Here and now

Fall is here. Like all of us, I love it, but it sure is tiring! Gone are the days of doing whatever we please. Schedules are nice, but so restrictive! ;) Here's a few snapshots of our day to day..

Dayne is so, SO busy. Every day upon arriving home from school, she has it set in her mind what craft she wants to do and how it'll go. It's exhausting to watch her! I seem to be in a constant state of "pick-up after Dayne". Paper clippings in her room.., glue and glitter all over the dining room table.., it never really ends. But I do appreciate her ability to stay entertained and of course the sweet artwork with which she adorns our home. Notice the last pic below is the books and card she made for Santa. Sweet girl. "Dir Santa Claus, I love you". Should I leave it there on my fireplace until Christmas??

All she needs from me is an occasional spelling for the many books she staples together, composes, then delivers to loved ones (that includes teachers, friends.., even acquaintances, mind you). She's also a great helper when I can motivate her. Here are a few pics of our typical "Monday"; Cole doing homeschool, Dayne peeling sweet potatoes (what a messy kitchen I have!), and June keeping herself happy after being ignored most of the day (we can thank Cole for having my complete attention most, if not ALL of the school day).

We went to Dayne's fall school fair last Sat. Her teacher was the face painter and Dayne asked for a painting on her forehead of the cow jumping over the moon! Good thing she inherited my "sufficiently-sized" forehead! Ha! The Sat. before that our ward put on a HUGE garage sale benefiting a youth in our ward who has bone cancer. It was incredible. Geof. and Cole camped on the grass outside the building because there was so much that had to be left outside and they needed some "watch dogs". We had over a thousand people enter the church building and the sale raised over $11,500! Such a wonderful experience for the ward and its members. We came home with a Santa and Mrs. Claus troll dolls. Reminds me of my mother. She loved her scary troll dolls.

Junie is loving ballet and Dayne doesn't seem to mind that she's not doing it. They didn't offer it for her age, sadly. She's starting swimming again next month, though. We're hoping it'll help clear her up and strengthen her lungs. June is also enjoying preschool and all the play dates she gets afterward (there are 5 lds kids from our ward in the class of 12 kids!). Happy child.

And although most days are a fight to get Cole started on school, he still says he does NOT want to go back to regular school and Geof. and I both agree that he's getting SO much more done at home and actually LEARNING something! ;)

Sorry I don't have pics of me or Geof. Geof. did sport a mustache for half of last week. Not so cute. He shaved it off after seeing himself in a mirror at the gym and thinking he appeared quite "mouselike".