Dora keeping this girl entertained and it seems to me that even Dora is getting a little worn out. We're adjusting. Brooklyn loves school and she's doing great. I'm glad she's there - it really does appear to be the best choice for her. I don't like that she has homework to do each night now. Good grief! She's in school ALL DAY LONG. Surely, she should get a break. Last night was actually our first night doing the homework together and it went pretty awful. She was so tired and Maddie really wanted to be in the middle of things. I'm sure we'll figure it out (cause we have to) but it does seem a tad excessive for a kindergartner to be required to do homework...a.k.a.