Home again, home again, jiggity jig

The bags are unpacked, the to-do list has been pulled out and the toys are all over the floor again. Yep, we are back from our fantastic trip to Chicago. And all of a sudden, summer is down to a few last threads unspooling across the floor. 

I have to remember how to make dinner again, and pull out my meal plans and my trusty workhorses. I use other cookbooks but I always come back to these. And the coffee. Nothing happens without that. 

                   

Yesterday I was at Target getting school supplies and a mom walked up and dropped a box of tissues in my cart. Her kids were laughing but really,we are all walking around with carts full of the exact same items. Totally understandable. 

We got a couple more of these too. Unity has been wearing all her party dresses, trying to squeeze in these last days of fancy. 

When I went to check out the garden for the first time in two weeks I found this: 

                                   
 It's the very first pear from Brixton's tree, the one we planted when he was born.His tree is old enough to bear fruit. I'm in awe.

Almost time for kraut.

My friend Alisa gave me a few bean seeds from her garden this spring. I planted them, not really knowing what to expect. Only one came up which is probably good, consider what this one has done.

This is the ants at the picnic dress that Chris and Unity made earlier in the year. It's a bit too big but that just means she can wear it longer, right? 

our weekend

 

Our weekend started early because Unity had the day off school on Friday. We did some Halloween decorating and painted our nails and started making her Halloween costume. It was a pretty fun mother-daughter day.

 

                                 Don't be fooled by the photos, there was no napping to be had. But we did have swimming, and potlucking with our spring kids crew, and a really nice Meeting for Worship.

Autumn is really here now and I am loving the sweaters and the hot drinks and soup, the bright leaves and the cool air. Perfect weather for, as Unity would say, "putting on pajamas and getting in bed and snuggling and listening to Christmas music." I know, it's too early but this is her idea of cozy for all seasons. And really, I'm good with it. I like cozy too.

Linking with Amanda for Weekending.

Fashion Show Preview

So we are starting to get ready for Kindergarten. I am excited about our new school and Unity is too. Mostly. One thing she is a little less sure of is this school uniform thing. I, however, am thrilled.

This is not surprising. My daughter and I often have differing ideas about the purpose of clothing. I prioritize comfort and protection from the weather. Unity's main concern is fancy.

But the uniform is a rule, and once I showed her the clothes she started getting into it. Mostly.

Honestly, I'm jealous. I wish someone would give me a pile of clothes and say "here, just wear that over and over." It seems so much easier.

She was a little sad that I got some pants for the uniform stash. I tried to explain that pants are sometimes useful. She is still skeptical.

One step closer to the big time!

Fancy Unity

Do you remember when you were a kid and there was a fictional story that just really took over your imagination? I think most of us had that moment where we really tried to live inside the stories we loved. I remember asking my mom if she could make my hair look like Wily Kit from the Thundercats. I was so sad when that didn't work out.

Unity, as we all know by now, loves Fancy Nancy. She often tries to reinact scenes from Fancy Nancy books by drawing her own versions. Grandma Ann just sent the Fancy Nancy Christmas book (thanks Grandma!) and Unity has been busy trying to make her own version of Nancy's doll closet. She drew clothes for the dolls and used push pins to hang them up. It's amazing to see what she comes up with all on her own.

                               Ok it's super nerdy to post a picture of my food storage containers, but I am excited about them. And this is why. Over the years I have learned more and more about the chemicals that are in plastic and how bad they are for human health. Sadly, I learned this after Unity had been useing BPA bottles for about six months, but as soon as I learned it, I threw them out and got glass ones. BPA is an endocrine disrupter and has serious and long lasting effects on our bodies. It's in everything- so it's hard to avoid but I have been trying to cut back on the plastic as much as I can. The other thing is it's released by heat so please don't put your plastic in the dishwasher! Ok now I'm done with the public service annoucement. Anyway, one of the groups where I get a lot of my safety information from, the Environmental Working Group, had a special offer to buy glass food containers and it would benefit the EWG. Now, being the reusers that we are, we've had our plastic yogurt containers for a while. And I've been washing them by hand. But I got excited by the idea of getting rid of all that plastic, so I got the fancy new glass containers and I am pleased. (Yes, they have plastic lids. Sigh. I'm washing those by hand. I guess we just can't escape the plastic.)