Creative Endeavors

Even though most of September has been consumed with seeing Alisa off to France,  normal life has continued around here as well, often at breakneck speeds.  It seems as if we are always rushing off to one affair or another.  And when we finally get home, and it's time to put up our feet and relax, we look out in the yard and see.....

Peaches.

Hundreds and hundreds of peaches, waiting to be picked, then washed, then eaten, canned, baked, or frozen.  We have had peach pie, and peach cobbler this week, and peaches with almost every meal.   I made a dorky attempt at canning some peaches late last night, but I don't believe I am cut out to be much of a canner.  I think I got more peach flesh on the floor and on my shirt than actually in the bottles.   I had peach pits and peach skins everywhere. Fortunately, my mom and dad came to the rescue today, and agreed to take on most of the 50-plus pounds of peaches we picked in just the last day.  

This was our tree just a few days before we started picking.  It doesn't look much better, yet, but I am sure it feels better, after shedding all of this, and more...

This is our overgrown pumpkin patch. Audrey stuck ONE SEED in the ground, and we've got about 30 baby pumpkins coming.

And in other Audrey news, her newest hobby is balloon animals.   Late into last night, and first thing this morning, you could heard the squeaka-squeaka as she twisted her balloons into amazing shapes....

...flowers, bunnies, giraffes, starfish, and of course, dogs.  That girl has the heart of an artist.

I most definitely do NOT have the heart of an artist.  But I did manage to shove the furniture around, and I like it better, even if Dan does not.

We now have an actual living room, with our "good" (i use the term loosely) couches in here, where everybody who comes in the front door can see them and be impressed with our good taste.

And the "casual" (which sounds so much better than "old") furniture is now in the family room.  It seems roomier in there now, and I don't care if the kids put their feet on the couch. That ugly pink chair? It was my Grandma Paulson's chair. It stays.  One day we will paint and put something on the windows.  Maybe.

In other creative news... I believe I mentioned a peach pie that I made this week....well, I attempted to make a homemade  pie crust, which I used to be kind of good at.  I'm not good at it anymore.  After an epic fail at getting the pie crust from the counter to the pie pan, I gave the dough to Audrey and Olivia to play with While I went to the store in search of the perfect pie crust, they made these:

Olivia's masterpiece...

(It's a dog, I think)

And here is Audrey's...

Oh, and here is my pie.  Crust courtesy of the refrigerated pie crust section at our local Smiths.

It wasn't bad.  I may never use a rolling pin again.