Mail day!

Yeah! I received my camera-to-computer cord in the mail from my sister in Florida today! That meant that I could finally download the 100+ photos building up on my camera to share with the world. The trouble is, I'm beat tonight. So I will just share Jackson's Halloween photo with you, red eyes and all. He was my "Little Devil Frog" today!

Happy Halloween!

More exciting, fun-filled posts on yogurt & granola to follow shortly, I swear. I have knitting news and husband birthday news and Halloween celebration news and best friend popping in town news, and, and, and...good night.
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(This is the photo to which Dan refers in his comment...Jackson way back in the spring at Easter. Yes, I knit the hat, and yes, Dan is right about the expressions being similar: "Tell me again why you're dressing me up like this?...")

Jackson's 9-month stats

Jackson is 9-months old as of yesterday and is acting like he's about to say goodbye to babyhood in favor of joining the ranks of his toddler friends. Wow...it's gone so fast. So cliche, but so darn true.

How big is he??

• 19 pounds, 7 ounces
(30-something percentile...leveled off quite a bit!)
• 29 inches TALL, since he stands up now
(75th percentile, stayed the same)
• 19 inch head
(still over 100%...wow...big head)

So he's not gaining as much weight (odd, since he eats like a horse at every meal!) but is still growing upwards (it used to be "length" but now it's "height!") so I guess he's just stretching out a bit now.

He's snoozing from his flu shot right now and I'm a little concerned about whether he'll wake up in time for our ECFE class...but I'm no fool, I will NOT be waking this baby up before he's ready! A nap is a nap and I cherish naps! Here's one more doctor story for you:
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How to Make a Mommy Get Very Antsy and Crabby While Leaving the Clinic

Jackson had to get a finger-prick for a lead test and here's what happened:

1. We waited in the lab waiting room (after we already waited upstairs and had his full appointment, we're talking coats-on-ready-to-go-mode here) for 30 minutes. Not kidding.

2. Jackson was an angel and just sat on my lap, talking quietly to me and occasionally smiling at another patient. (Whew.)

3. His finger was pricked while we sang about the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and he didn't even notice.

4. Then he got very interested as the tech proceeded to squeeze his blood from his finger tip into a vial. No tears, no squirming, just watching with a very inquisitive look for a good few minutes. (Hmm...do we have a doctor on our hands?)

5. But then the tech kept squeezing his finger as she looked away to get an adult-sized Band-Aid to put on his little finger with a cotton ball underneath and...yes, this gets gross...blood went all over the table. He cried, wanted to play with the blood with his other hand, and tried to eat the HUGE SHINY BAND-AID that was just put on his finger like a toy.
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That got my heart rate going. Big sigh, left the clinic and put a smaller Band-Aid on his tiny finger in the car...uh, hello? Stupid Mom! Band-Aids are for eating when you're bored in a car and only 9-months old! Luckily, I pulled it out before it went down the throat.

There has to be an easier way! Yes, I'm blaming the tech, but I'm clearly new at this too...

(Sorry for the visually boring post, the camera cord is coming and then we'll get back to photos of cute babies and gorgeous yarn!!)

Where in the world is Gigi?

My niece Gigi has her own blog now: gigilovepink.blogspot.com

For those of you who are visiting looking for Gigi photos, you will still find some here posted by her Auntie, but her parents will go over the top with photos and stories about this sweet little girl here.

Baby Love

Back home in Minnesota after a wonderful visit to sunny (and too hot for this cold-autumn-days-lovin-girl) Florida visiting my sister's new family and just finished unpacking. This left me with a lot of laundry all over the living room, many (new) knitting projects and toys for Jackson and also the discovery that I left my camera-to-computer cord at my sister's house. So, dear readers of yogurt & granola, you'll have to wait a few days for up-to-date photos of the new babies. (And since they do grow so quickly and change so much in the first few weeks, they are no longer up-to-date even as I type this, but they're cute and worth the wait, I promise.)

My good friend, Mama Grouch, sent good wishes to all the new mamas out there on her blog and included an adorable photo of The Creep from way back last fall when he was a newbie. Let me just say...adorable. She inspired me to drop a little New Baby Jackson into y&g this morning too (since his birth was pre-blog, y'all never got to see this!). After spending almost a week with tiny new infants, I have to admit that I've been thinking a lot about my former tiny new infant. How he's grown in just nine months... Without further ado, I present to you, Baby Jackson:

one day old, playing with Daddy in the hospital

three days old, "professional" hospital shot

On the knitting front (this is so not exciting without photos...sorry), I finished a sweet little hat for Baby Gigi while traveling, made lots of progress on the second sock (can I finish it by the end of Socktoberfest?!), started up a new hat for a good friend (which I have to frog today because it's too small...duh), have plans to start in on a new sweater for Jackson to wear at his dedication service in December made with yarn from Gale Woods Farm where his Daddy and I were married (yes, like baptism, but not...Unitarian-Universalists dedicate instead...we love this and are so excited!), and have just inherited a bunch of almost-finished knitting projects from my late aunt through my sister that I'm excited to put the finishing touches on and share with some family members. And I'll be digging into embroidery this month as I embroider Gigi's and Jackson's names on the heirloom baptismal gown that my mom is passing down to us. Jackson's way too big to wear it, but he gets to be a part of it anyway...I'm very excited to get going on this (and it has to be done for Gigi's baptism in November...nothing like a little pressure...).

Back to my laundry now and the rest of my catch-up at home. Paying bills, grocery shopping, etc. I, of course, plan to leave time for a little visit to the park today...another gorgeous fall day here and we want to take advantage of all the outside walking time we can get before the snow flies. Well, Jackson probably just wants to play on the swings...fine by me! I love to see my little one laugh on the swings.

Love to all the babies from Aunt Cat. More to follow!
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Oh yeah more knitting news: there's also the cabled scarf that I'm about to get going on for me, the peace shawl that I'm thinking about starting with my new charcoal alpaca yarn that I got this incredible deal on and a HUGE project that is about to be frogged for multiple sweaters. Yes, that's right Old Knitting Friends who may be reading this and have known about this project for way too long...THE BROWN BLANKET is scheduled for execution by unravelling sometime next month. The 30 million skeins of chunky yarn that were purchased for it five years ago will be put to much better use in sweaters for me and my entire block...don't you think? Dan has enough blankets and has approved this destruction of a planned gift for him, especially since he'll get a nice warm sweater out of it. My 60" size 13 circulars can now finally be put to use to make a neato scarf going the long way...sometime later (much later) this winter.

My Good Scarf Project scarf appeared to me again in Florida - the chunky pink mohair one that I made back in '03 to protest the war in Iraq for Code Pink (apparently, my scarf didn't work since we're still in Iraq, but that's a long post for another time...). The scarf was too scratchy (but I wore it anyway...proudly!!) so I gave it to my sister to frog for yarn to have to make things for her step-daughters. Since she still hadn't frogged it when I just visited, I snapped photos of it for the GSP. But...I...can't...get....the...photos...off...my...camera...without...the...cord... Stay tuned.

More Tommy!

Photos of my new nephew Tommy. What an angel. He looks like his Momma!!

My Nephew!

My nephew was born today! Stats:

Thomas Robert (named for his Dad and two Grandpas)
Born Thursday, October 19th at 2:34 p.m.
6 pounds, 9 ounces
19 inches

Mom and baby are doing very well and everyone is happy and healthy!

Photos to follow!

More Gigi...

You can't blame her for not having her eyes open yet...she was just born about 14 hours ago!

GIGI!

My sister's baby was born this morning!!!

Gabrielle Gale (a.k.a. "Gigi")
9 pounds 8 ounces
22 inches
14 inch head!!

Big girl!


Mom and Gigi are recovering nicely and sleeping it off, last we heard. Grama, Jackson and I leave for Florida tomorrow morning to visit the newest member of the family. And there will be another new family member when we return...my sister-in-law is due any minute now with a little boy!

Wahoo!!!

Pumpkins and Socks

Just a quick post before popping off to bed tonight to share a few adorable photos of Jackson with you, my dear readers of yogurt & granola. We went to Emma Krumbee's Apple Orchard today but we spent way more time with the pumpkins than the apples. (I confessed my pumpkin love here, in case you missed it.) What a gorgeous fall day!

Sitting on a pumpkin pile with the wind blowing in his hair

Jackson enjoying a teething biscuit on the grass (and me in a hand-knit sweater, but I knit it before I started keeping track of yarns and patterns so I can't tell you anything about it, except that it was knit all in one piece which I loved - no seams!).

The Family Photo from the Pumpkin Patch - we must have thought something was really funny...Jackson's even clapping! (It must have been something Grama said, she was taking the photo!)

I finished one sock! It only took me five days (there's only so much knitting you can do with a baby crawling around) and I am pleased with the result. On to sock #2 before Socktoberfest is over!

By popular demand...

Kool-Aid Dying & Pesto Rolls

At our monthly Urban Farmgirls meeting last night, we were graced with the highly-talented Mama Grouch who taught us all to needle felt. Well, she taught most everyone how to needle felt. I, on the other hand, was miserable at needle felting. My bat was a blob, but I will persevere and try again with the piles of Kool-Aid colored roving that I got in my needle felting kit. Ma Grouch put together this amazing kit for us, filled with all of the things that we need to keep doing this fun project on our own (it truly is fun, I just spent too much time talking instead of felting last night...hmm...that sounds an awful lot like my 3rd grade report card).

So I totally love needle felting (I do, I swear, I just need to practice), but I think I may possibly love Kool-Aid dying more. Ma Grouch and I spent two afternoons with our baby boys dying piles and piles of roving with simple packets of Kool-Aid. My hands were bright red after we were done (and Jackson was the one who determined when we were done, you saw that coming) and her kitchen was starting to smell like a psychedelic barn (animal hair and cherry-flavored drink?!), but it was fun, fun, fun. You must try it. (Go here for an insane amount of information on needle felting and Kool-Aid dying from Ma Grouch herself. She's the pro!)

As usual, our gathering was a potluck and I made these Pesto Rolls. They turned out pretty good, except I would have preferred some whole wheat flour in there (we were out). They were good enough to share the recipe with you all though, so here you go:
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Youth Farm & Market Project Pesto Rolls
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup baking yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 3-4 cups whole wheat and/or unbleached bread flour
• about 3/4 cup pesto (I used my own homemade pesto, that recipe is for another day!)

Add yeast, salt and honey to water, allow to sit until bubbly (about 5-8 minutes). When bubbly and active, add flour. Dough should be soft and pliable but not sticky. Add more flour as needed, and knead until smooth. Let rise in bowl for about a half hour.

Roll dough into large rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Spread pesto to cover dough to about 1/2 inch from the edge. Roll across the widest part of the rectangle, be gentle, but careful to roll tightly. Slice with a serrated knife about 1/2 inch thick. Lay flat on oiled baking pan and bake in a 375 degree oven for approximately 15 minutes.
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Jackson is crawling everywhere now. The babyproofing is going full-force and I'm getting pretty creative with finding things to block his path until we get all of the rooms done. The kitchen, for example, is not done and yet that is the one place he always wants to be. So the exersaucer is now a wonderful gate (yes, I know...until he learns to push the exersaucer!). The babyproofing list is long, but we're getting there, bit by bit.

We play a lot of peekaboo, as you can see here. He's also very good at getting himself stuck under this side table now. We're still in the "rescuing" mode, though he learns a little more everyday about how to get out/recover from his falls. Yesterday he pushed away from two nursing sessions in lieu of just going to sleep or eating his solid foods at his highchair. Could it be? Could this baby really be interested in weaning himself? It's a bit early at just barely nine months, so I'm not closing the bar yet. They say "they grow up quickly," but it's pretty unbelievable how quickly they grow until you're watching your own grow up right before your eyes.
My baby is now (finally) sleeping soundly in his crib that we just had to lower to the final setting (since he pulled his mobile down yesterday...he's getting pretty tall in there!). This nap was a fight, but it's so sweet to look at him and watch him breathe when he sleeps. He still looks like a baby, even though he's trying to grow up so fast!

Here's a sneak peak at my socks that I'm knitting up with my new sock yarn from La Verna. I scrapped the toe-up version since this is just the second pair of socks I've done. I was spending too much time searching for a good toe-up pattern, learning about different casting-on techniques and thought that these socks would never get finished during Socktoberfest if I didn't get started. I'm digging the k3p1 ribbing on the cuff and the merino wool is so soft.

Can I finish them by month's end? If I can keep my busy little hands from starting up the other projects swirling in my head at the same time, then there may be hope.

I said, if.

Saturday Hat on Monday

I was supposed to have finished this hat* on Saturday when I started it. It's on huge needles (US11), is pretty thick yarn, done on circulars so it knits up quick and I know the pattern by heart, I've done it so many times. My trouble? I was mesmerized by the cool swirly pattern thing that emerged in the ribbing section of the hat when I was working on the smaller needles (US9) and tried desperately to get it to swirl all the way up. But when I switched to bigger needles or increased stitches, I lost the swirl (I know, duh...it took me a while to get it). After ripping back to the ribbing about 1400 times (4 times), I finally went back to the pattern and just finished it. Since Jackson took a 2 hour nap on my lap today (!), I was able to plow through and finish it. I do love it and am excited to have a new hat for the winter. Mittens and scarf are next!

Well, not exactly next. Not only am I super excited about my new sock yarn from La Verna, but I realized today that Jackson needs some mittens. With snow in the forecast for Wednesday, I better get moving...

When I heard that weather forecast on the radio this morning, I figured that the herb garden is pretty much done for the year and ran out to harvest all that was left. I hadn't had a lot of time to spend in the garden these past few weeks and was amazed at what I found. Basil anyone? I got the dehydrator going with rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano and have tons of basil in the fridge waiting to be made into pesto for the freezer. The house smells like Italian soup!

I promised photos of the Boy today and I am following through. They're a bit fuzzy though since they are from the cell phone camera (why can't I take any good photos on that one?!). We took him to the park on Sunday afternoon and he absolutely adored the swings. What a happy baby!
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*The hat pattern is "Homecoming Beret" from Depth of Field Yarn, a freebie pattern. Simple: cast on 70 stitches, K1P1 ribbing for 1-2" on US9 16" circs, Stockinette for 6" from the beginning on US11 16" circs, decrease evenly with k3tog's five times around every other round changing to dpn's when needed, ending with a k2tog round. It will get more "beret-like" with wear. My Homecoming Beret from '04 is huge now!

The poncho in the photo is hand-knit too. I used some sort of Lion Brand yarn (Landscapes?) last winter to whip up a quick nursing pull-over on US13 needles (it is great for that, he can't pull it off!). It's just two big pieces of fabric stitched together at opposite corners to form a "V" in the front and back. Easy!

Hot Socks and Good Scarves

Wahoo! The package from my Hot Socks Swap pal arrived today! La Verna over at Ridiculous Obsession sent me the most amazing package including:

• positively yummy Claudia & Co. hand-painted South African merino wool sock yarn in shades of sky and earth (I said that I like earthy colors and she said that she likes the blue sky...a perfect marriage of colors! I love it!)
• two boxes of wonderfully-scented decaf teas to enjoy while knitting my socks
• a maple pumpkin bread scented candle
• tasty Larabars and a delicious "health by chocolate instant bliss beauty bar"
• adorable stitch markers sporting polar bears
• a bath...a bath...a bath just for me...I can't wait to soak and relax in it!
• 4 sets of knitting needles for the Girl Scouts - how cool!

Thank you so much La Verna!

What a thrill it was to receive these treats. I can't wait to start knitting with my blue sky yarn. I just have to dig around for a really great sock pattern for it now...

Speaking of knitting (never fear, yogurt & granola readers who come here for Jackson news...more photos of him are coming! I have to balance the babe and the knitting on this blog, stay tuned!), I finally finished and gifted the project that I couldn't talk about for so long. It was a baby blanket and booties for my sister-in-law whose baby boy is expected any day now (my sister's baby girl is also expected any day now, so yogurt & granola will get baby-baby-baby very soon!). I am very happy with how it turned out and also very happy because now I get to move on to other projects!

So, my next projects:

• A hat for ME in the beautiful Eskimo yarn that I bought at Playing with Yarn a few weeks ago. This yarn has been taunting me on my shelf since it came home with me. "Come on, just swatch me so you'll know what pattern my colors will make! You'll finish the baby blanket on time, come on!" It was REALLY hard to hold back. But the second I wrapped up the gift today, I whipped out my circular needles and set in. Just wait til you see the awesome pattern the colors are making. I'm so excited that I can hardly type right now, I just want to knit it up! (I'm sure the hat will be done tomorrow or the next...I plan to knit in church tomorrow, Unitarians don't mind!)
• SOCKS in my beautiful blue sky yarn
• mittens for ME in my beautiful Eskimo yarn
• a scarf for ME in complimentary Lamb's Pride Bulky (leftovers) to go with my beautiful Eskimo yarn (this will be my scarf for the Good Scarf Project...read on!)

This is a lot of stuff for just me, me, me, but I'll also be throwing in some mittens for Jackson and a few baby hats here and there. And you know, a Knitter has to knit some things for herself every now and then - it's awfully fun to give things away, but I can't wait to have a new winter hat set! (And I keep losing my hand-knit mittens...isn't that awful? All of that time and effort and I lose them at the mall...I think these will need an I-cord string to go through my coat like the kiddies have...)

Okay, a few more things, but I'm getting antsy to knit, so here are the bullets:

• Our neighbors brought over this pumpkin for Jackson today...his first Jack-o-Lantern!!
• I canned three jars of cinnamon-applesauce tonight! I did it! The jars popped! How exciting. I can't wait to can, can, can some more stuff.
• I found a wonderful knitting book through my knitting friend Joyce and fell so in love with it that I called the author up to meet her. (She lives in my city.) She's fabulous! The book is "Knitting Nell" and you can learn all about it here.
• Julie (the author) is the one who started up the Good Scarf Project. The premise behind it is to knit a virtual scarf in honor of "goodness." So I knit a scarf for world peace (that's good) and you knit a scarf for your Aunt Agnes who just kicked breast cancer (that's good) and the Knitter in the next state knits a scarf for charity (that's good) and then we all send in photos of our scarves to be virtually "knit" together for this project. How cool is that?! It goes through July of next year. So come on, Knitters! Join me in knitting a good scarf! Take this button to add to your blog (download to your own computer please) and check back often to watch the gray scarf change colors as the virtual scarf progresses.
Okay, I'm spent. Time to get back to knitting my hat. Have I told you how much I love this yarn?

Baby photos next time, I promise. Girl Scout's honor.

The Pumpkin Moon is Coming

I love Halloween. I think this is because I love pumpkins. Love, love, love pumpkins. They're beautiful in their many shapes, colors (mostly shades of orange, of course), and sizes. And they're tasty - I love all things pumpkin! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin ravioli...if it's got pumpkin in it, I'll likely eat it. (As long as it's vegetarian, not budging on that one.)

Anyway, so I love Halloween and decided to get the decorations out today. I don't go crazy-over-the-top in decorating because I like simplicity in most things. But a strategically* placed pumpkin around the house does a lot for bringing big pumpkin smiles to all who pass. The witch is from our visit to the Black Forest in Germany last summer. A total cheap tourist item, but I couldn't resist. We'll bring her out every year and she'll remind us of the trip - good enough for me! "Pumpkin Moon" is one of my most favorite Halloween books and of course, I brought it out today. The leaf was picked up on Jackson's and my walk back from ECFE class today.

Let's stop for a moment to consider how beautiful today was:

• temps around 55 degrees (maybe 60ish in the sun)
• bright sunshine
• crunchy leaves all over the sidewalk
• light breeze - could be jacket weather but that sun is still warm...
• bright blue lake contrasting with green, green grass and trees positively on fire with fall color

The world was alive today! I think I'm enjoying fall even more this year since my latest career move as a SAHM requires me to go for many walks and to sit on the front stoop and watch the leaves fall from the trees. It's much different to just come home from work and find that they've fallen. Now I get to watch them fall. Maybe it's just so much better this year because it's Jackson's first time seeing all of this. I mean, leaves falling from trees. This is exciting stuff when you're just 8+ months old! (Tasha, I forgot to answer you before, but yes, Jack is a little over 8 months!)

Speaking of Jack, the artwork begins. Not his yet, but I can't wait for his crayon drawings and finger-painting masterpieces. I already have places in mind in the dining room to exhibit his fine work! No, today I'm showing you my artwork from class with Jackson. His contribution was to lay down and be traced (which he did beautifully, not one squirm!). Mine was to pick different affirmations from our handout and write them all over for him. Just a neat exercise, but I thought it turned out pretty well considering that I did it in ten minutes while holding the walking/crawling babies at bay from grabbing the markers. Some of my favorites:

"You can be interested in EVERYTHING."
"You can be interdependent and independent."
"We are connected and you are whole."

His outline may not seem that big in this little photo, but the paper is 36 inches. He's huge!

Happy Halloween-y!!
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*Strategy is required in the pumpkin placement due to the fact that the Boy is now crawling. So much for the jack-o-lantern candles on the coffee table!
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Video of the Boy crawling is coming. It's not exciting enough yet. He's still a turtle and is just barely getting that hand over hand thing going. Oftentimes, he's on two hands, one knee and one foot! Not exactly graceful yet. Though perhaps we'd have a better chance of getting video now while he's slow rather than waiting for later when we can't keep up with him? Hold on to your hats, you'll see it soon!

Happy Socktoberfest!

Socktoberfest is a wonderful way to celebrate one of my favorite months of the year! (December is my true favorite month, but that's because it holds my birthday...) It's already October 4th and I haven't discussed sock knitting at all, nor have I started knitting a sock. So I figured that I would commence the celebration on yogurt & granola with a pictorial history of my sock knitting achievements. Don't get too comfy here, it's a short history!

The celebration begins with these very festive socks - the first "socks" I ever knit. Left to right: Mommy's, Jackson's, Daddy's. Jackson's isn't blocked and doesn't have a flannel lining (I wanted these to really be able to hold some good loot from Santa) or velvet loop yet. This will be his first Christmas! (I was lucky to just finish the knitting before he was born!) If you look closely at these in person (and if you are a Knitter), you might be able to tell which was knit first, second, last since I had no idea what I was doing with the after-thought heel or Kitchener stitch at the beginning. I like to think that you can't tell on the Web though. Can you?(I even bought enough of this yarn to make one for Jackson's yet-to-be-conceived sibling. Am I a planner, or what?)

These are the first pair of sock socks that I ever knit. And the only pair. I've been knitting for almost six years now but only just got into socks about two years ago. So...they're okay. Just okay. I got way bored knitting the cuff and wanted to get to the "interesting" stuff too fast, which is why they are a little...uh...short. They're a bit scratchy too. I hardly ever wear them. Oh well, knit and learn!Dan hates it when I say this, but I have to tell the world that this is self-striping yarn (you Knitters knew that). It's very cool yarn that does all of this patterning on its own. It makes the socks look difficult, but you're really just knitting along with one skein of yarn the whole time!

Then there's this collection of baby booties and sock-yarn-to-be-knit. The little booties with the orange are knit from the leftover of my sock yarn (because I had lots of leftover since I made them too short) and Jackson used to wear these all the time. I love how I was able to mess with the colors to get it to work out like that on the instep. I also love the little orange stripe that ended up on the bottom of each one!
I just knit the blue bootie for him recently thinking that it would fit his huge foot now, but I overshot. Oh well, the nice thing about knitting something too big for a kid is that they WILL grow into it. I'm not diving right into the second one just yet. What's the rush since he won't be wearing it for a while? (Now would be a good time to take bets as to whether I'll ever actually make the second one...)

The skein of yarn is just a good old sock yarn that I bought a few years ago but haven't started yet. Socktoberfest would be a fine time to start, don't you think? But I don't know what pattern to use. I think I want to start toe-up socks this time but I'm not a fan of the crochet-cast-on. Mama Grouch tells me that it's not hard and I should just do it...but I'm stubborn. I knit, I don't crochet. Is that awful? Tell me what pattern you like the best and why. I'm not a super experienced sock-knitter, but I think I can say that I'm an experienced enough Knitter to be able to try just about anything. (Yet, why haven't I done cables yet?...)

I'm also super excited about the Hot Socks Swap that just closed on October 1st. The person who is getting a package from me is in Norway and blogs here and knits some really cool things. (The soccer, I mean, "football" sweater is awesome...totally awesome.) I just went out and picked up the stuff for her package today, though I'm still waiting on one thing. If you're reading this, Hege, I hope to send it off this weekend! I don't know who has my name and I can't wait to find out! Hopefully, I'll have some very cool sock yarn from my swap buddy before Socktoberfest is over.

Happy Socktoberfest everybody! May your toes always be warm.

Can I still earn a badge for this?

The Urban Farmgirls strike again - what a cool, cool day we had on Saturday. Spent the day over at Christi's making applesauce, apple-rhubarb sauce and apple-rhubarb butter. Canning 101 was the syllabus for the day, but there was also homemade bread being made, squash roasting in the oven followed by squash seeds and the "Village Childcare" in full operation (this has nothing to do with the scary movie, "The Village" that I was supposed to watch this weekend!).

We were there for almost seven hours and in that time, many Farmgirls came and went with about seven different little babes ranging from 8 months to 3 years. Jackson was crazy giddy watching all of the little ones crawl and walk/run around! We kept saying how cool it was to just get together with a bunch of awesome women and DO things like this. It's too bad that our culture doesn't value "the village" like back in the day. You know, "it takes a village to raise a child?" We just traded off with apple-rhubarb tasks, tending babes, making lunch, tending babes, etc. It was so, so cool.

Here's what we made. Please forgive the overload of photos, I was so excited with learning how to can that I took many, many photos.

Christi bought bushels of apples for us at the Farmer's Market that morning.

We kept finding apples with little bites taken out of them since all of the kidlets were crawling/scooting all over the place.

Apples cooking in a big pot...one of many going on the stove all day!Apples cooking down to sauce...

...and being canned! This was so cool. I can't wait to can more things. I want to preserve everything now!

Jack having the time of his life!
A kidlet sampling one of the apples.

The next day, Dan and I decided to continue to enjoy the beautiful fall weekend by taking a hike at Afton State Park on the St. Croix River. It was an incredible day. Just gorgeous outside. Jackson was totally excited by the waves on the river as we walked along the beach and we had a great picnic lunch outside. He wasn't too interested in lunch though, since leaves kept falling on the blanket right in front of him. Toys falling from the sky!


In other Jackson news, today was a big day for him: CRAWLING and CLAPPING on the same day. Wow! He just mastered both right before bedtime and then crashed big time. I imagine we'll have lots of practicing of both going on around here tomorrow. To prepare, we've finally started to babyproof the living room. Mom's and Dad's books are packed up in boxes and Jack's books and toys have replaced them on the shelf (we're getting pushed out!). We've also put those little plugs into the outlets around the house. So when the battery juice dies on this laptop, that's it. No more computer time. Those things are next to impossible to get out, so we won't have any way to recharge! Ah well, who has time to blog when the baby learns to crawl anyway?

One more thing to report: I spent the afternoon teaching a bunch of Girl Scouts to knit with some of the Farmgirls. Who knew that you could have a Girl Scout troop without having a daughter?! There's hope yet, I'm totally excited about this. I mean, I was Top Cookie Seller in my troop way back when! It was so fun to hang out with a bunch of girls and teach them how to knit...so, so fun.

(But we still need about eight sets of size 8 straight needles for them! We were using a Girl Scout Council kit to teach them to knit so they can't take the needles and yarn home to keep practicing. They're low-income kids so we can't ask the families for contributions. If you want to send a set of needles to the cause, let me know in the comments! Deadline: October 15.)

I had to stop in the gift store on the way out of the Girl Scout Council office and what did I find? The "My Dad's a Cookie Dad" patch at the top of this post. How cool is that?! My Dad WAS the Cookie Dad and even has a plaque on his wall to prove it. Now if only I could find my old Girl Scout sash to sew it on...

Lastly, I wish I could say "click here for smell-o-vision" to open on your computer as you look at this next photo. Dan baked bread tonight. This is the perfect way to end a great weekend and to start off our week. All's well.