Sarah’s Thoughts: Last Tuesday evening, I came home from work a little bit early. Owen had just woken up from a particularly long nap and was in a great mood, so happy to see me. Luke had thrown dinner in the crockpot earlier in the day and I’d made rolls the night before. I decided it was the perfect evening to carve our pumpkin. Owen babbled excitedly about pumpkins as we cut off the top and dug-out all of the goo and seeds. He’s been really into this penguin show lately, so we decided to carve a penguin pumpkin. I drew the design and Luke carved away. Owen and I washed, salted and roasted pumpkin seeds. We lit a candle in our penguin pumpkin and then ate our delicious dinner of slow-cooked meat and fresh rolls. It was one of those perfect fall evenings that you might remember during the days of endless summer activity. I didn’t think about the scattered piles of clutter or the fact that Owen doesn't have daycare come January. I just felt warm and peaceful happiness. The only thing that was missing was a wood stove.
Low- Christmas music on the radio this morning. Come on, now! Who in their right mind thinks that’s O.K.?
High- Realizing that it was really 9am instead of 10am and I had an extra hour to get to church this morning!
Luke Update: We woke up to fresh snow on Saturday morning, so Luke was dressed in camo and out the door before I finished my morning coffee. He headed up a nearby mountain ridge in search of fresh deer tracks. Sadly, all he found were fresh brown bear tracks... Guess that’s why they call it hunting! In between his Mr. Mom duties, Luke has started a new project. He’s working on another laminated net, similar to the one he made last year, but with some improvements, thanks to insights gained from a season of field testing. Once he gets the wrinkles ironed out, he’d like to move into production mode and try to sell them. Until you see his booth at the public market, you’ll find him in the garage, sanding and gluing away, in between diaper duty and slapping together a pb&j.
Owen Update: Yesterday was quite a big day. Owen was so excited about the snow that it was all we could do to get his boots on before he blasted out the door. There was only an inch or so on the ground, but it was enough to make a good-sized snow man. Owen loves our new yard decoration and makes sure that we greet it when returning to or leaving the house. Now that all the snow has melted, our snowman looks a bit odd standing in the front yard. I unsuccessfully tried to remember the words to “Frosty the Snowman” to gently tell Owen the snowman might not be around all that much longer, but I guess he’ll figure it out soon enough!
The fun didn’t end with the snowman- last night Owen got to try his had at trick-or-treating for the very first time. Extremely exciting. He wore a spiderman costume that my cousin Jason, brought back from Thailand (you may have seen it before if you’ve been a long-time blog reader). Owen didn’t care much for the hood, but he really enjoyed knocking on doors. If the door didn’t open promptly enough, he’d walk right in and make himself at home with the candy bowl. He didn’t like the houses with spooky decorations though, “too scary, mama.” He’s never had much of a sweet tooth, so when we got home, I let him spend some unsupervised time with his loot. He opened a lot of wrappers, but only nibbled at the chocolate. Its really fun to watch him actively participate in all of this. Such a fun age, I’m loving it!
