Where to begin...

Let's just start at the very beginning of this month. It's the very best place to start, so they tell me...

September started off with relatively nothing spectacular to talk about. Except for the fact that we are canning again - 85 quarts of plum juice (really quite fabulous... add a quart of water and 1/2 cup of sugar and it's divine!), 60 quarts of pears and 8 quarts of pear juice, 12 pints of pear butter... Still have tomatoes to do, peaches to do, and apple cider to make... YUM! And we're doing grape juice again this year. If anyone knows of some spare quart jars that they're NOT using, we've already used all but three of ours... And that's saying a lot, considering the fact that we didn't even come close to using all of them last year.

Mid September I suffered through another birthday. I only use the word suffer because I was really NOT looking forward to this birthday. For some reason, 35 just SOUNDS old. Now that I'm two weeks into it, it's really NOT old. I don't even feel different than I did at this time last month. A little more round, but that's because of the new baby. The birthday itself was fabulous. They threw a party at the temple at midnight to welcome in the new day (and because my boss and I have the same birthday... and it wasn't really a party - after all, this is the temple we're talking about... but Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler and a hearty Scout Breakfast, and we were ALL in seventh heaven.). Perhaps the best birthday present actually came the Saturday BEFORE my birthday when Andrew finished hooking up the wood cookstove in the kitchen. I now have a fully functioning kitchen! And it's MARVELOUS!

Remember how I've said that there was going to be a HUGE learning curve with this wood cookstove? It seems that the learning curve is in which stove to use. The one that burns really hot, or the one that works perfectly. We've got the one that works perfectly in our kitchen, and I've been able to successfully make perfect pies, delicious bread, wonderful cookies, and the best brownies we've ever had at this house. The Roast Chicken is divine, the potatoes are smashing, and the oven is my new favorite appliance. It warms the "anti-sun room" to the perfect temperature, and we're all looking forward to some toasty winter meals. Call before you come for dinner to make sure we're actually cooking. Chances are, we will be.

School with Savannah started somewhere in the middle of all that... the first week she was fairly bored. In fact, she told me at the end of the week, "Mom, I really hope that the second week is a lot better than this week. Spelling and Journal writing just aren't going to do it for me. I NEED MORE!" I hastily assured her that we would be doing more math and other subjects, I just had to get the books back from the copiers and have them bound. She's doing much better. Next week we start an incentive to work harder program. And watch for more news on the School for the Stahr's on our new homeschool blog... I'll try to update it at least weekly, if not daily.

I'll apologize now for the lack of pictures, I just haven't downloaded them. So.... you'll get a barrage of photos later this week. Until then, I hope this has updated at least most of you on the things that you didn't already know!

Ta-Ta For Now, as they say...