Low/No Cost Fall Decorating

We've made it to the last week in October and our fall decorations are still in a tote up in the attic... I gently suggested to my husband on around October 1st that it would be a great time to bring those down for us.... The kids less-gently urged their dad to get the Halloween stuff out, a time or two or so. I even ventured up into our attic space, only to be totally overwhelmed by the amount of stuff and coming down empty handed (and a case of the heeby jeebies. Not a fan of the attic). Soooo, rather than nag this said husband, I got around the lack of decorations on my own.

Thanks to my sweet friend Erika's idea and the plethora of shedding trees around me, I have a naturally festive mantle:

And due to some walks with a 3 year old who is recently enthralled with having pockets, we now have a bowl full of fall-ness:

And my love affair with spray-paint continues with the metallic variety and some miniature pumpkins placed around the house:

Even though we're not the most decorated house on the block, I'm actually pretty excited about this route because I'm realizing that there's nothing to pack back away! And just think about how excited we'll be next year when we get to rediscover what's actually hiding in the "Fall" storage tote after not having seen in for a couple of years! It might be a good idea to start hinting about Christmas decoration now though...

How are you decorating this season?

Overheard at My House: Why?

Here's the scene: This particular line of questioning happened in the car, but in reality it's ALL THE TIME!

little guy: Why is the light red?

me: So cars will know when to stop.

lg: Why do cars need to stop?

me: So the other cars will have a turn to go.

lg: Why do the other cars need a turn to go?

me: So we all don't crash into each other.

lg: Why don't we want to crash into each other?

me: Because it would damage our cars and maybe even hurt the people inside.

lg: Why do some trucks pull trailers behind them?

me: So they can carry big loads at one time.

lg: Why do they want to carry big loads?

me: (silently praying) Please dear Lord give me the patience to continue calmly answering this sweet child.

lg: MOMMY, WHY DO TRUCKS WANT TO CARRY BIG LOADS?

me: I'm guessing because they need to move a lot of stuff and they don't want to make too many trips back and forth.

lg: Why don't they want to make lots of trips back and forth?

me: (silently praying more) Please give me tolerance so I don't squelch his sense of wonder.

lg: MOMMY, WHY DON'T THEY WANT TO MAKE LOTS OF TRIPS BACK AND FORTH?

me: (silently praying still) Dear Lord, please keep me sane!

lg: MOM-MY, WHY. DON'T. THEY. WANT. TO. MAKE. LOTS. OF. TRIPS. BACK. AND. FORTH?

me: Probably because they want to save time and not use a lot of gas, and please don't yell at me.

lg: Why do cars need gas?

And on

and on

and on

and on...

Can anyone relate?

Meal Planning

Okay, so the meal planning is still hit or miss over here. I don't know what I'm doing, but seriously, when I sit down to plan I'm just drawing a blank: So unmotivated. Because of that, I've been going to some easy standbys and then trying some new recipes. The ole "smorgasbord board" that we've adopted as our new fast, fun meal is making another appearance this week. Just lay some meat, cheese, crackers and fruit on the table and let every one go at it. My son thinks the whole of it is his portion. He probably could have managed it all, but we made him share.

Not sure what else we'll eat this week, but I promise, I'll feed the family. Maybe I'm trying to get everyone is the practice for when we (hopefully) won't have a functioning kithen in the (hopefully) near future.

I do have a few recommendations on a couple of new recipes. Last week I made Chicken Tamale casserole, and we decided it was a keeper. I didn't make it quite as light as the recipe suggests and next time will need to add less red pepper due to my daughter's sensitive palette. And per that same sweet daughter's request, I made "fried" cheese sticks another night, paired with chicken nuggets and green beans. She's been lamenting that she can't buy her lunch on the day they have mozzarella sticks because she doesn't like any of the sides served with it. I (being the awesome super-mom that I am. HA! So not the case. Ever.) decided to whip some up for her (bc I just happened to have been emailed an easy recipe for them and had all the ingredients on hand). They were so very yummy and I scored some brownie points! Definitely give them a try.

Any suggestions to get me out of my menu-planning-slump? I hope I'm not dragging you down with me!

Juggling

Do you ever feel like your theme song should be circus music (do do doodle doodle do do doot doot doodle do...)? Sometimes I'm quite the successful act, seemingly handling whatever come my way. And then. Well. Things go south. And very quickly. It's like I'm juggling. I'm doing such a great job that I keep on adding in balls. I keep going like this long enough to get a bit cocky. That's just about the time when I drop a ball. And soon most of my balls are scattered haphazardly all around me. I have to start over with the original two or three most important balls and start the act over, carefully adding in additional ones as I can.

Okay, so it hasn't been that drastic around here, but it's a good visual for me. Nothing's wrong at all. We're doing great actually. Life is so good. I was just dropping balls left and right, and had to scale back. Going to start (carefully) adding in a few things here and there, the business and blog hopefully being next.

Thanks for being patient with me. And by the way, I totally giggled reading back through this. It reminded me of my sweet baby boy and this story. Hehehe.

Happy juggling!

{LOVE this print! You can find it in this fun shop: Violet May}

Pull up a Stool

If I came home one day and this kitchen sat in place of mine right now, I'd be so okay with it. Just go ahead and swap it out with ours and we can skip the whole decision making process. Thanks.

Those super cool white stools got me thinking about what seating I want at my future island/breakfast bar. There are so many options to choose from, possibly a set of one of these:

And judging from my initial research, bar stools are apparently not cheap. Note to self: Make room in the budget for barstools.

{images from School House Electric, Crate and Barrel, Conran USA, Get Back Inc., & Ballard Designs.}

Perspective

I couldn't go all week without popping in. I'll leave you with some inspiration about perspecitve. I know I need it.

I'm wondering how my days would be different if I didn't expect/see/prepare for the negative. So many instances can be seen in a different light depending on how I view them. Can you relate?