Monday, Monday - and Happy October!

Monday morning - there's a song written about that, I think. Well, here it is. There's only 52 of them a year, but you would think there's a lot more. After a marathon night where Matthew decided to wake up and stay up for 2 hours, and Jonathan bounced into bed with us at 6:20 am, we have arrived, kicking and screaming into Monday morning. In all seriousness, Monday's aren't really all that bad for me. True, the weekend is over, and Mark goes back to work, leaving me to fend for myself with my little guys. We try not to do too much on Monday - the boys are generally a little worn out from the weekend's activities, and I try to spend some time putting away stuff ("picking up the house"), making lists of things I want to accomplish during the week, reviewing everyone's schedules for the week, planning menus and trips to the grocery store or the farmer's market (which, sniff, sniff, will be gone next week until next Spring WAAHHH!!) and catching up on laundry. So all in all, I've learned to not set my expectations too high for that old Monday morning.

In other news, it's October!! Halloween month, and I have no idea about costumes for the kids. I guess it really wouldn't matter all that much - I just wish I had more imagination, and then, when I actually DO come up with some good ideas, wish I had the talent and the creativity to execute it!

We went to Morgantown, WVA on Saturday to do some shopping. Morgantown's about an hour away from us, but it has a nice shopping area - a new place with all these great stores all together - Target, Sam's, Walmart, Old Navy, Barnes and Noble, etc... We started some Christmas shopping and got the kids some stuff. It was a great drive - the weather was bright and crystal clear - we wanted to maybe see some early Fall color in the upper elevations, but not yet!

And, to welcome October, I managed to make an apple pie this weekend. We stopped on the way home from church yesterday morning to get some milk to make pancakes for breakfast, and the market had Cortland apples - the BEST pie apples ever. They're only around for a short time in the Fall, but they make a great pie - they're the perfect texture, perfect amount of juice, perfect sweet/tart ratio. Yum - to all you pie makers out there - try the Cortlands. You'll be happily surprised.

Has anyone read about that woman who has 6 kids, took them all to the grocery store one day, and sold the stuff they sneaked into the cart on ebay? I'm serious - the kids put stuff in the cart, and she didn't realize it until she got home. She was so mad, she decided to sell it on ebay, and in the body of the auction, she wrote about the whole experience. It was pretty funny - but ANYWAY - now, she has like a million people reading her daily blog, and she's been interviewed by newspapers, tv, magazines, and I think next week they're flying her to New York to be on one of the early morning news programs. AND she has a book deal. Okay, call me crazy. People are making a huge deal out of this - the publicity she's getting is staggering. But c'mon! I know people who've got 5, 6, even 8 kids, and that's their life. They do it, everyday, they don't whine about it or write about it, they actually ENJOY it, after all, it was their decision to create it in the first place. I'm not sure what's so special about this woman, except that maybe she's pretty good at writing, and people enjoy the humor. In a way, it's kinda cool. Learn how to make tons of money by writing about your kids squirting yogurt on the ceiling. Not bad. Get your 15 minutes, or in this case, a whole lot more, just by getting your blog discovered and having the interest in it spread like wildfire - isn't that everyone's dream? Sure, I think it'd be cool to have a million people reading my blog - but then there'd be a million people bored to tears!

Anyway - lastly, I give to you a picture of something you will NOT see too often - Jonathan napping. This is the child that takes about one nap per year. As a matter of fact, the last time he took a nap was perhaps last December, and that was because he had a 103 degree fever. I'm not sure what prompted this one - he fell asleep in the car on the way home from Morgantown, and when we got home, stayed asleep in the car for a half an hour or more. When he finally stirred, I got him out of his seat and carried him inside, and he told me to put him down. I thought he wanted to go play, but amazingly, he laid down on the floor, and slept for another hour and a half! Poor kid must've been beat!

So anyway, that was our weekend. I think, in honor of this particular Monday morning, I'm going to have a second cup of coffee and go snuggle on my brand new love seat (which, amazingly, made it through the first few days here with no spills, tears, rips or puppy accidents) and watch my kids play while I go through a bunch of mail I didn't read last week. TTFN!