Happy (late) Samhain!

Did y'all have a fun Halloween? I had a blast! Its my favorite holiday and I always go all out. This year I've been practicing with ways to conserve energy so I didn't put up the lights and smoke machine and all that craziness but we carved pumpkins, baked apples, made cupcakes, roasted pumpkins seeds, and roamed the neighborhood trick o' treating.

Doc McStuffins and her sidekick Lambie. Lambie wasn't about to walk over there and pick out her treat.

The fall plantings are (slowly) coming along though my lack of weeding and using older seed is showing. My carrots sprouts are about an inch high and the snails have taken out most of the rutabagas. The Brussels sprouts are about a foot tall and starting to form tiny sprouts-but I'm pretty sure the plants are supposed to be bigger and sturdier. I have hopes for sprouts for Thanksgiving but...we'll see. At the moment my Favorite Plant of the Year Award goes to this volunteer mini pumpkin that I didn't have the heart to pull when it started growing and that provided tons of autumn decor.

Ignore the mess at the bottom of the wire. My compost apparently didn't get hot enough.

I canned the last of the preserves right before Halloween: green tomato pickles, applesauce, and a big crock of sauerkraut. I'm a little sad that the summer/fall bounty has mostly passed, but honestly I'm just flat exhausted trying to keep up with everything going on. I'm kinda looking forward to spending time indoors, preferably semi-hibernating. Not that the kids will allow this, but I can dream.

With Halloween past the holiday season is before us-full of fun, good food, stress, and just flat insanity. Even more exciting-in just a few days my nephew is going to arrive!! Well, my SIL's due date is in a few days, we'll see when he ACTUALLY gets here. I can't wait to snuggle a newborn again, seems like forever since Tadpole was a tiny, floppy, baby. Now she's a walking bundle of stubborn curiosity, babyhood has been left far behind and I have a bad case of baby fever.

What are your favorite things to do for a new mom?

A late Happy Birthday to little Tadpole. I can't believe how fast the year has flown by.