On Tuesday, Analise’s preschool had a pow-wow picnic. They had made pillowcase indian vests and feather headbands with their Indian names on them. Analise’s name was Little Fawn. I only stayed for the picnic, but after I left, they sat in a circle, played their Indian (oatmeal container) drums and danced the Turkey Tango. Fun!

I tell ya… he can entertain himself with anything! I got a cute video of him playing with them, too, and eating them. I loved running them through his fingers, rolling them across the floor, bouncing them, tossing them in the colander. He ate several, rolling them around in his mouth for a bit, before biting into them with a wrinkled face. After feeling it burst its tartness in his mouth, he’d reach in and pull it out, putting it back in the colander.

Love these chubby soft little fingerrs!

I love homemade apple pie. I learned to make it from scratch, courtesy of Lori Thompson and Betty Crocker, while in Nicaragua, and since then, I’ve been determined to make it myself. Today, I didn’t get it done in time for dinner. Bummer. But I made the dough yesterday, and finally had the time to peel, core and cut the apples and roll out the dough this afternoon. Since I didn’t have anyone to share it with over dinner, I thought I’d share it with you.

I used Paula Deen’s Perfect Pie Crust recipe and Betty Crocker’s Apple Pie recipe. I was afraid the pie crust wouldn’t hold together, but after patting it into a ball, flattening it into a thick disk, wrapping it in Saran and chilling it overnight, it rolled out really well.

Yum, apples…I even used organic:) Tossed with flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt.

I have to say the crust crimping wasn’t the best, but I’ll work on that next time. But the leaf and acorn cut-outs looked good!

Golden out of the oven.

Yum. Too bad I had to enjoy it alone. Anyone want to come over for pie and ice cream? It was DELICIOUS!

Quiet gray day here. We’re going to play at some friends’ house this morning, and I’ve got an apple pie to make. I *LOVE* making apple pies, though I don’t do it often enough (4th of July and Thanksgiving). I like to make the pie crust from scratch, and between that and peeling all the apples, it takes some time, but I’ll get to it this afternoon. Tomorrow, I’ve got to make the green bean casserole (this cheesy recipe is yummy – though I didn’t use the Velveeta) and the corn pudding

We’re also going to make a couple of these Martha Stewart pinecone turkeys for the table. They look pretty easy, and I think Analise will have fun making them. Happy day before Thanksgiving….

There’s so much I should be blogging about. We’re getting a huge photo backlog with the new camera, so of course, there are plenty I should be sharing. I’ve got lots of deep thoughts on lots of things I’d love to put together into eloquent, thought-provoking, tender, poignant posts. But really… if I get caught up on that, I’ll hardly ever get anything posted. My life is pulled in too many directions right now, and I’m lucky to finish an email without getting pulled away. But I’ve got to start just putting the moments of life to the keyboard, because they are too sweet to forget.

So here you’ll find some random memories of my sweeties. They’re growing so fast.

Every night I go in to make sure Analise is covered. I’m nearly brought to tears at how big she looks in her bed. Just 6 months ago we moved her out of her crib into the big-girl bed. She was still flopping all over the bed, thank goodness for the railing we installed. I imagined that she’d never stay on a pillow, sleeping in one direction all night, and that we’d probably use the railing until she was 10! But these days, she wants to be tucked under her quilt, head on the pillow, with a book to read by the soft light we leave on, with some CD playing. I’ll check on her a couple hours later, and usually find her still tucked under the covers, curled up, looking so big in her bed. Not at all the toddler she was just months ago. She’s growing into a little girl… BIG girl!.. in so many ways.

Yes, we’re still having the terrible-2’s moments carried over into the 3’s. I bragged about her having reached the Age of Reason in August, but we had a regression, back to tantrums, impatience, and lots of whining. Not sure what caused it, but it’s been frustrating. This week, though, she’s been very good, and it’s so encouraging.

She talks all the time. All kinds of random chatter, always a question. Her mind is always working. Her preschool teacher is amazed at how much she talks, and she’s always laughing about things Analise has said. As are we:)

Josiah’s quite a strong-willed little boy. He’s still full of trouble, always into something. He knows what he wants, and he’s determined to get it, no matter what he has to climb to get there. He’s also very sweet and snuggly at moments, coming up to my leg while I’m at the kitchen sink or sitting at the computer, and laying his head down, wrapping his little arms around my leg. It usually lasts less than 10 seconds, but it’s so sweet. It just melts me.

He still uses a pacifier to sleep, which is fine by me. He knows to toss it in the crib when I get him up from his nap or pick up him in the morning. He loves to have more than one to fall asleep with. In fact, tonight, there was only one in his crib, which he giggled and put into his mouth. I left him for a moment to find the other one that had gotten misplaced during the day. When I brought it to him, he was already curled up against the end of the crib, on his chest with his knees up under him, butt in the air, holding onto his blanket. I put the pacifier next to his hand, and he rolled over, found it, and started giggling excitedly, before switching the one in his mouth to the fresh one. So cute. He goes to bed so well… he knows when it’s time (btw 6:30 and 7pm) and naptime. He likes to curl up in his crib, and I’m so happy that I can just put him in and know he’ll be asleep by himself quickly.

Ok, enough mom thoughts. Maybe I’ll come back in a few with some pics…

This is from one of my favorite bloggers, Notes from the Trenches. She also posts regular posts at The Parenting Post, where she shared this poignant letter to her newly teenage firstborn. This tender paragraph tugged at my heart…

Yep, that’s where I’m at these days. Analise chattered a mile-a-minute yesterday, full of questions, comments, and stories. She wanted to know about everything. It is amazing how she thinks I’m the source of all information. I wonder how long this will last?

Someone sent me this from YouTube.com: The Mom Overture. Very funny and true!

In yesterday’s Huntsville Times, an op-ed article was published that’s had both Brian and I up in arms. (I originally posted the link, but decided that we could spare the newspaper all the extra clicks, so here it is, in entirety:

Brian sent a civil response last night to both the editor and the writer. Ricky wrote a flippant note back this morning, saying that Brian must not have any regards for his (Ricky’s) job, and maybe (Ricky) should be heading out to look for a bike, since he won’t be able to afford a car any more. Hrmph. Not sure he had any regards for his job to be writing and submitting something like this for publication.

I’m pretty proud that this letter doesn’t overflow with my anger that such an inflammatory article could be communicated in such a public forum. I don’t get angry very often. But it feels like he’s just made Brian’s life considerably less safe.

Ok, now that I’ve completely laid all this out here, I’m going to go try to get on with my day. Ricky and his silly views have eaten up more than enough of my thoughts, emotions and time.