A Lazy weekend and a weekend in September

We had a very low key weekend. Justin has been wanting a leather patching sewing machine for ages, so he finally took the plunge and bought one in Pennsylvania. Apparently that is where all leather sewing machines live. (Seriously. Anytime he would find one on craigslist or eBay, it was in PA.) He left Friday night and got back, victorious and triumphant Saturday afternoon with his sewing machine. 

Ain't it a beaut? And yes, it is treadle, which is actually preferable to electric. Go figure. Apparently the electric ones only have one speed, unless you start ranging into the thousands of dollars and if you have a treadle one, you don't have to fix the motor. Ever. You know, since there isn't one. So Justin is twice as pleased as punch. 

While Justin was busy acquiring, the kids and I were having a supremely lazy weekend. Friday night, we read a two foot stack of library picture books. (We regularly get out too many library books.) Saturday morning, the kids did crafty things and I put on the dishwasher. Note that, since it was the single, solitary useful thing I did all day. Well besides feeding children and keeping them clean and alive. In my defense, I felt a little under the weather. (No, it wasn't even Ebola.) The rest of the day, we read, played, played computer, read some more, waited for Daddy, and cozed in. I read a book, start to finish. It was quite a treat. One I felt horribly awful about by the end of Saturday, when my house looked like four small children had free rein all day and was horrendously messy. Oh well. All is straightened up and back to normal. 

And now, since I didn't take any pictures of our indulgent weekend, here are some pictures from a weekend in September. 

These were Lily's take to school cupcakes. Which I felt pretty good about. Lily wanted Rice Krispy treats, but we were out of Rice Krispies, which didn't seem like a big enough of a deal to drive 14 miles to the store, since I could just run to the convenience store and grab some. Except they didn't have rice krispies. (And I have no idea if I am spelling that right.) So I grabbed a cake mix and decided on cupcakes. Except, after mixing up the batter, I discovered we didn't have cupcake liners, since I never make cupcakes. (This is definitely a defect in my character.) So I set Justin to work cutting out squares of wax paper that had a tin foil back to use as pan liners. Then I set about making icing. And discovered that I had no food coloring. (I KNOW how disorganized this makes me sound. Probably because I am that disorganized. I have since remedied all of these lacks and I have a very organized pantry, read for the least little treat.) So I took some orange sanding sugar I had and mixed it into the butter. Somehow, this pinkish color resulted. Which was okay by me. And I did have sanding sugar, which made them sparkley. Which made me feel like I was not a complete failure as a mother. Lily was pleased anyway, which is all that mattered. 

After taking the cupcakes to school, I went into the kids room to make beds and discovered this very heavy book on top of the armoire, holding up a blanket. Such a bad idea. Which Lily apparently realized, because....

...there was also this sign, pointing at the blanket. Which made me laugh a lot. 

My cuddle bugs.

We had a pizza night with Browns and Barkleys that night. It was so nice!

Part of Lily's birthday present was moving Orianna and Lily upstairs, and out of the room that all four kids were sharing. It was a surprise for them, so there was a lot of scurrying around while they were at school. Elsie yanked down and ruined all the decoration things we had up (it looked quite pretty) but the girls were pleased with it anyway. They still are. They also got to have the Barkley kids for a sleepover. Fun stuff!

Lily is a budding engineer if ever I saw one. She is always building.

Horse stalls for Grandma and Grandpa's horses

Aunt Tori snuggles!

Thistles in the fall.

A huge flock of geese landing

Evening light

Watching geese fly over, while we sampled the wild apples. This tree was so terribly sour, but Elsie and Lily liked them.

Fields of geese

Green and red speckles

Yellow and red speckles

Fence post and leaves

Approaching the geese

Rising

Elsie and Daddy looking at the geese

Goose down was all over the field

Gilbert had a defunct cell phone and kept making Tori pose for pictures.

Homeward

Telling Grandma all about things.