"Silases are cowboys." or "Does Halloween have a potty?"

Tonight was full of hilarious one-liners from Silas, who rode his stick horse about a mile around town. Our town is the kind of place where some folks hand out hot chocolate and cookies on Halloween. We made pumpkin cookies. My attempt to make brown icing ended in a nice puke green color. So the ginger bread men became swamp monsters. My friend gave me a wonderful recipe, which included the words "until it looks right" and an unrighteous amount of food coloring.

At one stop Silas tried to give back the M&Ms, saying, "I already got some of these." Then, when kids came to our door, he wanted to hand them the candy he had collected instead of the cookies. The hot chocolate and cookie stop was the best, followed by the "take a handful" house. And, at grandma's house? Yes, folks, our little cowboy received some stickers and...a cough drop. 

I just went out to the front porch to blow out our Jack-o-lantern's candle, the deer had already found it and eaten its face off. Mr. Pumpkin Face, Jr. only lasted four hours. 

Pumpkin faces

Silas specified that this one needed square eyes, a triangle nose, and three teeth. Mr. Pumpkin Face did not last very long. Perhaps I burned the candle a little too long. We rested him on the porch and the deer consumed the moldy remains. 

For all you spooky people out there, here's a somewhat freaky photo of me taken while I was sitting by the fire the other night. Round eyes, triangle nose, more than three teeth. 

Battle of the Mullets '08

Priya's hair has grown into a perfect "business in the front, party in the back" style. I suppose Christian was jealous, so he had me match the style for his noggin. Now, I hesitate to cut Priya's because she can pull off some nice pig tails finally, but I've asked Christian about a thousand times a day when he'll let me finish his hair cut. Unfortunately, he's received some encouragement from his friends: "It'd look better about 6 inches longer." "I think it suits you." Oh, brother! 

Tough cookie

Priya has a few years of this ahead, I'm afraid. Lucky for her, she's a tough girl. In the past week, she's been buried in the sandbox, wrestled, had her feet pulled out from her, been pushed off the bed, etc. Most of the time, she takes the abuse pleasantly enough. We're trying to help Silas connect how he feels when others are unkind to him with how they feel when he is unkind. How many days in a row until this lesson sinks in??

Poverty lunch

All this thinking about the Great Depression...I decided to feed the kids ramen and refried beans for lunch. OK, I'm the mother I never wanted to be. I admit it, it was just convenient. All that cooking of organic vegies I did for Silas kind of went out the window once little beannie baby came along. That girl can eat some beans. Silas ate two packages of "noodle soup". I love how Silas looks like a little Oliver Twist in this shot

Great timing

About two weeks ago, I was sleepy and went to bed early. Christian picked up my old copy of Grapes of Wrath and started reading. Now, we don't really play the market, but he comes home every day and checks the financial state of the country. We've had some interesting conversations that begin, "We should get some land, that way if..." We figure at least we know about gardening and hunting and birthing babies at home, so we're a step ahead of most Americans these days. However, Lake City, as a tourist/vacation town probably isn't the best place to live if things keep crashing. (Unless, all those rich Texans decide to ditch their second homes for cheap.) Incidentally, I recall sitting at the beach somewhere, taking turns with Christy, reading Grapes of Wrath out loud to each other. It seems that the chapters that fell to me were about a turtle crossing the road.