Motherhood and More: Pausing for a Brief Review

If you read my last blog post, you know we have some big plans coming up next spring. Six months from Halloween, to be exact. Six months sounds like a long time. It's not. Especially for a trip like we're planning that involves a lot of coordination.

I'm not panicking or anything.?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, since much of my "free" time has been spent researching home rentals and starting to clear out our extraneous stuff, I've gotten behind on my blogging. I hate doing that. We've done some interesting things in the past couple of months that deserve documentation. I have a half-written post about our St. Louis trip just waiting to be finished. But since that's going to take more time, I wanted to briefly touch on what we've done since then, for memory's sake.

Here's a quick montage of some highlights.? The kids and I had our first experience Letterboxing (like a treasure hunt of sorts). It didn't go well. The clues took us on a cold and long-ish walk to this big rock, where the box was supposed to be hidden in that big hole at the bottom. It wasn't there. The girls were not happy. The second box we hunted for wasn't where it was supposed to be, either. I'll write another post about Letterboxing when we have some success. It's a cool concept.

I set up my first eBay sale and got two bids within an hour. I can totally see how this could get addicting. Cha-ching!

Havarti had to go to Portland for work a couple weeks ago, and I went along with him, leaving the moppets with their cousin and grandparents for a few days. On his time off, we explored a bit and ended up going on a long and winding trek through the woods. By accident. For two hours. In my loafers. Thankfully, we didn't have any tired, whining, hungry kids with us. (Just tired, whining, hungry me.)?And it was a gorgeous day weather-wise.

And, you know, the scenery didn't suck.?

I love taking photos of paths. Makes me want to recite poetry.?

Not a great pic because ?I took it with my phone, but how cool is this spider I found on our front porch? It looks like someone painted a face on it! Totally creepy and cool!

Speaking of spiders, I made a Halloween-themed cake for one the girls' friends' birthdays. She requested a chocolate cake with a "rainbow spider." She turned five, which is pretty much the only age where one would request a rainbow spider cake for one's birthday/Halloween. The spider is made from fruit roll-ups. I kinda didn't suck at making this cake, if I do say so myself.?

Speaking of not sucking, look at P-Dids' son and BoyWonder in their red hoodies. Oh, the love. :)

Speaking of love, this dangerous little fellow came into our lives this week. He's not ours. He's P-Dids' new puppy. P-Dids told me he was sweet, but he really is THE sweetest, calmest puppy ever. That's why he's dangerous. I just wanted to wap him up in a widdle bundle and bwing him home wif us. Puppy love, for sure.?

One of these days I'll finish that St. Louis post. Hopefully before our next trip. In the meantime, let me know if you know of any inexpensive places around the country for a family of five to stay for a week or a month. It's starting to come together! :)?

Source: http://www.motherhoodandmore.com/2012/10/pausing-for-brief-review.html

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