Taking Julia North: firefighter fairy bumblebee princess

We are well into fall around here. Things are going well. It looks like we might be able to get the house sale finished sooner than we thought, but I'm trying not to get too excited about it until it is official, because you never know what other little dramas might rear before it is all said and done. I've been thinking a lot about what we might need to get us through power outages which apparently are not infrequent in the winters and other natural disasters. We are looking at installing a wood stove for backup heat and I've been saving gallon milk jugs and filling them with drinking water and stashing them in the basement. We are never at a lack of food around here, so I'm not too worried about stashing away canned goods and whatnot, but I do think we need to buy window fire ladders for our bedroom and Julia's bedroom and some batteries for our flashlight, just to have on hand. I've got lots of candles, but it is something to think about how many we would want to have on hand if we were without power for several days. It is hard to wrap my mind around all that could happen between earthquakes and floods and fires and power outages, but I'm not the type to obsess too much about what I can't control and figure a little prepared is better than nothing! Here's the photos from the past few weeks.

I found a network of gleaners and went to pick pears one day.

the trees were filled!

and there was a lovely view.

in addition to picking for ourselves, we gathered pears for a local food bank.

I sewed julia new pajamas! they are a little hard to see, but patterned like a sleep sack with feet attached. This was my first time sewing in a zipper and it went surprisingly well.

I'm still walking, 5 mornings a week. sometime alone, sometimes with others. The fall colors are out and lovely but the leaves are falling fast.

Julia is at turns content to sit in the stroller and begging to be set free. I carry snacks and books and toys to keep her in.

Julia is making some little friends!

We take advantage of the sun whenever it takes over the rain and go to parks.

rainy mornings we try to go to indoor activities.

it's helped me meet lots of other moms which is great!

we keep on finding new parks to go to. I've learned to always carry a towel in the car to dry off the slides.

Julia had fun picking out a Halloween costume from her dress-up box. firefighter fairy?

bumble bee?

superhero?

We picked out a few pumpkins, and I made sure to get a sugar pie pumpkin and a cinderella pumpkin so I could save seeds to plant next spring. Hopefully we'll grow our own next year.

Julia got to paint a pumpkin and took the job very seriously.

hat and sweater weather, mostly.

the first kale from our winter garden is ready for eating. I cook it Holden style, with olive oil, fish sauce, garlic and lemon and also my own style with bacon fat, garlic and salt.

My appetite for tea has returned with the cold weather. these days I mostly want chamomile or black vanilla-flavored tea with milk and sugar.

We still go down to the water, but not in it these days.

Julia tried finger painting, but was too dismayed at having dirty hands to really get into it.

we had dinner with some new friends and Julia LOVED playing with all his toys.

I ran out of fizzy bath tinting tablets, but found a even better substitute:

One dried-out marker, soaked in a cup of water overnight had just enough color left to tint the bath water but not to tint the tub or kid. Julia has a large collection of dried-out markers, so I think she'll get colored water for a good while. She loves seeing what color I bring out for the day's bath.

we carved pumpkins with Daddy. Julia was very pleased with the process and result.

a little rain dance celebrating the pumpkins.

Halloween morning we went to school to see the costume parade, and we got to watch a gym full of kids dance to "thriller" at 7:30 am. Pretty hilarious!

Julia went outside often that day to check on her pumpkins.

we went to the park and to storytime in costume.

and finally she got to get ready to go trick or treating. Her ultimate costume choice? the fairy wings and tutu. I was a little sad that firefighter princess costume didn't win, but oh well. I'm rather surprised that she didn't tell me she wanted to be a princess since she's taken to calling everything that is a dress, purple or pink, sparkly or embroidered "princess" attire and preferring it above other choices. This is especially amazing considering she has seen ONE picture of a princess in her young life and that was on a sticker from the doctor. That was all it took to teach her that princesses wear crowns and dresses! I'm trying to keep her innocent of the flood of disney marketing awhile yet, but I'm sure I won't be able to hold it off much longer.

After 10 or so houses, her basket was full and she climbed up on a chair mid trick or treat to enjoy some of the spoils. She was pretty confident knocking on the doors and yelling Trick or Treat before the door opened, then hiding behind my leg once it did. She'd peep around and see the candy, then slowly come out to put some in her basket. We also collected change for UNICEF in a little pumpkin box and later turned it in to the library to join with the other kid's donations.

and just a day ago, Grandpoppa Jack and Olaf came up to stay with us overnight, and we drove to southeastern Washington to watch Uncle Joe run at the state Cross Country meet.

He was the only runner representing Chelan Schools!

It was a fun race to watch! Joe didn't feel so hot going into it and didn't have his best race ever, but he ran a decent race and was pretty excited that he got to run at the state meet.