Amen, Papi?

The muses have been on vacation, hence the long silence. They must have gotten waylaid by extremist political activists. I'm so thankful that the voting season is almost at an end.

Noemie pooped in our bed this morning during a diaper change and thus began our day at 7 am. Danny adamantly refused to continue trying to sleep any longer (it was a rough night). At 10 we met up with friends for some festive gourd decorating. Dominic decorated his pumpkin and I decorated Noemie's. She told me what to do, of course.

In the past few weeks we had a visit from the abuelos Andollos, we threw a birthday party for Dominic, Dominic went to a movie theater for the first time (to see the first 20 minutes of Wall-E), and Noemie started eating solid foods. We started her on rice cereal but she kept gagging (see photo) so we went with green beans on day 2 and she's been in heaven ever since. With the time afforded by Danny's unemployment I thought now might be a good time to experiment with some new dishes for the adults in our family as well. I made an apple pie on Tuesday that Danny fell in love with. He'd think about it night and day. We had the Honharts over for dinner on Tuesday and I made a killer potato soup. Thursday I got a little crazy and made some butternut squash to accompany our London Broil. That was... ok. It's a funky vegetable. And tonight I tried my hand at a Bourbon Chicken recipe that was also acceptable but not spectacular.

On Tuesday we went to the library as usual, and I picked up several books on crafts. The book on forgotten crafts was kind of heart breaking. In a few years, I'm sure, there will be very few blacksmiths left. You will be hardpressed to find people who can make boats, butter churns, horsecollars or wagon wheels from raw materials. Where is the outrage? For my part, I'm taking up quilting and rug making. I will wait till after Christmas so I can ask Santa for the materials. In the meantime, I will content myself with making both Dominic and Noemie's Halloween outfits. I won't tell you yet what they will be. (It's a surprise).