Well, we weathered Hurricane Sandy with only lots of blowing rain and heavy wind – but not too heavy. No branches down or anything, but if you went outside for any reason, you immediately understood the hurricane status. We didn’t even lose electricity, much to my relief!!
The boys had Monday and Tuesday off of school, and it was kind of nice. Today was one of those cozy days where the pellet stove hummed warmly and I zoomed around getting the house in order, and even ended the day with making some party mix – yummy!! We also had a delicious brunch with Baked Oatmeal with raspberries, chocolate chips, and bananas, and Chipped Beef Gravy with hash browns (Tim made the gravy and hash browns because he was hungry for it), and hot chocolate. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, delightful.
It was sort of one of those meals where you have to let go of your expectations, because there was all this yummy food on the table and Dean Martin was singing Christmas music in the background and candles were burning on the table and it was so cozy and the boys were acting silly and Zion was refusing to eat (that child has to be hand fed at almost every meal, because he just doesn’t hardly eat!)…but once we redirected the conversation away from butts…things got better. 
I had “prepared” for this hurricane by making sure I was stocked up on some indoor activity items like modeling clay and paint. Layla tried her hand at painting today for the first time and thought it was great.
*********
I noticed yesterday that Layla was calling me Mommy, finally. She has been calling me Dat-dee this whole time.
*********
Last night Layla got in the Vicks Vaporub and rubbed it over her face and it was all over her hands and she rubbed her eyes and got it into her eyes. We wiped her off, but she was still fussing like her eyes hurt, so I got into the shower with her and washed her face off well, much to her utter fury. 
After that, I was cold, so we clambered into the bathtub and took a nice warm bath with the jets running. Ahhhhh bliss. Layla noticed some face lotion on the side and asked for some on her hands, like she does, holding her little paw out palm up and saying, “Ennnhhh!! Ennnhhh!” I let her have some, since it is lotion that I never use, and she would get it on her hand, and then slather it carefully and studiously on my face, over and over and over and over. I was about 15 layers of lotion deep, I think. :) It was just so sweet though, with her little hand carefully rubbing my face, and her sweet little face so close to mine as she was fixated on her work.
We have had our first “winter” virus go through, and she has had it the worst – she got it first and still has it. We got up with her at 5 AM this morning to give her a nebulizer and more Vicks. I contemplated just staying up…but then we all went back to bed and slept in. Delightful. 
**********
Here’s another “eating” picture.
The reason I took this was because it makes me laugh how often my side of the table is empty except for me, and Tim almost always has two close friends. 
They love their daddy. He’s just very popular at meals. We are eating tomato sandwiches in this picture. We had a tomato bumper crop right here at the end of October. I had a bunch of massive tomato plants that STILL had not produced any tomatoes – until now. Here were my gleanings.
And here was one of my helpers, my resident Tomato Princess:
**********
Zion and Layla and sometime the other boys loooove to play in the closet in Layla’s room. It’s just such a delightful hidey-hole, once you chuck out all those “extras” (like clothes, rugs, and baskets 
), and bring in your flashlight. Sometimes it makes me yell when I walk in and YET AGAIN they have made a mess of Layla’s room. But sometimes, like yesterday, they were just so happy and excited and giggly, and so I just swallowed my yells and took a picture.
It really doesn’t take that long to put things back in order, but…just as long as it’s only once in a while.
**********
Gabe did this All About Me poster for his class the other week.
The kids in his class take turns, and it was his turn. He did all of the poster himself, and it was such a nice little depiction of him at age 8. He also filled out a worksheet, and my favorite entry was where he was to name something that was special about him, and he said, “The things that I say and the way that I move.” 
Tim tells him that he has ninja moves, and he likes this very much.
**********
Here’s Layla and her babies.
She loooooooveloveloveloves her babies. She is so tender and sweet with them, and gives them sweet little hugs and pats them gently on their backs and gives them kisses. The other day I found her sitting on this one, jabbing her fingers into it’s eyes/nose/mouth/ears, and naming the appropriate place. Just made me laugh.
**********
Our friend Chuck came over the other day to pull out the stump of a bush we had cut down at the side of our house. It was all very exciting for boys. Chuck even let the boys run the controls to release the hook from the top of the truck and pull the bush up onto the truck.
Good memories for boys.
**********
Pumpkin painting memories.
I think we have been doing this every year. This year we used acrylic paints since the water-based ones we used last year were so too light. Israel was the most dedicated pumpkin painter. He bought the eyes on his pumpkin with his own money, and had talked about getting them for about a week before I was able to.
**********
The other day was beautiful and warm outside, and Zion and I went outside to wait for his brothers to get home and do a craft I found on Pinterest. Zion liked it at first, but then sort of lost patience with it. I was a little obsessed with getting the Cheerios “just so”. Israel wanted to do some too when he came home.
*********
Zion and his mommy cuddling on the couch by the pellet stove one fall day.
And they were quite dashing-looking, themselves, in all their Iron Man-icity, their Spider-ness, and their Ninja abilities….
arranging her babies with the help of her daddy:
