Posted in The Daily Grind

Well, I'm finally back.  I could wax poetic on how life takes over and you realize what's important and how the family misses their wife/mother, but I could just as easily type blah-blah-blah-blah-blah, and you'd get the same idea.  So, I'll spare you.  Instead, I'll regale you with stories of my adventures during my absence from, well, HERE.

Aside from the household chores that have been accomplished, life has been very busy outside of the home lately.  Jigger had a Feis (pronounced 'fesh'; meaning Irish Dance Competition) a few weeks ago, and that consumed an entire day.  Results were abysmal, and a re-thinking of purpose in this particular direction was much needed.  Improvement is gradual, but the direction is much better now, so we'll see by and by.  (Sorry, no photos of that day; would rather forget it, to be honest.)

Ummmm.... the following weekend we had Halloween.  Yes, Dear Reader, we're heathens who celebrate Halloween.  There goes half my readership.  *sigh*  LOL!  Halloween preparations included a costume-making day, a pumpkin-carving day, and a candy-shopping expedition. 

 All told, 15 bags of candy lasted the requisite two hours (thank goodness; last year we ran out at 1 hour, 20 minutes- talk about embarrassing!!), so it was a success from that aspect.  Piper decided he was done with Halloween (a decision I had always looked forward to, but when it was actually upon me made me very sad - how much do I *hate* that time won't stand still?), and that he wanted to hand out candy instead.  That he did, all night, with a chicken hat perched upon his grinning head.  Here he is with his jack-o-lantern:

Jigger decided he was going to be a Templar Knight from some Crusade to recover some thing or other (yes, I teach history as well, LOL), so I had a costume to make.  Jigger pulled out his Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, I grabbed some fabric and my sewing machine, and two hours later we had a knight worthy of service.  See for yourself (with his jack-o-lantern):

To celebrate Halloween, we also made up (a day in advance) Tina's Pumpkin Spice Bread recipe.  It was delish!  Go get it and make it for your family for Thanksgiving.  You won't be sorry.  Here are our loaves (just a memory now - but I did stock up on pumpkin last week when it was on sale, so I'm gonna make me us some more!).  We made them up, threw one in the freezer, and ate the other the next day.

The day after Halloween Piper had a competition in Tucson at a Celtic Festival.  He took 3rd out of 6 - whoop, whoop!!!  He did medal, and we were thrilled.  Here he is playing his first of three tunes that day:

If you've never gone to a Celtic Festival or Highland Games, we highly recommend that you do so when the opportunity presents itself.  Here is a (admittedly lacking in detail) photo of the games (caber toss, etc.) that were going on while I was resting in our spot. 

This is only a small portion of the games.  Tell you what.  If any of you are going to be in or around Phoenix towards the end of February, we'll take you to the Highland Games and you can experience it with us.  How's that?  *Ü*

Yesterday hubby had an unexpected day off (for Veteran's Day), so we spent an entire day geocaching, for which Mary reminded me to take pictures of - too late.  I didn't get her reminder until we were home.  So sorry.  Will take the camera next time.  The memory stick is full anyway - I've *GOT* to get those photos printed!

So, that is just a little of what has been going on around here.  I'd like to launch into a huge discussion on blogging vs. family time, what suffers, etc., but since you all probably feel guilty enough at times, I'm not going to do that to any of us.  Why end such a nice post in such a boggy fashion?  No sirree.  What I *will* say is that with the holidays coming up, gifts still needing to be made, baking to be done, etc., my blog time will be severely shortened.  I will make a much better effort to keep in touch, but I need to get on a schedule that works for me.  Just through the holidays.  Because as a dear friend reminded me, the blogging needs/time I have right now will not stay the same from season to season.  And she's 100% correct.  Just last month I was blogging almost every day; this month?  Not so much.

I look forward to catching up with all of you, and am interested in seeing how the holidays are affecting your blogginess as well.  I want to enjoy this season tremendously, in spite of normal extended family angst at this time of year, and I encourage you all to begin the preparations now to have a month of Christmas without stress.  *That* is a subject that is forthcoming.  Along with many others.  Because while you can take the blogger out of bloggy-land, you can't take her posts (piling up) out of her head.  *grin*  Stay tuned....