Cruising right along...

"Good grief, Charlie Brown!"

I have found these words escaping from my lips A LOT lately. 

Whew. Busyness! We've been on the road more than we've been at home these last three weeks. And this homebody of a gal just isn't quite used to this lifestyle. 

But I suppose that it's just another season in our family's life. As our kids are getting older, we are finding ourselves a bit more involved with activities and community. I think it's Brad and me who are having the most trouble adjusting to all of it, but even that seems to be coming a little easier this past week. 

I'm not sure what's been happening in the atmosphere here above Western PA, but we have been blessed with an unusual amount of sunny days. It really has felt like the perfect fall weather. I am, admittedly, prone to some melancholy as a result of the many, many gray days of the year here in Pennsylvania, so this sunny weather has been a God-send to my serotonin levels and has left me feeling a bit chipper than I usually do this time of year. We've also been experiencing some early-morning fog that I've been quite enjoying. It's the low-lying kind that burns up as the morning progresses, revealing the big, bright, blue skies above. I find early morning fog a bit magical.

The kids and I spent the first half of Monday doing a photo shoot at a local alpaca farm. Well, I spent the time doing the photo shoot while the kids enjoyed playing with the many, many alpacas and crias (baby alpacas.) 

This is one of the farms where we purchased two of our alpacas back in the spring. Diane and I are doing a bit of a barter of services, which I absolutely love. Why pay cash for something if a good barter can be made?

After being in the midst of all of the female alpacas and the twenty-some crias, I definitely found myself wanting females. Right now, we only have a pasture and a building for males. The two genders cannot be mixed so adding females to the mix would require another pasture and an expansion on the present building. We burnt up the alpaca fund this past spring, but we are setting a goal for the near-future of possibly adding to our herd. I most certainly don't desire a huge alpaca herd. The thought of that overwhelms me, but I would like about 10-12 animals. I think that would be a good number for where our family stands now in terms of financial means and time limits. We're waiting to see how our first winter goes with the four we have now, and then we'll have more information and experience to make a more educated decision.

So with the grand, beautiful entrance of fall has also come the yumminess of maple-syrup slathered pumpkin waffles. Ian and I whipped up our first batch of the season earlier this week. I just may have eaten WAY too many of them. We made them gluten-free and dairy-free, and since I don't indulge in these kinds of high-grain foods very often, I do indeed indulge when given the chance. 

The chill of the fall weather has certainly provoked the desire to whip up some kitchen goodies. I fear, however, that my time has been lacking and so, other than the waffles, I haven't churned out anything sweet or baked. That must change!

I've also found the necessity in starting some Christmas gifts. I really do detest thinking about Christmas before Thanksgiving, but when one is handcrafting gifts, the creating must start early. In fact, I'm probably a bit late in starting. I'm currently making a linen-stitch afghan for Ian and have some other things in the early stages of creating, things I can't really mention on here for the fact that some of my readers may be the gift recipients. {wink}

Well, the day is calling me. We actually have no where to go today until Ian's soccer practice tonight, so my goal is to get a good, solid school day in. 

Many blessings!