pumpkins, corn, and what on earth is flatus?

  

Yesterday, I woke up with a million things to do, but told myself one way or another I would take my kids to the pumpkin patch. Rain or shine (which, at my house, really means dishes done or not), we would go. So, we went. And I'm so glad. They had so much fun. Gavin and London are here staying again while their mama works hard driving truck in beet harvest. By "working hard," I mean "enjoying four different audiobooks a day in the peace and uninterrupted quiet of a farm truck instead of wrangling children." I'm on to you, Jen. If I wasn't nursing this baby, I'd be driving truck, too. We know who really works hard in harvest--grandmas! In any case, my kids are thrilled to have them around. I'm glad, especially that London and Jonah have gotten to be such good friends, and that he is no longer "that baby. Don't hug him."

I had never been to Swore Farms before, and it's charming. They have a great little corn maze you can hit before the wagon ride out to the patch. This maze is just long enough that the kids start complaining, "When are we ever going to get out of here?" but only just near the end. Perfect. My little bear seemed fascinated to look up through the leaves into the sunshine. Also, random farm facts and questions are posted through the maze, from which we learned that cows produce 200 pounds of "flatus" a day. I dare you to look up the definition of flatus*, and then let me know if you laughed at this fact as hard as my kids did.

I would post a funny photo of my mom trying to drag in the absolute largest pumpkin from the patch, but she would probably refuse to ever babysit my kids again as retribution. Almost worth it, but not quite. It took three of us to get it into the pumpkin wagon, and then the pumpkin weighing girl at the front gate just plopped it on her scale like it was nothing. "I handle pumpkins twice this big every day," she said. We felt silly. I swear it was a humongous pumpkin.

*flatus: cow farts and burps

apples, sweater weather, and too much canning

  

October is my favorite month of the year. Isn't it everyone's? I always love that first day you can wear a sweater. (I will remind myself of this in January, when I am ready to set fire to all sweaters.) 

I'm a sucker for giant boxes of fruit in October. Right now, I have a giant box of apples that I need to make into applesauce. Last month, I canned about 8,000 jars of peaches (OK, it was only 56, but it felt like 8,000), so I'm sort of over canning, but I couldn't resist the honeycrisps at the farmer's market last week. I will swear that this is my LAST canning project for the year, but next week there will be some other lovely fruit that needs to become jam. I don't even eat jam. It's like hoarding, but with produce. Every October, I need an intervention. I don't have time for canning.

Anyway...

The apples aren't applesauce yet, but I was itching to make some apple something, so I tried this recipe for criss-cross apple crowns. I'm usually not a fan or recipes involving premade anything (and, truthfully, these would probably be much better with homemade biscuit dough, and not much harder to make). But they were easy, and cute, and made my contractor say, "This is too pretty to eat." (I make my builders treats every day. I wonder if this is why they are taking SOOO long to finish. Maybe I need to stop feeding them.) It makes me laugh when these tough, builder types say "cute," or "pretty." Those are ladies' words, aren't they?

Lina Bina is growing like a weed. We're still fighting off thrush. We've exhausted all of the medical options that I know of (nystatin, something else that starts with an "f"), and so now I'm resorting to quackery and witch potions. I will try almost anything, at this point, though I'm still not brave enough to try the purple stuff. She does seem to be a little happier. Maybe she's feeling better, even if her tongue is still cheesy. I can't believe how much she changes every day, how much she desperately seems to want to say something. My kids have all been that way. Fast talkers. Excited about the world. So many things to discuss, you know. Today, I started packing away the newborn size clothes. It made me sad. I will have to just have another one...