On the first day of crazy week...

Crazy week is the week of final drama rehearsals before the big production.  It has become a tradition for us since joining the White County Homeschool Theater when we started homeschooling.  During crazy week, we have extra long rehearsals, last minute costume sewing, stage and sound tweaking, sack lunches and fast food dinners, tired siblings, props that have gone awol, and cast pizza parties. Great fun!

Usually it is the first week of December, but this year crazy week actually began on November 30th since that was Monday.  That was the morning Little A woke me bright and early,
"It snowed mama! It snowed! LOOK out the window!" 
"Oh, that's frost sweetie."
"No, mama! It's snow! I know it is because I prayed for snow!"

Well, it was a pretty hard frost (our first this season)....and in Arkansas it might as well be snow, LOL!

The "snow" had all gone by chore time, but there were some lovely ice circles from the kitties food bowls.



More of crazy week to be posted soon....

Black Walnuts

We have a black walnut tree on the side of our house that provides good shade in the summer and a nice limb for the tire swing.  However, in the fall it drops all those walnuts.  It wouldn't be so bad but that is the part of the yard we use the most.  It makes tire swinging like a game of dodgeball  and walking around like a game of twister ... ankle twister, that is.  So a couple of Saturdays ago I spent an hour or so picking them up off the ground...look at all those walnuts! 

Oh, and here's what my gloves looked like afterward:

I don't ordinarily like to use gloves much but those walnuts have an outer husk that leave a strong smell on your hands and can stain them for life (nearly).  When the walnuts are dry enough, the husks come off and underneath is the hard shell.  Now, that shell is very hard and you have to have a hammer (or squirrel teeth) to crack it open.  There are special black walnut crackers you can get; they are huge with an anvil area to hold them and an extra long lever handle and press to crack them.  Anyway, if you manage to get them open, you'll be rewarded with large pieces (or halves if you're lucky) of black walnuts which have their own special flavor.

Wanna try them?  I'll trade you some for pecans.  :)

Hay Bales

It wouldn't be fall without hay bales.  This picture really doesn't do justice to the sheer number that are in that field because you can't see all the way to the back.  There must be hundreds!

Fall is in the air!

Ah, it feels very fallish today! The air had a bit of that autumn chill this morning. I turned off the air conditioner and opened all the windows. I expect that by noon the temperature will have risen enough that I'll close the windows and turn the cold air on again. But how good it is to have some crisp, fall air blowing in, if even for a little while. Fall has to be just around the corner...I can hardly wait!