Mr. Trouble on Feet was excited to trick or treat the neighborhood with a couple of friends from school. He pulled this villain costume together from his closet with some help from his big brother. The Banana and her friend who have gone trick or treating together for years sadly…

October has flown by! I’m not sure what even happened. It feels like I barely wrote on my blog, and I’m mystified as to where all the days went! It has been a busy fall season around here, and I have definitely been scrambling to keep up. Here are some…

It has been an amazingly warm fall, although today the first frost twinkled. The leaves have been slowly turning and dropping, and this kidlet was excited about making a leaf pile in the front yard to jump in last weekend. On Mondays I have a number of piano young piano…

Today the weather was amazing. The temperature was perfect. The breeze was light. The leaves are orange, yellow and red. The sky was the purest of sky blues, not a single cloud in sight. I took a little time after lunch to read an excellent book in my hammock under…

My mom gifted Mr. TOF with a slingshot that shoots little helicopter like things into the air to flutter down. Currently they are scattered in trees and on the roof of the toolshed and all sorts of other places. He loves propelling them up and seeing if he can catch…

Our neighbors got a new golden retriever puppy this summer, and it has proved to be a major source of entertainment around here. Although Midas is now a young teenage dog, he still has plenty of energy and is showered with love at every opportunity. If a kidlet sees Midas…

September is really the best of both worlds outside in the yard. Late summer flowers are still going strong, splashing purple, orange, and pink in amidst the vibrant green grass that has revived from the miserable summer. Then the leaves on the trees and vines start to turn, and the…

When I had to rearrange a setting of Psalm 139 to make it work for Sunday School music with elementary students this month, I ended up learning to use the free version of Sibelius notation software. It involved a little bit of trial and error, but in the end I…

The Devious Snail plays in his school jazz band, which means that I get to hear more of this lovely trumpet being practiced in the evenings and sometimes even early in the mornings before he heads off to jazz band rehearsal before school.

The Banana had been looking forward to her golden birthday for years. It ended up being a ridiculously crazy busy day, but we managed to get a little celebrating in. One of her big requests was balloons!! Since it was her golden birthday, I splurged and purchased two bunches of…