Tonight

More knitting tonight while sitting in bed and watching the PBS series by Ken Burns, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea". I highly recommend it. The cinematography is amazing and the stories inspiring. It makes me want to go on one big road trip and see them all. You can watch them free online for a couple of more days, but PBS might be reshowing them on tv as well. A big screen tv viewing would probably be amazing for this series.

What I'm doing now...

If I was one of those really cool bloggers with a really awesome camera, here's where you would see a picture of my knitting on my lap or my steaming hot cup of blueberry tea, but I'm not and I don't have a really cool camera and the light is awful so even with my little camera the picture would not turn out. You'll just have to imagine it.

It's not quite 9 o'clock on Tuesday. The kids are all quiet, either asleep or reading. Today was a beautiful, crisp, fall day. Probably my favorite time of the year (Spring would tie for first with all of the beautiful blossoms and flowers and still that crisp feeling, if it weren't for the infernal allergies). It was chilly enough to feel cold without long sleeves, but sunny enough to feel warm in the glow of the sun. We raked leaves and picked up pine cones.

Now it is night. It's quiet and peaceful with the insects singing tonight through the open window, which I'll leave open all night so it will be chilly enough to snuggle deep in the covers. I pulled out my knitting. For some reason I don't like to knit much when it's warm. It's hard to get excited about knitting a wool cap in 80+ degrees, but tonight I am excited. And the blueberry tea is Celestial Seasonings, my favorite flavor, except for the ginger tea which they put out only at Christmas time and no matter how many boxes I buy from the clearance aisle after the holidays they never last past February.

Now as I read over this post, I realize I just had stuff I wanted to say and no one to say them to. The best thing about tonight is that it is only 3 more days until Phil will be home. 2 minute conversations on the days that we don't get cut off and intermittent emails just don't do it. I'm excited for Friday.

He's 11

Jakob turned 11 yesterday! I can't believe I have a child who is that old. Actually, he's not much of a child anymore. He's slowly turning in to a young man. His birthday was a little low key, just cake and ice cream at home, 2 presents and a phone call from dad. His cake, an American goldfinch, which is his favorite bird and his presents, the little collectible college football helmets (he has 6 conferences) and a model plane that Ethan picked out for him. He was excited for both and excited to get something from Africa next week.
In other news: The sun came out for a couple of days this week. It was very nice to be outside and soak in the rays. Sophia was out climbing a tree while I mowed the lawn. It had been almost 2 weeks and it really needed it.

Remember how Clara likes to imitate? The other day she insisted on sitting by Sophia and doing 'homework'. Actually she didn't say homework, but she did insist on a piece of paper and a pencil.

Imitation Time

Clara is really into doing what the big kids do. It makes her seem less of the toddler and more of a miniature 6 year old at times, but it is also hilarious. Here she is at the computer, talking to the picture of the 4 kids on the desktop. When I caught her, she sported this silly grin, which I was able to catch on camera ( I came prepared, but ignore the messy back round...we still don't have enough bookshelves yet).

Her favorite thing of the moment is to take a bag, fill it with whatever is laying around (I know where to look if I can't find something) and come up and smack her lips. After doing this a couple of times, I figured out that she wants me to give her a kiss, then she waves goodbye and walks away...just like her dad on the way to work is what I figured. He's the one that gets the kiss, the kids just get high fives, so she must be imitating Phil. The reminders to the big kids that she is always watching and going to do whatever they do have started, although her imitation of Sophia's whiny fits is just hilarious.

What would you do?

What would you do with a day and night in the 'City of Lights'? Phil just asked me that, because that's his problem right now...what should he go and see with so little time. Besides the obvious Eiffel Tower and Louvre, I couldn't give him much. It turns out my knowledge of Paris is pretty limited. Jakob added the Arc de Triumph. Can't say I'm not a just a little envious of Phil's situation right now. Wish I was there!

Against all odds

Do you ever have the feeling that the fates are conspiring against you? That's how I feel about the process to get this jam. All I wanted was simple freezer peach jam. I figured since we were in the Peach State it wouldn't be that hard, but I forgot to calculate for my own lack of sense. On Saturday we went to the Dekalb Farmer's Market, which was pretty impressive--picture local farmer's market meets international market, fish, meats, cheeses, baked goods and produce galore. My purpose, to get a box of GA peaches. What I came away with was a box, but not of peaches. The box I grabbed was full of nectarines, even though it was stored under the display of peaches. Lesson learned: Read the label. I was bummed and thought the jam making was out the window, but after a little internet search I discovered that peaches and nectarines can be used interchangeably, they are just tougher to peel. So today I set to making the jam, however, I didn't follow the directions exactly and I put the pectin in before the sugar. Lesson learned: Read the instructions. I figured I might as well finish, because whether or not it turned out and set right was irrelevant as I had already used all the ingredients. I'm happy to say that it did set, it does taste delicious (if you like nectarines you really should try it, it's got that tangy nectarine taste) and I'm just waiting for my biscuits to cool so that I can have jam and biscuits for lunch. Sounds good doesn't it?

Frustration is probably running high for Phil right now too. We dropped him off at the airport last night to catch a flight to Paris and then on to Togo. He ended up spending the early hours of the night in Greensboro, NC where they landed because of mechanical problems. He missed his flight to Togo and will probably end up with a day or two in Paris until the next flight to Togo on Saturday. To me it sounds kind of fun...exploring Paris by myself. He's probably frustrated, because he probably just wants to get there and get working on the stuff he's supposed to be doing.

Sweetwater

Our adventures at a close by state park, Sweetwater, on Labor Day...

We did a little boating.
Clara enjoyed watching the geese.

We hiked along a trail that led us to some mill ruins and the "Falls", which was not really that much of a waterfall, but still pretty in it's own way.

The kids by this awesome gnarly tree.

The shoals and the Falls

Along the way we saw a few critters and now I want to get some kind of book so that we can identify them. The kids had really good eyes for spotting them though.

A frog of some sort hanging out on the rocks.

Two kinds of lizards

The mill ruins--that's as close as you could get.

What started out as a fun way to get Ethan and Sophia excited about the hike turned out to really annoy Jakob. I guess you just can't win. We played "Fungi Spotting" and stopped to take pictures of all of the unusual mushrooms and fungi along the way. There were a lot...we have about 50 pictures worth of them. Here are just two of the unusual ones.

News

After months (years) of cajoling and trying to convince her she could do it, Sophia learned to ride her bike without training wheels. The trick was telling her to "Look ahead like you have to on the balance beam, not down at the wheels."
Clara really is no longer a baby, but a toddler. Just look at her...she's all toddler now.