top ten million things for the week

1. art stuff with kids - we have been doing so much craftiness together!
2. sewing and knitting - i have been sewing again, for fun! its fantastic - i'll try to post some pics
3. my first eggnog latte of the season - it is gone too early after the holidays, and never here soon enough, but this week the coop started serving! not much going on? i prefer to say that i appreciate the little things!
4. fall color - our early snow made me fear we wouldn't actually get any fall color, but it turned brilliant this week! and now we will have leaf "clutter" for the next few weeks.
5. pumpkin patch - an adventure with our neighbors on a perfect fall afternoon
6. supper club - afternoon freedom (an entire post will be dedicated to this glorious breakthrough)
7. amazing conversations with the kiddos (quotes to follow)
8. remembering to take my vitamins - or training my kids to remind me as they remember to take theirs
9. apples from our friend transformed into a winter supply of dehydrated apples, apple crisp, applesauce and soon, apple pie!
10. badger balm -soothing a former 1/5-2 hour bedtime routine (including multiple calls for potty breaks and reminders) into a slick book-smooch-snuggle-goodnight!

Good Morning Sunshine!!

the little bear has continued her early morning wake-up. dare i even call 4:49 morning?? it isn't to me, but i've exhausted my ideas on how to make a baby sleep longer. we had a good trend going, since i stopped bringing her into my bed in the wee hours of the morning, but a couple weeks ago croup ran its course in our home, so we've had to start from scratch again. its like she's come back stronger - i don't just mean her immune system! for two weeks now she wakes at 3am and 3:40am. hubby used to be able to walk in the room and she would lie back down and go to sleep. now she fights, she cries, she pleads for him to get her out of bed (i know it is for less than a minute, but at 3am it feels like an hour!). then, at 4:40 or 4:50 she is awake for the day. she won't take any kind of answer from hubby. it's "food" or "MAMAAAAAAAAAaaa" or "sitch sides" (her word for mama's milk). she's awake.
my grandma used to wake up at 4:30, make her coffee, turn on whatever came right after the colorful stripy lines on tv, and start her day. that was the worst part of spending the night at grandmas. the best part was staying up late watching tv and eating her soft and chewy peanut butter cookies. so i guess for some folks, even my own flesh and blood, those early morning hours (even before the sun rises!!) is a pleasant time for them. apparently, our little claire is one of those.
me? not so much. i think 7am would be my ideal, if the kids slept until 7:30. even 6:30 would work. i just don't think it is officially morning before 5:30am.

this morning she slept until 5:30am. when i glanced at the clock i was almost pleased. later that morning hubby was talking with her, telling her that he was proud of her. "didn't that feel good?", he asked her. she nodded. "maybe you could try 6 or 7am" he suggested.
without a thought, she responded, "nope".