NaBloPoMo Here I Go

I'm going to do. I can't believe I'm even trying. I've had several (OK...many) months of low posting. It's time to get back to it. I'm hoping that NaBloPoMo will be just the jump start I need.

My goal is not to spend too much time blogging. I don't want it to take over my life. But I think I can easily squeeze more posting in my schedule. I just need to prioritize.

I'm hoping that I won't be alone this month. Are any of you going to blog every day in November? Let me know, I'll be sure to follow. And good luck everyone.

PSA: Daylight Saving Time

Don't forget that Daylight-Saving Time Ends tomorrow. So, 2:00AM be sure to set your clocks back an hour.

And in case you didn't know, you don't have to wake up at 2:00AM just to set your clock back to 1:00AM. You can do it when you go to bed. For instance, you go to bed at 10:00PM, just set your clock to read 9:00PM. (Someone recently told me that they didn't understand this.)

It's also a great time to remember to check/change your smoke detector batteries. Make sure that your family is protected and safe.

And if you're lucky enjoy that extra hours of sleep. I know those of us with young kids, just dread the time change. It just means our kids will be waking up an hour earlier. (But if you're real sneaky, they will probably be willing to go to be an hour earlier too.)

Happy Halloween

We don't really celebrate Halloween much. Of course Zachariah is aware of it, mostly because he sees and hears about it everywhere he goes. He's seen his DVDs about it and likes to talk about it too. We just don't go all out for this holiday.

But we don't really have Halloween parties that we go to (or even know about). I have a few pumpkins and jack-o'-lanterns that I put up for decorations. Our neighbor gave Zachariah a door hanging with a ghost, pumpkin, black cat, etc on it. I put it on the front door (most I've ever put up for Halloween), and Zachariah loves it. A few weeks ago while he was visiting my parents, they carved a pumpkin. So that sits on the front porch too.

Trick-or-treating here was on Thursday evening. We have always taken Zachariah to the mall. They do "mall-or-treat", and the stores that participate stand at the entrances and hand out candy. It's great for many reasons. 1. He's young, and it's easy just to stroll around the mall and collect treats. 2. The years it's cold on Halloween, we're warm inside. 3. No worries about finding a safe neighborhood to trick-or-treat in.

We have lived in this house for over 8 years. We have never had a trick-or-treater. Every year I leave the light on and always have something around if someone would stop. It's never happened (Zachariah was disappointed when he found this out Thursday.) We live on a semi-busy road right on the edge of town. There are no sidewalks and not many young children live around here (except for right next door). We did notice that there were plenty of trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood behind us. They have sidewalks and quiet roads, so maybe we'll do that next year when he's a bit older.

We had a lot of fun Thursday night. And maybe we'll think of something Halloween-y today to do with Zachariah. It is fun to make new traditions. (And I have some cute Halloween cookie cutters that we haven't used yet.)

So I hope that you and your family have a fun Halloween!

A Perfect Kind of Fall Day

I love beautiful fall days like today. It was sunny from the moment I got out of bed. I haven't seen this much sunshine in a month or more. It was about 60 outside by lunchtime (high of about 65). And there was no rain in sight.

It's the perfect sort of day to take a preschooler outside to play.

It's a great day to rake up some leaves. Even if it's for the sole purpose of the preschooler playing in them.

It's a nice day to get a few lingering outdoor projects finished, or at least make some progress.

And it will be a nice evening to relax and drink some fresh, local, unpasteurized apple cider.

Don't you just love when a perfect fall day comes along like this?

Road Tripping

Last weekend we went on a little road trip. We loaded ourselves into the car with a few books for Zachariah and I and not much else. There was one destination idea in mind, but otherwise we were just heading out. Matt even told Zachariah if he saw something he'd like to do along the way to just tell us.

Of course Zachariah started "finding things" he'd like to do about lunchtime. He started pointing out any McDonald's restaurants and saying things like "I see a fun thing to do" and "I can always find something to eat there". Hilarious this kid!

But we ended up doing several things. We stopped at a park by Indian Lake. We found out that wasn't the greatest idea, since it was windy. And with the wind blowing across the cool water on the lake made it bitter cold. Brr! Zac got to swing for a few minutes, before he was begging to get back in the car.

Our next stop found us at Young's Dairy, which we go to almost every fall. We just happened to be going past it, so we figured why not. We always love it there, and Zachariah was thrilled because he remembers going last year. There are tractors to climb on, pumpkins to see, animals to feed, and much more. We stayed long enough to get a quick snack and do a few other things.

From there we traveled for a while with only a restroom stop. We were headed to check out Hidden Valley Fruit Farm. Matt found information about in a travel Ohio magazine. They had some neat things, but we didn't really do much there. (There was more to do at Young's Dairy.) And I see not looking at a map, we weren't too far from Shelly or Kelsey.

I knew we were near Kelsey, when we headed towards Dayton for a late lunch at Red Robin. And we stopped at a mall there to walk off a little of the food we ate. From there it was time to head home. We took a scenic drive home (like we came) and stopped once for something to drink and ice cream for Zachariah.

After that it was back home. Zachariah slept for a little while in the car, which we were glad because that was his only nap for the day. But it was a fun day of driving and adventures. What a great way to spend a Saturday! I couldn't do it every weekend, but we had loads of fun together.

**The photos in this post were in no particular order. Most were taken at Young's Dairy.**

Cold & Dreary

That's pretty much what the weather has been like all week here- cold and dreary. Blah!

To beat the blahs we've been staying in the house watching movies- Thomas & Friends, Barney, and others.

We've worked on a few craft things like Ni Hao, Kai-lan paper bag puppets. These were pretty fun to make. It required a little advance planning, because I had to cut out all the parts. But I did that last night, so we were all set to go this morning. It provided about an hour or putting things together. We let the glue all dry while we ate lunch. Then after lunch we had hours minutes of fun playing with the puppets. But still it was something for both of us to do.

Do you know what we just discovered today? One of Zachariah's favorite stories, the Princess & the Frog, has been made into an animated Disney movie. It's coming out before Christmas. We just checked out the website and it looks really cute. We'll have to go see it when it's in the theater.

I have 4 different giveaways going on at PS Mom Reviews right now. Don't forget to go sign up for things. There is the new Shaun the Sheep: Little Sheep of Horrors DVD just right for Halloween, Barney: Halloween Party DVD for the younger kids for Halloween (Zachariah loves this one about fall/autumn too), the brand-new Strawberry Shortcake movie: Sky's the Limit DVD that I have 5 copies of to give away, and I also reviewed a nice organic baby shampoo and sunscreen and have one of each to giveaway from Earth Baby. I have a few more giveaways to come. And I am looking for more ideas of things to review and giveaway for the upcoming holidays. Make sure you check in on the action.

So, help a girl out. Tell me what your Friday has been like or your weekend plans. Mine...none. I need to live vicariously through you. Thanks. And of course, Happy Friday!

Moving On

Yesterday was Matt's 30th birthday. We had a great surprise party on Sunday, but we just spent the day at home Monday. I'm hoping that we can get out and enjoy the fall weather with him on Saturday maybe.

I know that Matt looks forward to that every year. And really I do too. It just didn't work out yesterday, because I had a chiropractor appointment in the morning and was scheduled to tutor in the evening. The tutoring got cancelled, but I didn't find out until mid-afternoon. Matt enjoyed having time to relax and play PlayStation all afternoon.

I was worried about the way yesterday started. Zachariah woke up having thrown up in his bed. Yuck. It wasn't horrible, just liquid, but not good just the same. He didn't eat much in the morning, but he acted fine. He got better as the day went on, and we had no other indication that he was sick at all. Whew!

Unfortunately by afternoon Matt was getting a headache/migraine. We still went out for supper at our nearby Ruby Tuesday. Throughout supper Matt kept feeling worse and worse. Then his stomach started bothering him...which happens when he gets migraines. So he spent the rest of his 30th birthday in bed. Poor guy. He was feeling a bit better this morning and was off to work like usual.

I'm glad everyone was well for the party Sunday. (Besides my dad missing it because he was sick.) We did get to celebrate his big birthday a little. And it was so much fun to keep a secret about the party and actually pull it off. I was so worried that Zachariah was going to "spill the beans", but he did not.

So on with the week we will go, and hopefully with no more sickness. And on Matt goes into a new decade.

Birthday Bash!

Today is my husband's 30th birthday!

We managed to pull off a surprise party for him last night. It was great fun. And it was so much fun to celebrate with our friends and families. Matt got some great gifts...coffee shop gift cards, coffee, crocheted hat and cards. It's a special birthday for a very special guy!

Matt- Happy Birthday, babe! I love you with all of my heart, and I'm so glad that I get to celebrate another birthday with you!

Cold season is here.

I have my first cold of the season. Bleck! I've been taking medicine to reduce the symptoms, but it doesn't seem to be helping a whole lot. I have a little guy running around that I can't really keep up with today. I'm still in my pajamas, and I haven't hardly thought about showering. (Unusual for me since I can't start my day without one.)

Fortunately, Zachariah is pretty easy going. He's content (mostly) to play quietly with puzzles and toys on the floor, watch movies (lots of them today), and come cuddle with me once in a while. He asks often "Are you feeling better yet?" with anticipation.

So far I'm the only one in the house who is sick. Which really stinks, because it means dishes are piling up and laundry is too. But I'm doing the best I can for now. Today is the laziest I've been so far. It's also not helping that my back hurts too. I've been to the chiropractor twice this week already and have another appointment scheduled tomorrow before we head out of town. Apparently what I thought was a sore back (and wouldn't go away) is my neck out of place and it's straining muscles near my shoulder blade and driving me nuts. But it's getting better with help.

Did I mention that I'm going away for the weekend with Matt? You probably didn't know unless I posted something on Twitter. Matt won a Ford Taurus Game Day Experience. We get to drive a 2010 Ford Taurus to the Indianapolis Colts football game against Seattle Seahawks this weekend. We also get a 2 night hotel stay, gas paid for, and 2 tickets to the game on Sunday. So, we're leaving Zachariah with grandparents this weekend and heading to Indy for a weekend alone. I can't wait.

I do hope that I'm feeling better in time for us to go. And I'm really hoping that Zachariah doesn't come down with it over the weekend and end up miserable for the grandparents. They were so gracious to drop everything and keep him for the weekend, since we only learned of this on Monday.

I suppose as with everything, you take the good with the bad. I get to go away for the weekend, but I get to take my cold with me.