robert and heidi

We have a plethora of apples in the kitchen. They are local apples picked by Brennan and her friend last weekend. We're getting creative in ways to prepare them before they go bad. We've had caramel apples and apple bread pudding, and we've only used about half of them. Next, we're having apples baked with brown sugar and cheese...then maybe applesauce.

Brennan also brought home seven pounds of Concord grapes, which led to this...
I boiled them with sugar and lemon juice -

then strained the skins and seeds -

then poured the concoction into jars and refrigerated.



When I picked Brennan up from school today, she told me that her class is now playing football in pe. Garrison is very excited about that because he is always begging Brennan to play football with him in the back yard. I guess he thinks that this will make her like it more somehow. Brennan's teacher is getting married tomorrow, and she was very sweet to invite all the girls in her class. Brennan's school was out yesterday for Yom Kippur (Garrison's was not, though) so since we had a girls' day, we did the natural thing... Brennan, Kate-Kelly, and I went shopping and out to lunch!



Kate-Kelly just completed her first homeschool book - all 455 pages of it! We've been working on it since the end of August. I have to say that many of the pages only required her to trace a shape or draw connecting lines, so it wasn't hard-core page-filling work, but still, she did a great job!


This is the face of a happy kid! He's hearing Robert tell him that they're going to sit COURT-SIDE at the Cavaliers game that night. Robert was given the tickets at work and he surprised Garrison with them.

Garrison was elected to Student Council and got to go to a leadership camp with the other middle school boys on the council. He's also participating in the Model United Nations that will be held at John Carrol University in January. He's representing China. When I picked him up from school today, he got in the car with his knitting needles and yarn that he'd just received. They started their electives today, and his is knitting (his 3rd choice.) I'm going to learn how to knit from him - something I've wanted to do for a while now. That's the perfect thing to do while I'm sitting at all these lessons and practices that I'm forever going to! Some of you might be getting a scarf for Christmas!;)

Finally, team check...
Alabama 6-0
Vanderbilt 5-0
Titans 5-0
So far, a dream season!